Upgrading Shifting on v20c

[cruzKurt]

I have been trying to piece together an accurate and reliable Shifting system since I have owned my v20c. I have the microShift on my bike and although the shifting is adequate, it is by no means "accurate and smooth". I am ready to throw it all out and start over and pay whatever it takes to get a smooth shifting system on my bike.

I don't live near any bike shops, so I have to DIY. I live where it is flat and don't do many if any hills. I have a 50/34 with an 11-28 cassette and never use more than the 3rd thru 5th cassette rings (so 50 up front and 17-19-22 on the cassette). So I don't need anything out of the ordinary or extreme. I do like the 34 up front and 28 in the rear for starts it makes it much easier if it is a bit uphill. I also run 145mm cranks. I also have mechanical disc brakes which might be an issue.

If you were to advise me on an upgrade (electronic or not), what would it be?

 

[Henri]

Do you want to keep a "curly bar" with brifters? I went to a Surly corner stop with flat bar controls* or you could build something fun with barends. There's bullhorn bars with TT controls.

And then it's pretty much matter of taste what name you like better. Shimano, SRAM, Campagnolo are all reliable brands, I think. Micro shift shouldn't be too bad either. There are many other supposedly good brands like Rotor.

You are totally free between electronic or cable? With wireless you won't have to pull a cable through the frame.

With so little range needed, you could go 1*12 or just 1*11, I guess. I didn't like that little mess by the bottom bracket and weight in that spot is supposed to be unfavorable as well, right? (I got 10-52, but I am a sucker for range, I even got a 9-45 for a 20" folding recumbent.)

Of course you could also go for a bomb proof Rohloff Speedhub internal gear hub. (Most efficient gear hub, but still not quite as efficient as a derailleur.)



There are many great choices and many people will recommend what they ended up choosing, while other things will be just as fine.

I like the wireless stuff for DIY, but most easy would be if you can keep the brifters in place and only change the rear mech if others are compatible. I wasn't quite content with the original brakes and am happy about my Magura MT4, but I haven't routed the hoses through the frame and bled the brakes yet. Bought them prefilled and have the hoses dangling about for now. XD Honestly not looking forward to doing that part for the forst time.
Even with new brifters you should be able to pull inners through the old outers again, I guess.


*) edit: Ah right and no need for bartape, just normal grips.

 

[Black Hawk Down]

I bought this group set about a year ago for my V20. Best group I've ever owned. It puts a mountain bike drive train on a road bike for a wide range of gears and a 1X chainring. 10-52 12 speed cassette. Hydraulic brakes (best I've ever owned), Electronic, wireless shifting for very easy setup and super reliable. I've owned Campy super record and Shimano Ultegra (electronic) groups. This one is the best. If you decide on this, make sure your front hub is XD drive. You'll also need a 1X chainring that fits your cranks. you can find them at https://www.wolftoothcomponents.com/

Cost of group set at ProBikesupply.com $1089.

SRAM Rival GX AXS Mullet Groupset - Rival eTap HRD Shifters, GX AXS Rear Derailleur, Battery/Charger, Chain & Cassette

SRAM Rival GX AXS Mullet Groupset GX AXS Rear Derailleurs Not only does the SRAM GX Eagle AXS Rear Derailleur get the job done, it features everything you have come to expect from SRAM's AXS connect components . It's able to shift on command, whether that's under climbing load, or sprinting to...

www.probikesupply.com

 

[cruzKurt]

I bought this group set about a year ago for my V20. Best group I've ever owned. It puts a mountain bike drive train on a road bike for a wide range of gears and a 1X chainring. 10-52 12 speed cassette. Hydraulic brakes (best I've ever owned), Electronic, wireless shifting for very easy setup and super reliable. I've owned Campy super record and Shimano Ultegra (electronic) groups. This one is the best. If you decide on this, make sure your front hub is XD drive. You'll also need a 1X chainring that fits your cranks. you can find them at https://www.wolftoothcomponents.com/

Cost of group set at ProBikesupply.com $1089.

SRAM Rival GX AXS Mullet Groupset - Rival eTap HRD Shifters, GX AXS Rear Derailleur, Battery/Charger, Chain & Cassette

SRAM Rival GX AXS Mullet Groupset GX AXS Rear Derailleurs Not only does the SRAM GX Eagle AXS Rear Derailleur get the job done, it features everything you have come to expect from SRAM's AXS connect components . It's able to shift on command, whether that's under climbing load, or sprinting to...

www.probikesupply.com

Awesome suggestion, so what size chainring did you get?

