XShifter...new wireless shifting option

ReklinedRider

ReklinedRider

Zen MBB Master
Pretty clever. The price point is a little vague though...it says $199 on kickstarter for one unit, and estimates that price as about 60% of eventual retail. So for two units (front and rear derailleurs) the total would be closing in on $700 for retail. At that price I'd be more prone to save a bit longer while waiting for etap to drop a little. Plus the control pad might be less than convenient/ergonomic on road bike bars. Still...pretty cool!
 
trapdoor2

trapdoor2

Zen MBB Master
Yah, I imagine the retail price will fluctuate as it progresses thru development/kickstart. @$700, it might be borderline... Depends on what you need. With a mismatched system FD vs RD, this would really be sweet.
 
DavidCH

DavidCH

In thought; expanding the paradigm of traversity
Well it makes sense to buy it on Kickstarter for cheaper. My guess is it might not have as much staying power as a known brand after all they do throw a lot of money and research into their products.

I agree at that Kickstarter price point that it's attractive.
 
super slim

super slim

Zen MBB Master
I personally think it is yet another kick-start scam, like a lot of power meters!
It would be useless on a dropbar brifter!
 
B

bladderhead

Zen MBB Master
I have been through the "road bars versus mountain bars" palaver. The images on their website show the gizmo attached to road bars. It would be really easy for them to design different clamps. Do you have to buy gizmos for both derailleurs? I have a single chainwheel. I would like to have a shifter I could stick in the bar-end.
 
bazzawill

bazzawill

Guru
Colour me interested. It will save me having to buy a complete new crankset to go from shimano to sram hrd. I am not a huge fan of the shifter design so far but hopefully they iterate that some more or offer alternative shifters.
 
B

BrianA

Active Member
After watching the videos (several times) and having a sleepless night mulling it over in my mind I have also taken the plunge and ordered the "duel road" for my Silvio S30. The comments above about the control pad not being ergonomic on drop bars are IMHO unfounded. The road version of the control panel is designed to fit into the inside curve of the bar and appears to me to be a neat setup. Time will tell of course. My only quandary now is when the time comes to fit the system should I just remove the shifter cable from my current brifters and retain the brake function or would it be better to go with stand alone brake levers.
 
trapdoor2

trapdoor2

Zen MBB Master
Yah, I went in for the dual road version too. I'll probably test it keeping the brifters. If all is well, I'll decide then whether to ditch them for simple brakes or not.

Interesting that they are looking into controlling other stuff (not just shifting) as well. Auto-shift, etc.
 
B

BrianA

Active Member
After contacting Paul Gallagher (the inventor of the x shifter) with a number of questions I have now decided to go with a road remote and 2 X shifters on my Silvio S30 instead of the dual shifter option and have changed my pledge/order accordingly. After viewing photographs of the Silvio that I emailed to Paul he stated that if he were fitting the x shifter system to the Silvio he would use a separate shifter for each derailleur rather than the dual. The main reason for my decision to now opt for the two shifter set up is based on Paul's advice, particularly regarding the routing of the cables. These are the reasons for my decision to change.
1. Paul strongly advised against connecting the rear derailleur to the cable inlet fitted with the metal tube that reverses the direction of the cable on the dual shifter. He advised that this would likely cause premature wear of the cable given the sharp bend of the tube and the fact that the rear derailleur is constantly in use.
2. Placing the dual shifter half way down the boom/slider so that the cable running from the tube goes to the front derailleur would result in the cable making two sharp turns - given that it must also pass around the idler wheel before connecting to the derailleur. This (in my opinion) is likely to put a fair bit of stress on the shifter mechanism when shifting the front derailleur. The double change of cable direction to the front derailleur can only be avoided by removing the tube (it just pulls out) and mounting the dual shifter near the handlebar above the pivot clamp and running both cables forward (the rear derailleur cable down the fork and the front derailleur cable the length of the boom/slider the same as the current set up. The downside to this is that it would require long cable runs and the fitting of longer cables than is expected to be supplied with the dual shifter. I was advised the supplied cables would probably be about 50cm in length which is certainly too short for the front derailleur and probably marginal for the rear with this set-up. I was also advised by Paul that while there is no maximum length of cable that can be fitted he believes a short cable run is a better set up. Using two shifters would mean that the front derailleur shifter could be mounted to the boom just above the cable stop before the cable passes around the idler wheel and the rear derailleur shifter can be fitted at the lower end of the fork, resulting in two short cable runs using the supplied cables.
3. Battery. Having the one battery run both derailleurs will obviously shorten the time before the battery requires recharging. It also occurred to me that should the battery fail or run flat during a ride you would be stuck in whatever gear you were in unless you were carrying a charged spare. By running two shifters and therefore having two batteries you could always take the battery from the front derailleur to use on the rear if needed. That way you should make it home albeit with a reduced gear range.

If anyone proceeds with the dual shifter option it will be interested to compare notes on our respective set ups in the future.
 
trapdoor2

trapdoor2

Zen MBB Master
Yeah, I misstated what I ordered. I ordered the road remote with 2 shifters (Xshifter combo), not the "dual".
 
B

BrianA

Active Member
Chris - I believe the cable run to the front derailleur on the 2.1 and S30 are identical in that the cable has to double back around an idler wheel to actuate the derailleur. If that is correct then I would certainly consider changing your order and get two separate shifters. Either way having two separate shifters certainly reduces the length of the cable run and gives you flexibility in mounting positions of the shifters. As I stated above, after viewing photographs of the Silvio Paul advised using a two shifter set-up.
 
ratz

ratz

Wielder of the Rubber Mallet
BrianA said:
Chris - I believe the cable run to the front derailleur on the 2.1 and S30 are identical in that the cable has to double back around an idler wheel to actuate the derailleur. If that is correct then I would certainly consider changing your order and get two separate shifters. Either way having two separate shifters certainly reduces the length of the cable run and gives you flexibility in mounting positions of the shifters. As I stated above, after viewing photographs of the Silvio Paul advised using a two shifter set-up.
Click to expand...

FWIW I had reviewed the website and concluded the same thing. I wrote that up; but then decided not to post since I wasn't 100% sure and didn't want to taint the thread. They have since really improved the info on the kickstarter site as well. The one I would think would work would be this one:

Screen Shot 2016-11-14 at 2.25.56 PM.png
 
trapdoor2

trapdoor2

Zen MBB Master
Their website is evolving and now have better descriptions, etc. Looks like they've developed a set of mounting options that they're dangling out as a premium for hitting their $100K stretch goal. I like the bottle-cage-mount adapter. Appears to fit standard cage spacing and position the xshifter alongside (so the cage can still be used normally). On the V20, the 'under the boom' cage mounts appear to be the place to put the FD shifter. The RD shifter will probably be best on the fork leg.

Since this system uses Bluetooth, it talks to your phone (or other BT devices). Potentially...well, lots of things. Auto-shift would be interesting...lots of real-time data means shift-points can be based on a wide variety of factors; even something as simple as learning your typical shift points over a repeating lap. More complex solutions could take telemetry from power-meter and heart-rate monitor, etc. Should be interesting!
 
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