Weird SRAM Apex1 shifting issue

I’ve got Apex1 1×11 on my Sonder Camino and it’s developed a weird derailleur problem.

When in the lowest gear and shifting up through the gears, you need to move up about 4 gears before the derailleur moves outward. It down shifts correctly in any gear and once past this weird bit in say gears 1-5, it upshifts correctly too. It’s only done max 800km since new and the springs etc all seem to be functioning.

Has anyone else had this weird problem?

Yep, on two bikes. It got so bad on the current one that I had to unclip and tap the mech with my heel to get it to spring into life.
I have now dumped Apex and upgraded to GRX

@trailwagger – oh dear

Oh, and I tried replacing cables before ditching it, it made a difference for the first ride but then back to the same issue

Sounds similar to problem I’m having on my Rival 1*11. This weekend I’m going to replace the cable guide under the bottom bracket as I’m thinking there’s too much friction on the cable. If I shift gear halfway down the block it doesn’t shift, but if I give the cable a tug after shifting it snaps cleanly into the correct gear. It’ll be getting a new cable too so hopefully all bases are covered. Trouble is it seems the SRAM hydro are a bit of a pain in the arse to change cables on, so I’m expecting an afternoon of frustration.

Be super careful with this. I’ve knackered a SRAM shifter like this. What happened was: the inner cable was dragging in the outer down near the mech due to some cable routing issues. This meant that the inner cable was ‘spooling’ in the shifter with multiple shifts, then suddenly catching as the drag resolved itself.

What happened next was: the whipping back of the inner cable end in the shifter cracked the cable spool. F’d. I ended up getting a new shifter, and ultimately got a spool 3d-printed.

Oh, and I also fitted a full-length outer cable.

Different shifting issue every month with my Apex I reckon. Have you checked the chain length yet? That not being bang-on can cause all kinds of issues to start with. Then set the 15mm b-tension gap (it’s a starting point rather than a rule ime). Then start faffing with cabling when that still doesn’t work. Then curse it lots whilst reminding yourself how much better the brakes feel because they can’t also go sideways like Shimano 😩 You can’t win really

Thought it was just me, shifting on my sons Rival 1 is rubbish. As above it doesn’t shift cleanly but if you pull the cable it works. I still haven’t fully sorted it, trying full outer next, but a few things I learnt so far.

As above b tension is far more important than with shimano. I set it so that it just about shifts into the 42.

A teflon or some sort of slick cable is better but still not perfect. I think half the problem is outer cable routing as it exits the lever and follows the bar. Generally without the cable taped to the bar the shifting is much better. Tried a couple of bars but still the same.

Check you have the inner cable routed correctly on the rear derailleur. On Rival it comes about half way round the black quadrant in want of a better description and then goes through the small hole. Not all the way round the quadrant like a local shop had set it up.

But all in all shifting was great for a couple of weeks and since then rubbish. This is on his cx bike so gets pretty filthy bit my Force 1 on the Slate has been fine if not as slick as Shimano. If it wasnt for the cost of replacing it I would be taking the Rival off and fitting Shimano.

Wait4me – changing the inner is not too bad but you may find it easier to remove the tape, not essential, but its fiddly getting the inner cable into the outer as it exits the lever.

Isn’t Sram cabling slightly different to Shimano, as in it prefers 1.1mm dia cable rather than “normal” 1.2mm? Thought that was the case with 2x road groups anyway. Also, is 1x also grumpy if the RD cable outer is too short and the radius of the bend too tight? Noticed my Arkose X came with a very short outer to the RD, with a much tighter bend than on my other Sram-fitted bikes. Transmission with the Rival 1x is good, but sure it could be better…

This is my first SRAM geared bike and compared to Shimano it’s a little agricultural but it worked fine until the last couple of rides.
I’ll probably replace the cable outers

The cable routing out of SRAM HydroR shifters is just stupid. It’s as if the designers never actually tried fitting it to a bike, as it forces a tight turn in the cable if you tape it to the bars. The friction in the cable thanks to this makes it very sensitive to friction elsewhere in the cable run.

You may be able to improve it by not taping the cable quite so close to the bars. I also find that running the outers to the back of the handlebars allows a more gentle radius. Increasing B tension a little can also help as moving the guide pulley away from the sprockets allows the mech to move a little more freely.

I found on my rival 1x that there is a very tight turn inside the shifter that the inner cable has to go round. A little bit of grease on the inner wire inside the shifter has turned my ok rival into months of slick shifting.

Was a faff to find, and ended up taking the shifter apart to find what was causing the problem, but glad I did.

On the last Rival drop-bar shifter that I installed (about 2 months ago, using a new Rival shifter), I noticed that there are 2 outlets/cable guides for the shifter cable itself to run in. This might be a new thing.

One had a pronounced bend to the left, the other was parallel to the shifter body. I presumed that the former was for installation under bar tape (into integrated bars, for example) and the other was for standard bars. Just something to note as I didn’t spot it at first.

Am sure I’ve got that dual routing option on my mk1 Rival 10 sp shifters,so dont think its new. Haven’t got that close to the 1x Rival shifter yet to see if that has the same option…

I had rubbish shifting on mine so put new chain / cassette / inner cable on and it wasn’t any better. Tried inner & outer with a longer outer loop at the mech and no grease or oil lube in the outer and it now shifts like new.