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12 speed advice needed (lemmy.world)

submitted 6 months ago by Betty_Boopie to c/mtb

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So, it's about time to replace this derailleur, it's served me well but honestly the problems never really stopped with GX eagle.

I just don't know which route to take, since I run a helix cassette I could possibly jump to Shimano deoreXT for about $130 while keeping the SRAM chain. It should be compatible, but concrete information is sparce when mixing so many brands.

Even less information is available about the other option, LTWOO TX. Apparently for $50 shipped I can get a 12 speed shifter and derailleur. Every bike shop guy will tell you to steer clear of LTWOO but the stuff I've seen in person felt good quality. I can't find any food reviews on the TX group and even aliexpress shows maybe a dozen orders between multiple vendors. Really my biggest gripe with them is that spare parts seem to be impossible to find, everything seems to be disposable instead of rebuildable.

As far as I can tell there's no ultra reliable mechanical 12speed. Shimano is probably the best I can afford, but the mismatched parts are likely to lead to issues. LTWOO would save me enough to upgrade my brakes but I have no idea if it's just going to be a pain in the ass or actually usable. Honestly I really don't want to buy another eagle derailleur. From day 1 I've had nonstop issues, yet it's the option that makes the most sense to me.

If anyone has real experience with 12 speed outside of the usual setups your knowledge would be greatly appreciated. Sorry for the ramble.

TLDR:

Just replace the derailleur ($100)
Upgrade to Shimano ($130)
(Maybe) downgrade To LTWOO ($50)

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 months ago (1 children)

I have the same experience. Upgraded from a very solid but worn GX 11 spd set to a GX Eagle and ot was always very sensitive and finicky.

I've been looking at the Box 9 spd with an 11-50 cassette, but it's hard to buy in europe

[–] Betty_Boopie 2 points 6 months ago

I've been lucky enough to demo box's prime9 and absolutely loved it. It was only for an hour but it shifted great and I genuinely did not miss the extra gears. Idk exactly how reliable it is long term, but it definitely felt better than GX eagle.

The only thing holding me back from throwing prime9 on is that the cassettes are HG hub only, and this wheel is XD. When I got the helix I was so close to just swapping the entire wheel for an HG hub and going for box. It was just too expensive to swap so much of my drivetrain when the wheels and hubs are perfectly good. Hope you can find it in europe or demo a setup for yourself, if I could run box I absolutely would.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 months ago (1 children)

What issues did you have? It may be something different than derailleur itself and changing/upgrading may not help.

[–] Betty_Boopie 2 points 6 months ago

The bushings on this derailleur are pretty worn, the clutch is probably 80% of what it used to be, and the B-bolt absolutely needs to be replaced. It just annoys me that the B-bolt is $30 for the X01 version and the bushings push it close to the price of an entire derailleur. It's possible to reuse it, but after so many miles I think it's finally earned it's rest.

But even when it was performing it's best I was always having to adjust cable tension or deal with problem gears. Probably my biggest issue has always been he lower limit adjustment, it always finds a way to need re-aligning and I've ruinied spokes with it jumping over. It's just a very fiddly system, I've literally gone through tires before needing to adjust my derailleurs on my 2x10 road bike. I can barely get through a long ride without touching the barrel on GX. Even with a fresh hanger, chain, and cassette I could never get GX to the point where I could trust it like other groupsets.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (1 children)

had same dilema, now running singlespeed (30:20)

for the moment: I'll never turn back to derailleurs

[–] Betty_Boopie 3 points 6 months ago

Single speed would be nice, but I struggle with my local hills even with that big ol' dinner plate of a 50t.

It would liven up the rear end of this hardtail quite a bit, and it's definitely something I have in mind for the future. But for now, I'm kinda stuck trying to make the most out of this XD driver wheelset.