Mountain Biking - sram shifting problems ARGH!

i have a 9.0 sl rear derailleur.
i have since bought a set of esp 900 shifters.

the two are supposed to be compatible, yet it isn't shifting correctly!:mad:

through the first 3-4 cogs everything is fine but later it never reaches the last few granny cogs on the cassette.

the shifters were purchased from icyclesusa.com from an ebay auction and were brand new. two things odd about the items received though:

1. both shifters had identical casing (whereas they should be mirror images of each other, not the exact same orientation) and the install was weird because one unit had the tightening screw on top and one shifter had the screw on bottom.

2. the front shifter has only 3 clicks (no micro adjust) and the other shifter has 8 clicks (for 8 speed, OR for micro adjust). I took apart the 8click shifter and compared it to a front xray shifter with micro adjust... IDENTICAL housing unit and spacing of notches!

i contacted the vendor asking whether its possible they sent me two different versions of front shifters. what do you guys think?

and to those using sram esp, what shifter/derailleur combo do you run and are there any special tricks to setting up the drivetrain?

thanks. i am SO FRUSTRATED:(

Hey man...I'm not to good at figuring things out with out having em infront of me but from what I got outa your description you do have two front shifters....mainly cause you said one tightening screw was on top and the other was on the bottom.

When you install the shifters both tightening screws should be facing the back of the bike. You said they were x-ray 900 shifters...man those things are old! I hope that helps ya a little. If you have any other questions feel free to ask....

Also I don't remember if they made a micro adjust and non micro adjust version of the 900 x-rays... I know they do make both in the new shifters so it is possible that they could have sent you two shifters on micro adjust and one non.

hey man thanks, thats exactly what i was figuring. icyclesusa.com the site has the numbers of the shifters and i think they mixed up the micro adjust front with the 8speed rear.

Hey man anytime!

Just wait, there will be a long line of problems to come with the Sram parts. The 9.0 stuff that was on my one giant kept on breaking to the point where it was cheaper to switch to Shimano XT with rapid fire.

Originally posted by danka24
Just wait, there will be a long line of problems to come with the Sram parts. The 9.0 stuff that was on my one giant kept on breaking to the point where it was cheaper to switch to Shimano XT with rapid fire.

then i will use my POS 9.0sl rear der. and POFS 900 shifters until they break, then i can upgrade;)

It is funny though with SRAM, some will never have a problem, some will have 1 problem and will never have another problem again, and some will constantly have problems. The middle might be your situation. But if another problem or two show up, time to get concerned.

Oh btw, they did send you two front shifters.

Ya I have noticed some issues with sram stuff breaking....the old x-ray shifters always cracked! I think they even had a recal on them at some point. I snapped a bunch of the first esp deraillures. The nice thing about liven in chicago and it's the only good thing is that they'd always send me new stuff and it'd be here the next day! I haven't noticed any issues with the new stuff though...I know there are guys that have issues, just saying I haven't had any. I love the way esp works...and that's my opinion...not saying everyone else should. I've beat the new deraillures off of rocks and what not...and haven't broken em...but shimano I seem to always break. Go figure....ha ha ha. Later guys. And good luck with your esp......

kinda stinks how some guys have to come one here and rip it apart...i mean it not like you posted a topic about hey can you tell me how much you dislike this product...you asked if you had two front shifters......I guess I should go onto other topics and post how I've had problems with the product they just bought and how much it sucks..... Later all :crash:

The setup on the ESP stuff is pretty straight forward. On the 9.0 rout the cables be sure that the loop at the derailleur is the correct length. Then set the H limit screw so that it is in correct alignment with the upper pulley. Then place enough tension on the cable before locking it down that there is no slack in it. Now shift through the gears. Fine tuning can be done at the barrel adjuster on the shifter to progress through the rest of the cogs. Then set the L screw.
Now about the front shifter though it should have detent clicks instead of 3 to go through the front chainrings. the location of the set screw on the front shifter makes it sound like it is a non ESP shifter, meaning a shimaNO compatible or a 2:1 shifter.
Hope this helps.

yeah i should have a new rear shifter coming in soon. or i might just order a pair of 7.0 shifters (newer gen. as opposed to oldschool 900). if im still having problems i think i am calling it quits on sram and coughing up the $$$ for some xt/r. thanks to all who have replied:).

another weird thing i noticed:
earlier in the year i posted a thread because my xray800 shifters weren't working with my shimano xt rear der. every click on the shifter went through 2 cogs on the cassette, and it was perfectly aligned every other cog. so 4 clicks total went through the whole cassette. i thought it was because the shifter might have been mislabeled and were really esp.

now with my 9.0sl esp rear derailleur, i thought the shifters might work, when i tried it on, the exact same thing happened. one click/2 cogs. it wasn't erradic, but it hit every other cog on the nose perfectly aligned.

how do you figure?:rolleyes:

Well to that I would say either a bent der. hanger, or too much cable tension.

theres so many things is could be...persision pedal...i agree with ya. It could also be that the cable is moving around in the shifter....the old ones had a allen screw that would hold the cable in place. It could be a pulley floating...sometimes they come loose. It could be just completely miss adjusted. I wish I could be more help! If ya have any more issues...post em...maybe one of us can help. :D

well... it cant be der. hanger because i tried them on two different bikes, both with perfect hangers. cable tension... doesn't really matter because the cable will be very taught as i shift up and the cable is being pulled and winded anyway. say i loosen the cable a bit and shift, the first click will be fine, but when the cable is being pulled hard after 2 more clicks or so, the cable is back to being super-taut and the 1click/2cog situation is observed.

doesn't really matter because new shifters are on the way, so im not gonna beat my brain to solve this one. enough headaches already.:confused:

ya let us know what happens when you get the new shifters. :D

I just put a 7.0 rear der and 9.0 shifters on my bike....mmmmmmmm.. Very nice, much quicker than my rapidfire stuff. I haven't had it long enough to have problems, but so far it looks sturdy.