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No issues with waterproofing in mechanical systems. Odd how mechanical is still more precise, faster, and cheaper than electric but everyone needs “new tech.”
Rusted solid shift / dropper cables/housings are a thing. Especially dropper ones drip-fed by toxic ass sweat.
Huge problem on those World Cup bikes that never get rebuilt
Technology is not a replacement for bike maintenance. You simply have to tear your bike down once a year if you're riding a good amount and make sure you touch everything. Too many mountain bikers are in the ride it until it breaks or there is a problem mindset.
Disagree. I do less maintenance on my electronic stuff than I ever did on mechanical. The stuff that does get maintained is present in both flavors (i.e. jockey wheel bearings). The time I spend annually removing batteries to put them on chargers & replacing them is measured in single digit minutes. I'm not saying that everyone SHOULD go wireless, I'm just saying the anti-battery crowd makes wireless systems out to be some overly complex thing when in reality they're not.
I haven't seen one (that is replaced st least once a year) in probably the last 20 years. 2005 was the first year I had a bike with full length cable outers and it was a game changer.
There’s TONS of issues with transmission 90/70. I see lots of posts on other media (Facebook Reddit pinkbike etc) about shift quality skipping. Getting stuck in gear etc. I’ve had the best luck with xo about 2 years and I haven’t touched it. Just replaced a chain and cassette when it wore out.
X01 Eagle is the bees knees. I ran the same chainring (gx aluminium), cassette (the old 10-50t),shifter and derailleur for 4 and a half seasons on my old bike with only a new X01 chain about every year. The derailleur is still being used on one of the bikes by a friend who bought it off of me. I ran the last chain for 2 seasons (and I started waxing the chain in the same time frame) and just recently gave it to another friend to use it some more as I only measured 0,35 % wear rate on it. Based on the stats the bike (and the drivetrain) did 350k vertical and over 10.000 km.
This has been my experience as well. Just stay on top of chain wear and you're golden. The drivetrain on this bike https://www.vitalmtb.com/community/ARonBurgundy,30923/setup,41567 is still in operation today and it was lightly used when I built the bike in 2020. I did retire the cranks out of caution as I wore through a few layers of carbon on the arms.
I mean, I'll go on record and say I much prefer wireless shifting and have been extremely happy with my Gx Transmission drivetrains. That being said, I really don't give a flying monkey's banana on what people run, and I really wish people would stop being so damn angry that wireless shifting exists.
I think people miss just how easy it is to swap wireless drivetrains around when you do have issues. When my Gx T-type did die, it was a quick 5 min job to swap to another one off another one of my bikes and keep going, and for someone who travels a lot for biking this is awesome. Not having to bring spare cable/housing, or wait for a bike shop to open that may or may not have a particular part I need is great. Yes, I could have done that with a mechanical drivetrain but it's so much more of a pain.
Also, my spare parts bin is filled with various shifters and derailleur parts from both Shimano and Sram that I've acquired through breaking crap. Through the last 4+ years I've been running some form of wireless across all the bikes I maintain, I've only had one failure that SRAM took care of super quickly. Cannot say the same about both Sram and Shimano's mechanical 12 speed stuff, which was all made of cheese and required constant upkeep.
Now, can we stop complaining about wireless shifting and get back to rumors!
Gotta love people who write an essay about wireless shifting who then tell everyone else to stop talking about wireless shifting.
“…can we stop complaining about wireless shifting”
There are other sites where you can whine and moan all you want. 😉
Any news about the next Avinox M2 SL Motor?
X01 cassette, X01 chain, GX cranks with NX steel chainring is GOAT for durability setup.
Deraileurs not so much. Regardless of tier I purchase my derailleur is MAYBE lasting me a season. If I have the same deraileur for an entire season it is going to be clapped out by the end. Not that they are bad products but deraileurs have a hard life. After 3-4 times going to a bike park with an eagle setup the shifting will be giving me issues which is 100% why I own a DH bike now.
The bike park destroys your derailleurs in 3-4 trips? I get years and thousands of miles out of rear derailleurs that are usually still going strong when a crash or an errant stick takes them out. Have you heard of maintenance?
I thumbs upped both posts because I agree with both of you. I don’t know how other people have derailleurs for so long but mine are clapped in a season. I’m wondering if new clutchless derailleurs will hold up better.
I am very rigorous with my maintenance and my shimano's are usally pretty toast after the summer.(i dont ride in the wet).
Sloppy pins etc and starts to get lazy in shifting.
They seem to take a hammering at the bike parks (rarely do I ever hit one on anything)
Madrone Jab FTW. Sloppy pins? Tired clutch? Bent arm? Just service or replace what needs to be refreshed.
What maintenance would possibly prevent sloppy bushings and soft plastic bending? I’ve literally never had a shimano mech last longer than a season, SRAM maybe two seasons.
Derailleur maintenance rumours: for the bushings, a squirt of a good penetrating lubricant from time to time might help. In the case of Shimano it might even keep them working... I once had an XT derailleur bind up completely because of the fine dust around here, but a soak in some light oil got it moving again.
Damn, I haven't heard that yet. I hope those reports are overblown.
I might have to buy another X01 setup to stash for future use. My current one has been great.
Garbaruk cassette for me now (ratios... Shifting performance is worse than original) and rotating 3 X01 chains, I call it forever drivetrain.
As for destroying derailleurs the one that I sold off and is still running, while I had it it did two Megavalanches, an Enduro2 in Les Arcs, a Trans Madeira, four Finale Ligure shutting trips, plus some other local enduro races, shuttling days and trips, etc. I even parked it on a wooden ledge on Petzen about a month before selling and all it needed was to straighten out the hanger to shift perfectly.
The only issue I had with it was that the clutch got very sticky towards the end at some point, but flushing it with isopropyl alcohol fixed that.
I was waiting to see what Transmission will be like before buying a new bike, seeing it (axs only) I was pondering trying out Shimano, but the feel on the shifter is so weird so calmer heads prevailed and I just bought another X01 derailleur and shifter combo and paired it with what I mentioned above.
Should we make a Derailleur Tech Rumors derailment?
...surely Derailleurment
Apparently a new Bulls
Very difficult to tell whether it isn't just one of their existing models to be honest
Oh well, didn't see that they have it on the website by now. My bad.
Looks exactly the same:
Very interested in the JAB, but the rebuild service costs as much as a new derailleur from Shimano. The appeal of the JAB for me is the durability. (and the looks of course) It's the only derailleur out there that looks like it can actually survive the things we put our bikes through.
Have one and so far the derailleur is more rigid and sliiiighlty more crisp/fast than my old xt sgs (Shimano xtr cassette/shifter)