Hey everyone, continuing the story of the 12 speed GX Eagle from SRAM, today I'm gonna
be talking about the shifting bits.
I have the trigger here or the shifter, and the rear derailleur.
Just like everything else these were redesigned to work as a system.
I consider this to be 1x drivetrain version 2.0 from SRAM.
So here they are, as you can see they come in these smaller boxes, smaller compared to
the cassette anyway.
SRAM GX printed everywhere, the product picture is on it, not much on the back.
And here on the sides you have at some point a picture of the drivetrain, this is to be
found on both.
And just like it was with the cassette here is where you have the details of the product.
In this case this is the shifter, so it is GX Eagle trigger, that is the product code,
it's a 12 speed, made in Taiwan, they all seem to be made in Taiwan, manufacturing date
and this is the serial number.
Very similar here on the rear derailleur, product code again, RD GX Eagle black there
is no other version.
Manufactured in Taiwan, manufacturing date or week and the serial number.
But let's take them one by one and take a closer look.
So first here is the shifter: open up the box, nice piece of foam keeping it from rattling
around, and this sits into this piece of plastic molded for it's shape.
Underneath is just the warranty leaflet, two years warranty just like all the other products,
and the bar clamp.
Yes you can use the Matchmaker to actually attach it to your brakes if you have SRAM
brakes.
Now the shifter itself: the cool thing about these ones is that they kept the tech that
was launched with Eagle XX1 and X01 but they just used cheaper materials so forged
aluminum, plastic cover, but aside from that this is moving on a bushing in here the more
expensive ones they have a bearing inside.
Also a feature missing here is, on the more expensive shifters you can actually adjust
the angle of your lever here, not on this one.
Just like with the other 11 speed shifters this goes up I think 5 gears at once so one,
two, three, four, five gears.
Shifting up though it is one at a time, so click, click, click, click, click...What you
see here is just paint, there is no texture on any of the levers here I don't know if
they have that on the higher end ones.
To open up the cover you just use a 3mm Allen key and actually once you open up the cover
not only that you can see the mechanism but this is how you replace the cable as well.
See the cable over there, make sure is down to the smallest cog, and as you push it out,
here it is.
Push the cable out, and that's how simple it is to replace the cable on these shifters.
Mechanism you can see that orange spool just pulling on the cable one-by-one.
Now these are called the X-Actuation triggers, they have ZeroLoss, I think it only means
that there is no play here on the levers.
As you touch them they start moving the cable right away and yes, I can confirm that.
Last thing I want to share with you guys is the weight, you can see it is a 122 grams,
134 grams with the bar clamp and the inner cable, and talking about the inner cable this is
the only thing that you're getting so there is no cable housing that comes with the GX
Eagle shifter.
With the shifter out of the way here is the rear mech.
Rear mech that's supposed to work just fine not only with the GX shifter but also with
XX1 X01 for those of you that want to upgrade to a better shifter like it's often done.
Warranty states two years just like with the other components.
There's nothing underneath here just in case you're wondering and what I have here is a
little tool for adjusting the B-screw.
This is actually usable on an 11 speed system and from what I read SRAM plans to ship this
with all the 11 speed derailleurs in the future as well.
The rear mech itself it is, it does look big but it's not that heavy.
292 grams vs the about 290g that's spec'd for it.
And here it is, it looks big, and it is big or bigger than what they had for the 11 speed
systems, I assume just so they work with that increased range.
Talk about big, I think big part of it feeling big is the fact that you have this longer
cage here, and you have the bigger lower jockey.
How much bigger is this?
I actually measured it, if you look here this is about 93-94mm in between the centers of
the jockey wheels.
On the previous 11 speed system this cage comes down to about 75mm so we're talking
about a 2cm longer cage over here.
Also to keep the length of the cage under control they had to introduce this 14 tooth
tension pulley.
The guide pulley is still 12 teeth.
This one kept the narrow-wide profile, the top one lost it.
Apparently in testing, in muddy conditions, this was coming out of sync with the chain
causing shifting problems so they got rid of that.
They're both rolling on bearings which is great, apparently they are cheaper bearing
than the ones found in X01 and XX1 but I don't care.
It's a bearing, and is probably going to last for ever with a bit of maintenance.
They use cheaper materials, again, so it's aluminum pretty much everywhere,
you have stainless steel hardware and it's a steel spring as well, you see the spring in there.
The other few things that they improved on this one making better than
the 11 speed were this B-knuckle, the way it works, I think they just brought it level
to what Shimano's been doing for a while, and the clutch, is printed here, Type 3 Roller
Bearing Clutch.
This is supposed to give about 20% higher tension making for a better chain retention
not to be felt at the lever.
The other thing they say is that this is more consistent throughout the range.
The cage lock, you can see it in use here, this one apparently has moved position and
it's more recessed so it's not as exposed.
They talk about the narrow-wide profile of this lower jockey as helping with the chain
retention especially on the extreme chainlines that will be needed with this 12 speed system.
And that's pretty much all I have about the shifting bits on the GX Eagle 12 speed from SRAM
As usual if you have any questions let me know in the comments below.
Also if you want to purchase any one of these products
use the links in the description for my preferred seller.
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and until next time I'll see you on the trails guys, cheers!