For years now the top touring set has been Shimano's XT. This gives the quality, compatibility and
reliability a tourist demands without being hideously expensive. Competition has been thin on the
ground, as Campag abandoned the MTB market where most touring components originate. As long
as the big "S's" XT keeps being suitable for touring then all is rosy. The problem is that of late the
drift of change has moved XT away from the needs of tourists. The new splined bottom bracket is
incompatible with other makes and may be hard to get as a replacements on tour until the design
filters down through the Shimano hierarchy and for a number of years the rear derailleur has
struggled a bit to cope with the larger 32 tooth sprockets, being designed with a max capacity of 28
teeth.
Enter Sachs and their Quartz Groupset. To call it a groupset is pushing it a bit as there is no bottom
bracket, brakes or headset, but as these are easy to find it's the gear train that interests. The first
point to make is that these are seriously expensive pieces of kit, closer to XTR than XT and
certainly the beautifully made and polished rear derailleur lives up to the price. Its made of cold
forged alloy, including the cage and has a maximum capacity of 32 teeth (hooray), which means you
could get away with a 34 tooth sprocket if you could get it. It doesn't have a floating top jockey a la
Shimano, but is compatible with both Shimano and Sachs levers courtesy of specific cable clamp
positions for each. At 235 grms it's also pretty light. The front changer is a good match, 128 grms
and conventional and classic looking. The chainset is a cold forged item, (as seen on the Cyber
Cyclist Logo!) 760 grms and uses slightly unusual ratios, 44/34/24, pretty ideal for serious touring.
The outer rings are alloy, the inner hardened steel, all having the usual ramps and gates to aid
changing, and is polished to a high gloss finish. The casting is the same as that used on the lower
end sets but better polished, the rings are unique to the Quartz set.
How does it perform?
In a word - brilliantly. The changes, especially at the rear were very crisp over a Shimano block,
better than my own '93 XT set. Changes were instant with none of that slight delay you sometimes
get with XT as it waits for the ramps on the sprockets to come round. I'd put this down to the almost
complete absence of slack in the pivots and the non "floating" top jockey wheel. The downside is
that it's not at all sympathetic to misalignment, you really need to get things spot on for it not to
jingle, but once set up it doesn't drift at all. At the moment this is my number one choice for a rear
touring mech. The front change was up to XT standards and the chainset stiff enough for me, though
as with most touring cyclists I'm not someone who would push this aspect of the design. The
supplied Sachs chain lived up to it's reputation and I wouldn't use nothing else.
Overall
I was impressed, and this set would grace any top end touring bike. It has the advantage of being
widely compatible and free of quirks. The rear mech is the star of the show and gets a rare 9/10, the
front mech and chainset are par for the course but perhaps a little over priced considering very
similar components can be has in the lower end and cheaper Sach Neos set - both get 6/10.
©Geoff Husband
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