My left thumb is getting so arthritic that I find normal shifting increasingly painful. I suppose I could bodge the shifter on to the left hand side of the bars but electric shifting seems a more long term option. So I am currently running XT 11spd, what would be the cheapest and/or easiest way to convert.?
GX AXS would be around £500 (new) for an upgrade kit and a cassette, plus the got of a new freehub. Or less if you already have a HG freehub, as this means you could use an NX or SX eagle cassette.
Yeah GX AXS upgrade kit, as above says, presumably you have an HG freehub so either an NX or other branded 12 speed cassette and a new chain.
Probably looking at about £650 all in I guess for a ball park figure
I have a brand new XT 11 speed Di2 rear mech in the classifieds if any use to you ?
Thanks for all the advice. Yes I have got an HG freehub so now want to know if Shimano and SRAM 12spd cassettes are compatible? I know earlier ones weren't but I have been told 12spd plays nicely together.
Yeah they do.
Shimano 12 speed is all microspline as far as I know. You can get a couple of 12 speed Sram cassettes for a HG freehub - PG1230 and PG1210 iirc - they are the lower end models and weight a ton. You can get some aftermaket cassettes like Sunrace that will be HG and 12 speed, shifting will not be as good though.
Personally, I would just change the freehub if possible.
Also, new Shimano XT, XTR and possibly Deore are being released in the next couple of months. Will be electric and wireless and probably undercutting Sram on price. Might be worth hanging on to what they're like? That would almost certainly require a microspline freehub though.
Since posting this I have been doing more research and have discovered Wheeltop electric shifting which claims to work on any speed range from 3-14. The website doesn’t specifically mention which other brands it is compatible with but it is cheaper, £332 at the moment. Has anybody had any experience with the brand. It seems ideal for what I want.
Bit of a struggle to choose at the moment.
Wheeltop, might be fine, might have issues and any spares have to come halfway around the world. A Riding friend is having issues with L-Twoo at the moment, the groupset seems fine but silly things like charging cables are letting it down and take weeks to resolve.
Shimano (that you can buy) is still 11s. Which is fine if you're not a gear tart, but wireless 12s XTR (and possibly XT) is just around the corner. XTR for certain, and there's been a photo of a cheaper looking mech as well but equally it could just be an unfinished prototype.
SRAM AXS (older type) GX is £375 on Bikeinn, seems like a good deal. But another riding buddy has an expensive SRAM Red shaped paperweight after the battery contact on the front mech seized and they don't sell any spares (not even a front mech, let alone a part of it). Based on that I'd not be buying anything last-gen SRAM, but equally there are only 2 parts to the MTB system (shifter and mech) so if you break a mech then is it such a big deal to replace the whole groupset?
If you have UDH and a few extra quid I'd pay the extra for GX Transmission (and get a new freehub). If not I'd probably go Shimano XT 11s. It'll be obsolete pretty quickly but it's compatible with your freehub and I'd trust it to outlast GX.
Also, new Shimano XT, XTR and possibly Deore are being released in the next couple of months.
A mate of mine is already running a complete new XTR groupset.
Brakes, crank, shifter and mech. I can't remember what he said about the cassette other than it'll work with the current 12 speed cassette.
It looks a lot shinier in real life than any of the sneak pics I've seen on line.
I fitted GX Gripshift for a similar reason.
Good this be a potentially cheaper option if compatible and no wrist issues?
It cost me £35
I fitted GX Gripshift for a similar reason.
just so it's totally clear what icic has said. a SRAM Gx gripshift works absolutely fine with shimano XT 11 speed. I'm currently running one with both a 12 speed XTR mech and a 10 speed XT mech over an 11 speed cassette. I've used the same setup with a proper 11 speed shimano mech too 😉
When I told my wife I was thinking of spending £400 on AXS she complained that when she had that problem I told her to get Gripshift! So yes I think spending £35 is the best option so far. I have no wrist problems so it should work fine without further spending on new cassette, derailleur etc.
Sounds like your username is apt... assuming you didn't see that response coming. 😉
I’d rather go single speed than gripshift…
Since posting this I have been doing more research and have discovered Wheeltop electric shifting which claims to work on any speed range from 3-14. The website doesn’t specifically mention which other brands it is compatible with but it is cheaper, £332 at the moment. Has anybody had any experience with the brand. It seems ideal for what I want.
We've used wheeltop's gravel set it for a cx season and it's been fine in all winter in mud and gop. Battery life is good and the rear shifting can be individually tuned to any cassette, sprocket by sprocket, so compatibility is not an issue. The only problems are that you can't take the battery off to charge it, and the translations make the manual and app a bit quirky. And yes parts/warranty does involve china (not that we've needed it so far).
I have arthritis in my thumbs and find a twistshift the perfect solution. Forget the cheap and nasty ones you get on cheap bikes. A good one works well
I’d rather go single speed than gripshift…
As TJ said, the SRAM GX and above gripshifts are amazing compared to the ones you probably remember form kids bikes that take superhuman strength to rotate. They just lightly click between gears.
My thumbs are f***ed and have been since my late 20's, I blame too much time riding rigid singlespeeds on unsuitable terrain with relatively unswept bars, the tendons on the inside are permanently sore now. So I can definitely see gripshift becoming my standard setup in the near future. I went 1x because I couldn't push the front shifter any more, thankfully rear shifters are a bit lighter.
I mixed the gx axs upgrade kit with shimano cassette and chain. Changed the jockey wheels on the axs derailleur to shimano compatible ones and it's worked flawlessly.
Am I missing something here? You said LEFT thumb but all 1x group sets only have a right hand side shifter so what are you hoping to achieve?
(Or do you still run 2x ?)
Well spotted! Just me being dumb, I of course meant my right thumb.
I’m on 12spd Di2 and will not go back to
manual Shifting again!