So I got a Santa Cruz Hightower in Sept of 19. It has 700 miles on it. The bike is great but the Shimano XTR 12 speed group has been nothing but trouble.
Building the bike up I thought the derailleur was a bit of a pain. The way the cable routes into the unit is kind of ugly and it runs really close to the cassette. I missed the little button to hold the cage extended that SRAM has right off but once set up I figured it would not matter much.
Once set up the shifting and brakes were very good. Shifting under power was the best I have ever tried. My only complaint was a bit of a click in the climbing gear. I had this same issue with SRAM on Santa Cruz. With Boost I think the chain line is just too sharp. That sound goes away after a few rides.
First Problems started about 100 miles in. Just random inconsistency in shifting. I came to solve this issue by putting a couple of zip ties on the cable housing where it exits the seat stay. The routing is kind of ugly with this derailleur on the Hightower. The housing was pulling back into the frame and affecting shifting during rides. Not sure this is a Shimano issue mainly a shimano with Santa Cruz issue but the derailleur setup is still lame.
Shortly after this my shifting again became bad for no discernable reason. This time I came to find that the B Tension screw had backed out. In 25 years of biking, I have never had a b tension screw back off. SO I loc-tite-ed it and set it back up. I do appreciate the white line setup versus the spacer tool of SRAM but SRAM never backed off on me. I almost did not catch this cause why would I check Btension. You should set that once time with a bike and never look at it again.
Maybe a couple hundred miles later the shifting again became inconsistent. More like a jump when at the lower end of the cassette, the bigger cogs. I checked everything. Replaced and aligned the hanger. I also pulled the cassette and lube the splines cause the cassette sounded like a cheap hotel bed. Well, I must not have lined the splines up well - jesus you need a magnifying glass and one of the cogs slipped during the next ride. Give me XD driver any day. Completely easy compared to this silly spline drive jigsaw puzzle.
Anyway at this point I replaced the cassette and chain. NOT CHEAP. ANyway bike would still sound like a cheap hotel bed after a couple of rides and that is when I discovered that the low cassette spacer was not installed by me or Santa Cruz. I likely did not see it and since there was not one originally I did not know it was needed. SO I solved that - thank you forums and had a semi quiet bike again though the power shifting is not what it was and there is still a weird skip. In case you dont know the low spacer is basically a little plastic looking spacer that sits between the cassette and hub to keep it from squeaking - another design weakness of the spline drive hub.
Anyway, next ride out shifting goes to **** again. This time it's a stiff link. Probably the second time in 20+ years for that issue but ok I put in a new section.
Shifting is still marginal for top end drive train.
So today the rear brake failed on a short ride. The lever just went to the bar. OK I thought just need a bleed no biggie. Nope. I bled that thing with a syringe, with gravity and pumping and there was no way to make it firm up. I boxed it up for warranty.
SO now I am without a bike till I get a replacement and I am pretty pissed. I keep reading the forums and seems like I just got unlucky to have these issues. Does not look like anyone else has.
I know the gallery will question my mechanical ability which is fair but I'll say I never had issues with SRAM and before 1X drive trains when I ran Shimano I never had issues. It's just the new Shimano 12 Speed that is the variable. This spline drive is silly too - even you fan boys had to admit this setup is silly compared to XD.
Anyway - Be cautious on the hype this XTR is not all that or I am just really unlucky.
So am I the only one?
Building the bike up I thought the derailleur was a bit of a pain. The way the cable routes into the unit is kind of ugly and it runs really close to the cassette. I missed the little button to hold the cage extended that SRAM has right off but once set up I figured it would not matter much.
Once set up the shifting and brakes were very good. Shifting under power was the best I have ever tried. My only complaint was a bit of a click in the climbing gear. I had this same issue with SRAM on Santa Cruz. With Boost I think the chain line is just too sharp. That sound goes away after a few rides.
First Problems started about 100 miles in. Just random inconsistency in shifting. I came to solve this issue by putting a couple of zip ties on the cable housing where it exits the seat stay. The routing is kind of ugly with this derailleur on the Hightower. The housing was pulling back into the frame and affecting shifting during rides. Not sure this is a Shimano issue mainly a shimano with Santa Cruz issue but the derailleur setup is still lame.
Shortly after this my shifting again became bad for no discernable reason. This time I came to find that the B Tension screw had backed out. In 25 years of biking, I have never had a b tension screw back off. SO I loc-tite-ed it and set it back up. I do appreciate the white line setup versus the spacer tool of SRAM but SRAM never backed off on me. I almost did not catch this cause why would I check Btension. You should set that once time with a bike and never look at it again.
Maybe a couple hundred miles later the shifting again became inconsistent. More like a jump when at the lower end of the cassette, the bigger cogs. I checked everything. Replaced and aligned the hanger. I also pulled the cassette and lube the splines cause the cassette sounded like a cheap hotel bed. Well, I must not have lined the splines up well - jesus you need a magnifying glass and one of the cogs slipped during the next ride. Give me XD driver any day. Completely easy compared to this silly spline drive jigsaw puzzle.
Anyway at this point I replaced the cassette and chain. NOT CHEAP. ANyway bike would still sound like a cheap hotel bed after a couple of rides and that is when I discovered that the low cassette spacer was not installed by me or Santa Cruz. I likely did not see it and since there was not one originally I did not know it was needed. SO I solved that - thank you forums and had a semi quiet bike again though the power shifting is not what it was and there is still a weird skip. In case you dont know the low spacer is basically a little plastic looking spacer that sits between the cassette and hub to keep it from squeaking - another design weakness of the spline drive hub.
Anyway, next ride out shifting goes to **** again. This time it's a stiff link. Probably the second time in 20+ years for that issue but ok I put in a new section.
Shifting is still marginal for top end drive train.
So today the rear brake failed on a short ride. The lever just went to the bar. OK I thought just need a bleed no biggie. Nope. I bled that thing with a syringe, with gravity and pumping and there was no way to make it firm up. I boxed it up for warranty.
SO now I am without a bike till I get a replacement and I am pretty pissed. I keep reading the forums and seems like I just got unlucky to have these issues. Does not look like anyone else has.
I know the gallery will question my mechanical ability which is fair but I'll say I never had issues with SRAM and before 1X drive trains when I ran Shimano I never had issues. It's just the new Shimano 12 Speed that is the variable. This spline drive is silly too - even you fan boys had to admit this setup is silly compared to XD.
Anyway - Be cautious on the hype this XTR is not all that or I am just really unlucky.
So am I the only one?
