A SickLines Custom XTR M972 Short Cage Derailleur
Shimano XTR hasn’t come in a short cage configuration for some time (M952 days). With the introduction of the Saint gruppo, Shimano most likely felt that the need for a short cage XTR derailleur was no longer necessary but we felt it was time for a little customized one SickLines style and brought it back. Details inside.
While you can’t purchase a short cage RD-M972 XTR shadow derailleur, with some tinkering almost anything is possible. We mated a XTR RD-M972 shadow derailleur with a M810 Saint metal short cage. The Shadow system works impressively well and using a Saint derailleur to get a short cage shadow derailleur might not be needed.
Compared to the XTR M952 derailleur, the newer Shadow XTR RD-M972 derailleur has some nice improvements
- Low profile design
- No chain stay contact
- Direct cable routing
- Stronger return spring
More and more riders are using short cage derailleurs. 1 x 9 and 2 x 9 setups are becoming more popular amongst some trail riders in an effort to simplify their rides a little bit. Slalom / mountain cross riders also look for short cage derailleur setups given their tight drive trains, as well as downhiller’s who are looking for snappy shifts and a tighter drive train. The resulting short cage custom XTR derailleur that is lightweight and quite purposeful for a wide variety of riders.
Weight:
| Manufacturer | Model | Year | Real(g) | Desc. | Pic. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Shimano | XTR M972 Short Cage Custom |
NA
|
183 |
 |
 |
Look to see our custom derailleur on an upcoming build as we try it out a bit more. While you can’t buy a short cage XTR shadow derailleur, they do make it in a medium (GS) and long cage configuration (SGS) that you can purchase. Learn more about the Shimano derailleur and their technology on the Shimano website.
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Team Ikuzawa of the champion in Japan had used it by this specification since the spring of this year. The mechanic of the team was speaking that it was positively better than SAINT of normality.
Buy X0. And you are done.
All the improvement listed above are featured, and there is no need for any modifications.
agreed.
The X.0 doesn’t have the low profile of shadow derailleurs. It’s also a lot more fragile when, not if, it gets slammed into rocks on the trail.
Some people just prefer Shimano, I’ll take a mashed up SS XTR over a stock XO anyday.
Would have been better if you had described the process on how to swap the cages. Cool mod nonetheless.
Now can you get the return spring from the saint in it? I have been planning on doing this soon, I would also see if the saint hanger bracket can be used.
Yea we contemplated doing that (saint spring).. but we’ll see how the current stock XTR one feels.
“Buy X0. And you are done.”
Not quite my friend, this might require a new set of shifters for Shimano users. Plus, as Matt said, some people prefer Shimano over SRAM anytime and I’m one of those!
Can you please explain how you manage to connect the saint cage to the XTR body. This is not a trivial task.
We might do a how to at some point down the road on how to do one.
It’s surely just a matter of buying the inner and outer plate assembly for the Saint mech (available seperately) and fitting them to the XTR.
Can you get the Saint cage seperately? SO I will not have to take apart a nnew Saint mech?
Jared Graves uses one like this on his Yeti 4x bike. looks pimpin!!!
while a lot of people prefer sram over shimano, and yes I feel sram shifts better than shimano in general, Ill take shimano in resistance over sram any day… they can take a punch!
christ almighty, go out an ride yer bikes.
oh the irony…
i want to love sram, but i keep killing them.
saint just wont die.
a solid weekend of learnign a manly dh course, and a few OTB in the process, and the sram was toast.
oh the misery of knowing that i just HAD to put my saint back on,
but i had a rear d. at the end of the day…
Anyone try this? Can I just unbolt the cages and swap them over?
You don’t need any extra parts but it is spring loaded so you can’t just unbolt it and rebolt it on like a normal bolt and expect it to work.
Ok, thnaks, I will try it tonight, I took apart the XTR mech yesterday, and put it back together, to see hwo it worked, and with some tinkering you will get the spring charged again, so tonight I will just swap the cages, and then try and sell the Saint with the carbon cage, hahahaha
It worked fine, looks good, didn’t try the Saint spring, as the XTR spring is pretty strong as it is, now I am left with a Saint mech with Carbon cage, hahahahaha