- There are two big, obvious players
in the mountain bike drive train market.
But now we have another option.
This is coming out of Southern California.
This is Box Components and their One drivetrain.
We've got a shifter, a rear mech, and a cassette.
I've bolted it to my bike.
I'm gonna take it for a spin
and see how it differs from the rest.
(mellow electronic music)
So, if you haven't heard of Box Components before,
they have actually been around for a few years
building BMX components.
If you're an old schooler like me,
you may have heard of Toby Henderson,
who's a BMX racer turned downhill racer,
and he's part of the crew there at Box.
So, it's definitely some heritage there.
They also sponsor the Polygon UR team,
so Tracey Hannah, Mick Hannah, and Sam Reynolds.
So, first impressions,
actually, it's taken me just a few goes
to get me used to this shifter.
Definitely feels a little bit different to the other brands,
but totally normal, but let's give it a proper ride.
(energetic electronic music)
(calls out)
So let's take a look at this Box One
11-speed rear derailleur.
You've got the alloy cage and these big jockey wheels.
They've also got sealed bearings inside there,
so it keeps all that friction down.
And here you've got a carbon fibre and nylon composite body.
Inside there, you've got a clutch
like much of the other rear mechs in the market today.
This one's actually called the cam clutch.
So, as the jockey cage moves further,
actually puts more tension onto the chain.
Actually, I think that's a nice touch
because some rear mechs, you can adjust that tension,
and if you put too much tension on there,
it can actually make your shifts
feel really stiff up on your shifter,
but also, it can take away
some of that small bump sensitivity of the suspension,
as it's actually restricting
suspension movement a little bit.
So this works really nicely.
It's quite supple to begin with
and then adds more tension on those bigger hits
just to keep that chain nicely on that front chain ring.
So another interesting feature
about this Box One rear derailleur
is this Pivot Tech at the back.
So where your cable housing comes in to the rear mech,
that's on a spring-loaded pivot.
So in the case of any side or rear impacts,
that just bends up and out of the way,
and hopefully that's gonna give you
a bit more protection on those impacts.
So the rear mech only comes in one cage size.
As you can see, it's quite long.
And that is to deal with the big one-by-11 range,
and this is actually a Box Components cassette as well.
So this is an 11-46, big, wide-range cassette
that we like to see on these 11-speed systems.
The sprockets are made from aluminium and steel,
and it fits onto either a Box hub or a Shimano.
So there's definitely a couple of features on this rear mech
that I've not seen before,
but the most innovative part
of this whole drive train is the shifter.
So what is so special about this Box One shifter?
Well, first, you might notice, is it's just gone one lever.
So to go through your lower gears as normal,
you just push that lever towards the front of the bike
like most other shifters out there.
But now, the special part of this
is to go back down the cassette to your higher gears,
you actually push that shifter in towards the stem.
So that's quite a nice little touch.
Might take a little bit of getting used to
if you've never used one of these before.
You've got a bar adjuster like any other shifter out there.
A nice little touch is you've got a bit of adjustment.
So to get that lever in the perfect position
to make it really useful to get to,
you've got 10 mil left or right on that clamp.
Another nice feature of this shifter
is it's really easy to take apart and work on.
You've got two bolts holding on that lever,
and there're four holes on that casing.
And then all the inner workings
come apart really easily, (air pops)
so you can degrease 'em, clean 'em up, relube 'em,
and get 'em back in there
without them all splitting into a hundred pieces.
Granted, that might be job you only need to do once a year,
but it's nice that it's so easy.
(lively electronic music)
So there we go.
First ride on the Box Components drivetrain.
I've gotta say the shifting's really crisp,
it's really quick,
it's everything you really expect
out of a proper, modern gear system, really.
It's really easy to set up.
Just bolt the mech on, set your limit screws as normal.
Just like all wide-range cassettes,
I think you've got to play around
with that B-tension screw a little bit,
just to get that mech
far enough away from the cassette to work properly.
I like the fact that you can move the shifter around,
left and right a little bit,
and, I've got to say, after about two minutes,
I really got used to that system
of pushing in that way to go down the block.
If you can't get used to that,
it is cross compatible as well with Shimano.
So you can put a Shimano shifter on here or vice versa.
You could also use this shifter with a Shimano rear mech.
That's nice to see 'em really plan that in,
that cross-compatibility.
More than anything, it's actually really cool
to see another manufacturer step up.
Obvious the two big players
make so many millions of drivetrains and gears
for things like touring bikes, kids bikes, road bikes.
It's pretty cool to see Box Components step up
to the highest level in mountain bikes.
And, like a lot of us, we like to be a bit individual.
It's great to have another choice.
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