Dropper post remotes... who doesn't have one today?
I know I've used the Wolf Tooth ReMote,
I've used the 9point8 Digit,
the KS Southpaw,
the Bontrager Line and a couple of others,
but with the introduction of the Shimano 12 speed XTR,
they introduced this: the SL-MT800 dropper post remote.
So why don't we take a closer look and see if it's something worth considering.
And to make this more meaningful,
I thought I would give you a comparison
with the Wolf Tooth ReMote,
which is kind of a standard in the industry.
I've been using that on the Yeti SB100 for the last little while,
and by doing a clean swap I hope to uncover
any ergonomics improvements or any other benefits
that we might have by using the Shimano one instead.
This looks more like an SLX box than an XTR
but if you look carefully here you'll see that this is made in Japan,
and SLMT800IL is the actual code for the product.
On the flip side, part number again.
Optislick cable, I-spec EV is the attachment
introduced with the 12 speed.
Adjustments galore,
recommended for cross-country and enduro,
and this comes in two flavors:
with or without the housing, OT-SP41.
In the box
the same piece of paper telling us to go online for everything
Here's the remote.
This would be the I-spec EV attachment.
Housing and inner cable
Housing length is not specified anywhere.
It's a 150 cm or 59 inches
and this is the SP41 housing.
For those concern with weight the remote itself is 36 grams
you will need that I-spec EV adapter
that makes it 41 grams.
And if I add cable and housing here's your 105 107 grams all together.
On this bike I have the new XT M8100 brakes that I reviewed recently on my channel.
I-spec EV requires a new attachment mechanism,
but Wolf Tooth is really good at providing pretty much anything you can think of.
In this case, I had to use this kit.
ISEV-CONV-KIT
You can find it on their website or in the description below.
My only problem with this is
if you look at the angle here of the remote lever
relative to your brake lever on the brakes,
you will see that it's quite an angle between the two.
I can only move the remote further down or away from your thumb.
I cannot move it up any further than that
because of the limitations of the attachment to the bar clamp over here.
So if you need to angle this any higher you cannot really do it with the ReMote.
Just like the Wolf Tooth,
the Shimano remote has a big bearing over here on that pivot.
You can see the branding,
barrel adjuster,
it is made out of aluminum as well black paint covering it all.
The lever has grooves.
However it doesn't have a rubber insert like the other XT or XTR shifters.
And if we are to look at them side-by-side
you're gonna see that the Wolf Tooth lever is slightly bigger
and because of its finish
it might provide better grip compared to the Shimano one.
The other thing that is noticeable here is
you see how the Wolf Tooth is flopping around.
If you look at the Shimano, this one has a spring inside,
so even if you have a little bit of slack in your inner cable,
which you should on a on a remote,
this will stay nicely into place so that's something that I like.
The the cable is going to be held in place using this pinch bolt
4 mm hex key to tighten that up.
And you can see Japan, and the product code again.
It feels nicer in my hand compared to the Wolf Tooth ReMote.
This extra piece that was in the box
slides right here into the bar clamp of your brake.
And that becomes a nut that will hold this lever into place.
I use the 3 mm Allen key on that tightening bolt,
and you can see the side-to-side, 14 mm of adjustment,
and also here the up and down angle,
this is 60 degrees of adjustment.
Also for installation, the Shimano bolt already has Loctite on it.
With only this nut provided by Shimano,
it's easy to understand why they only work
with the new 12 speed generation of Shimano brakes,
that use the I-spec EV standard.
As opposed to that Wolf Tooth gives you all the attachments you can think of
attaching to all the Shimano brakes, current and old,
and all the other brake manufacturers
and they include a bar clamp as well.
The installation is super simple:
insert that nut into the bar clamp,
use a 3 mm Allen key to attach the remote to it.
And finally run the cable through the remote
and attach it with the pinch bolt.
And here it is installed. Yoo-hoo!!!
7 mm of pull operates my Fox Transfer no problem.
But this is an universal remote so it would work with any other dropper.
The cable is terminated right down here
which is not as good as the Wolf Tooth ReMote.
However, what I prefer here is the ergonomics.
For some reason this feels better to my big thumb,
and I could angle this higher or lower if I want to.
so for ergonomics alone, the Shimano remote wins!
The ReMote still has this breakaway axle
because it's made out of plastic.
So if you crash and you pull on the lever hard it's not going to damage it.
That's something that Shimano doesn't have.
Also I think I kind of prefer the way the cable end is routed
right here behind the lever on the ReMote.
But hey, we can't have them all in this life, can we?
However when it comes to ergonomics
I mean this is actually pretty bad for I-spec EV,
so if you are to use new Shimano brakes
whether ii is SLX, XT, XTR, with I-spec EV
I will definitely NOT recommend using the Wolf Tooth with their adapter.
I will probably go for the bar clamp.
Or even better
get the new Shimano lever
because this is nice and really smooth, I really like it!
And that's the end of my little comparison folks.
If you found this useful
don't forget to like and subscribe.
Let me know if you have any questions
and until next time
hope to see you on the trails
hopefully riding with a Shimano remote
Cheers guys, cheers!