By the latter half of the 2000s, the mountain bike (MTB) category had been further subdivided into extreme, downhill, freeride, cross country and more. In the meantime, a new category called all-mountain appeared, which required excellent downhill performance and stability in addition to uphill performance. Shimano released SLX as a components series dedicated to such all-mountain bikes. As a middle-grade mountain bike components series, the current SLX offers high performance trickled down from XTR and SHIMANO DEORE XT, and powerful and controllable braking for all MTB riding styles.