Looks like I will need a new freehub.

Also, these are flat mount HRD calipers, are they a direct bolt on for the v20c?

 

[Black Hawk Down]

Warning (the fine print),
1. XDR hubs require a 1.85 mm spacer before mounting the SRAM Eagle cassette. It should come with the wheels or hubs. If they don't supply the spacer, ask for it. I had to. You can also buy them online. Road bike cassettes don't require the spacer.
2. I had to add a washer between the cassette and fork as the chain would hit the fork when shifting into the 10t high gear.
3. The derailleur needed a thin washer when connecting to the hanger to center it on the freewheel.
4. My shifting isn't perfect. It's usable and I may just need to do more adjusting, but there's some light rattling in a low gear and in two high gears, I have to double shift when going from high to low. I didn't work too hard on the shifting issues because I plan to move this whole group, wheels and all to a Q45 frame. I will be putting an older Shimano DI2 group back on my V20.

I believe 2 - 4 above are all artifacts of the early V20 design. I'm pretty sure the V20c won't have these issues, but I can't guarantee that. With a properly designed road bike, this conversion group should work right out of the box, as that's what it was designed for. The old V20 works well with road components, but not with Mountain bike groups. You might check with Robert to see if changes were made to the V20c. I know they had to change the frame to properly fit rotors for the disk brakes. I had to dremel down a weld point to prevent contact with my rotor. I don't recall if it was the front or back. Robert verified that it was due to my older frame design. Just to feel comfortable, I would make sure that you can return the group if it just doesn't work out. I think the risk of that is low, but not zero.

I believe that some freehubs are convertible. Mine were not and I needed new wheels anyway as I wanted wider, tubeless tires.

Chainring: 40t. I started with a 46t, but it was too large for some of the very steep hills I have to climb in my daily ride.

I'm not sure which brake mounts the V20c uses. I have an older V20 with IS mounts. I had to convert to post mount, then again from post mount to flat mount. On top of that, I have 203 mm rotors on the front and 180 mm on the back. I tour heavy and need the largest rotors I can get. On the back, I was able to get converters that got me to 180, but on the front, I needed to add a spacer to get to 203 mm. I believe that the new V20c has flat mount brakes (check with Robert), so depending on your rotor size, you may be able to just mount them. If your rotors are large, it's easy to find FM to FM spacers to match. FYI, these hydraulic brakes are the best I've ever used. They'll lock up your wheels if you squeeze too hard.

Here's the back brake:



And the front:

 

[Henri]

I'm not sure which brake mounts the V20c uses. I have an older V20 with IS mounts.

It's flat mont. Front goes directly through the fork and fits 160mm. Rear has a rotatable mount for 160mm or 140mm. (I am not knowledgeable about spacers to put larger disks on flat mount bikes.)

FYI, these hydraulic brakes are the best I've ever used. They'll lock up your wheels if you squeeze too hard.

Uhm jeah, brakes should really be able to do that.

 

[Gregory Carlsen]

I'm a bit of a retro grouch and not into the electronic shifting. This party because of the ability to do field repairs on endurance rides. I'm running purely cable actuated Shimano R8000 series shifting with TRP Spyer calipers. I'm very happy with it.

I did need to change the brake cable housing to Jagwire KEB. This setup is far superior to the microshift.

 

[Black Hawk Down]

Uhm jeah, brakes should really be able to do that.

I've had many sets of brakes that couldn't lock up the wheel, but still stopped OK. These will lock up really easy, which has caused a couple of almost crashes while going around a blind corner. I'll see a car/truck and over-react. Just need to get used to the sensitivity.

 

[Black Hawk Down]

I'm a bit of a retro grouch and not into the electronic shifting. This party because of the ability to do field repairs on endurance rides. I'm running purely cable actuated Shimano R8000 series shifting with TRP Spyer calipers. I'm very happy with it.

I did need to change the brake cable housing to Jagwire KEB. This setup is far superior to the microshift.

There truly are two camps of evangelists when it comes to mech/elec. One's not functionally better than the other. Whatever you're most comfortable with is what's best.

Jagwire has good stuff.

 

[Flying Dutchman]

If you want to go single chainring (as you don't do much climbing) I would say SRAM is king. For DIY I think SRAM also provides much better documentation than Shimano (I don't have any experience with Campag).
For road, SRAM 1* Apex Eagle has drop-bar shifters. I put that on my home made bamboo bike (DF) and love the simplicity. Shifts beautifully.

If you want double chainring, I personally stick to Shimano as the shifting is simpler.