I thought I would share my experience of fitting the x-shifter to my flat bar road bike. So far I have only fitted the x-shifter to the rear derailleur using the app currently available for the i-phone. I tried the android app currently available on play store and couldn't get it to work at all even though it indicated that it had connected to the shifter.
Connecting the battery - the battery certainly won't fall off during a ride. It takes a good push to get it to click into place. On the downside I found it virtually impossible to remove by hand alone. Perhaps I have very weak hands (I don't think so) but I can't push the release catch in far enough just by hand to release the battery. Carefully using a small screwdriver as a lever works but not a good idea long term I would suspect. For that reason I'm reluctant to keep removing the battery and will have to charge it fitted.
Mounting the shifter - at first I mounted it to the chain stay to more or less follow the route the cable was already taking. When going for a test ride I found that my heel would occasionally strike the shifter, so I had to move it to the seat stay. I believe this to be the best option anyway as it results in a straighter cable run.
Setting up - Unfortunately my gear set (Shimano Ultegra 11 speed) was not amongst the few set ups available currently for auto set up, so I had to do it manually. The current app gives the options of natural or linear cable pulls. Without instructions (Paul has explained why they are not provided at the moment) I had no idea what the best option would be. I experimented with both and really couldn't see much difference between them. I set up the smallest cog first then the largest as per Paul's instructional video. The gears did not operate properly across the whole range in either natural or linear cable pull options. In the end I just opted for natural (which seems to be the default on the app) and had to fine tune each gear change. This was simple enough but a bit time consuming.
I now seem to have the rear derailleur system working ok with smooth changes both up and down the cassette, but I haven't done extensive road testing yet.
I have decided to delay fitting the shifter to the front derailleur for the time being because:
The app currently available doesn't give you the option of choosing between front and rear derailleurs, so it would be necessary to remove the battery from the rear in order to pair and set up the system on the front. Hopefully this will be sorted out once the new app is available. Not a big issue anyway as the front derailleur gets used a lot less than the rear.
I've noticed that if the shifter is not used for a while it seems to go into sleep mode (presumably to save battery power) and it requires several pushes of a button on the remote to connect it again. Again I may be missing something here.
In conclusion the x-shifter is great value especially compared with alternative offerings from Shimano and Scram and I'm looking forward to receiving the second system for my S30. I'm sure most of the issues that I experienced in setting it up was due to the fact that I was using an interim app and that once the new app is available for both android and ios things will be much more straightforward.
Connecting the battery - the battery certainly won't fall off during a ride. It takes a good push to get it to click into place. On the downside I found it virtually impossible to remove by hand alone. Perhaps I have very weak hands (I don't think so) but I can't push the release catch in far enough just by hand to release the battery. Carefully using a small screwdriver as a lever works but not a good idea long term I would suspect. For that reason I'm reluctant to keep removing the battery and will have to charge it fitted.
Mounting the shifter - at first I mounted it to the chain stay to more or less follow the route the cable was already taking. When going for a test ride I found that my heel would occasionally strike the shifter, so I had to move it to the seat stay. I believe this to be the best option anyway as it results in a straighter cable run.
Setting up - Unfortunately my gear set (Shimano Ultegra 11 speed) was not amongst the few set ups available currently for auto set up, so I had to do it manually. The current app gives the options of natural or linear cable pulls. Without instructions (Paul has explained why they are not provided at the moment) I had no idea what the best option would be. I experimented with both and really couldn't see much difference between them. I set up the smallest cog first then the largest as per Paul's instructional video. The gears did not operate properly across the whole range in either natural or linear cable pull options. In the end I just opted for natural (which seems to be the default on the app) and had to fine tune each gear change. This was simple enough but a bit time consuming.
I now seem to have the rear derailleur system working ok with smooth changes both up and down the cassette, but I haven't done extensive road testing yet.
I have decided to delay fitting the shifter to the front derailleur for the time being because:
The app currently available doesn't give you the option of choosing between front and rear derailleurs, so it would be necessary to remove the battery from the rear in order to pair and set up the system on the front. Hopefully this will be sorted out once the new app is available. Not a big issue anyway as the front derailleur gets used a lot less than the rear.
I've noticed that if the shifter is not used for a while it seems to go into sleep mode (presumably to save battery power) and it requires several pushes of a button on the remote to connect it again. Again I may be missing something here.
In conclusion the x-shifter is great value especially compared with alternative offerings from Shimano and Scram and I'm looking forward to receiving the second system for my S30. I'm sure most of the issues that I experienced in setting it up was due to the fact that I was using an interim app and that once the new app is available for both android and ios things will be much more straightforward.
