Installed a 2014 10-speed X9 trigger shifter and a medium cage, Type 2 X9 derailleur on my Carbent, instead of the Musashi, replacing an X9 shifter and long cage XO derailleur. Tested the new combo by putting 44 miles on the Carbent on Tuesday’s Clown ride.
The shifter is a new design (zero loss). When combined with the Type 2 derailleur it provided short throw, perfectly-indexed up and down shifts on the flats and downhill. Downshifts were clean and easy when powering up hills. Up shifting was faster and not clunky, like the X9 shifter/X0 derailleur combo is (Probably due to the shorter cage on the X9). Performance was about the same as the X7 trigger shifter/Rival mid-cage derailleur combo on my Musashi, except powered, uphill down shifts were a little cleaner.
The X9 mid cage derailleur has a different geometry and 3/8” shorter cage than the Rival mid cage, accordingly it has less chainwrap capacity. I could cross chain from the 48T big ring to the 32T cog, but couldn’t shift to a cog smaller than 22T when in the 24T granny chainring. So, chainwrap capacity of the X9 derailleur is approximately 34T. Chainwrap capacity of the Rival is in excess of 39T. Would need a mid cage Rival or long cage X9 to enable cross chaining further towards the smaller cogs. Don’t foresee a need to do that, so the mid cage X9 is fine for my purposes.
The X9 clutching derailleur still allows the return chain to bounce a little between the idler and cassette (Per Bob M), but I’m thinking it would prevent the chain from jumping off the idler, if I happened to hit a pot hole.
The cable ramp on the X9 derailleur is the same as on the rest of the X-Series derailleurs. Not the greatest design in my opinion, because the derailleur cable shreds prematurely at the ramp’s sharp edge. I had a fairly new cable installed on the Carbent, before I removed the X0 derailleur. Noticed the cable was already starting to shred when I removed the derailleur.
The new cage lock feature on the X9 makes wheel removal and chain breaking easy.
Chain on 48T big ring and 32T cassette cog.
Chain on 24T granny and 22T cassette cog.
Cage lock engaged for wheel removal or chain breaking.