*{Drewitors note: deliberate choice of heftily-hyperbolic** title}
**{Drewitors note: as relates to the hyperbolical not hyperbolas}
There’s nothing ‘shifty’ about BikeYoke’s Shifty V2 derailleur pulley. Trade something plasticky and frictiony, rotating directly on a steel shaft, for something made of anodized aluminum spinning on a cartridge bearing, and even without the bling factor of seven colours to choose from, I imagine everyone will accept on its face that there’s some level of performance upgrade happening.
Like so many nice little upgrades, title aside, BikeYoke’s aluminum pulley wheels require a fair few shifts under normal conditions {or a penchant for riding in the muckiest muck*} to deliver performance value. It’s there for the taking, though, if you’d like to amortize your life.
Just keep shifting until it pays for itself!
*{I imagine that BikeYoke ships the lion’s share of these to the UK?}
I’ve not ridden the Shifty V2 pulley. They’re designed for cable-actuated T-Type derailleurs, SRAM 70 & 90, and I don’t have one. But I have many, many hours on the original model, for 1×11 and Eagle 1×12 derailleurs, and we can assume the products are the same-same-but-different.
My hours are on a properly used derailleur, with hundreds of hours of riding on it before it was mine, and whoa, what a difference from stock. Plus, it’s never degraded since. Plus, the Shifty is wearing well to the extent that in the case of some smashy-smashy I could certainly move it across to another compatible SRAM derailleur.
[Aside] I have a few friends who have long insisted on GX-cable derailleurs over the increased spend on XO/XX, even though their hours on the bike resulted in a steady stream of sloppy shifting. The Shifty can easily be moved over to a fresh derailleur.[/Aside]
Anywho, I sat down to write something quick about the Shifty and Shifty V2, since I’m wild for widgets and this is a wicked one. And also because I like BikeYoke stuff, and the new Shifty launched this week. But the whole time I’ve been typing this, I’ve been thinking about bicycle stems. I am so sick of shitty {not Shifty} bicycle stems.
I understand that at some point, the budget is the budget. SRAM could have chosen to spec an anodized aluminum, cartridge bearing, roller on their cable-actuated derailleurs. One could argue that for the price of XO & XX 1×11 & 1×12 derailleurs, for the 3-gram weight boost, they should have. But they didn’t, and so rather than an inexpensive OE upgrade, we have an amortize-your-life-level widget from BikeYoke.
Similarly, wow, have I ever tightened the shitty bolts on a lot of shitty stems in my lifetime. But lately, the performance bicycle price points at which you can buy a stem that won’t stay tight after a year are shocking. And some of these stems are adorned with brand names that were once synonymous with a rideable range of quality products, even at lower price points.
Now, I’m primed for this conversation, having spent days discussing the disappointment of shrinkflation as it related to The Clairebarian’s Halloween haul. The price of the bike is going up, or the contents of the bike are coming down. Shitty stems, cheap cranks {a very popular way to save money that ends up costing the owner treasure down the trail}, cheap OE tires that look the part but last forever {not a compliment}, it’s like opening your bag of Swedish Fish to find out it was a surprisingly small catch, even though the net is the same size.
Yeah, so. Not the first time I’ve pushed the idea that building a bike from the frame up can present a better value for plenty of riders. Min-max your own priorities. Roll out of the shop without any replace-now-grade components. The best version of your ideal bicycle that you can afford.
But there’s always a counterargument for the value of complete rigs, and right now, with all the deals readily available, buying a full bike and upgrading a few key shortcuts is very viable. Pick up the best tires for your local trails, boutique the rear hub, buy a nice pair of pedals, maybe grab some SLX or XT cranks, and, depending on the price point and application, you could even consider more powerful, better-feeling brakes. If it’s a fresh SRAM-70/90 bike you’re planning to keep for an age, consider buying a Shifty V2 derailleur pulley upgrade.
And, of course, there’s the stem. It holds your handlebars to your fork steerer tube. The bolts shouldn’t stretch every time you put a hex key on them. The stem-on-steerer clamp shouldn’t deform at the printed torque spec. It shouldn’t creak. You should be able to torque it a near-endless number of cycles without it having a hard time gripping the bar or steerer. At either clamp, it’s a key component in bicycle control, and a common enough point of issue as to warrant buying a nice one.
And, to a way higher level than adding a fun little bit of anodized bling to your rear derailleur, a nice stem speaks for your whole bicycle. It could be anodized black, beauty waiting for a closer look. It could be anodized any-other-colour, reaching out to grab some eyeballs. It could be forged, it could be machined, it could be brazed, even.
Oof, took a while to arrive, I know, sorry. But that concludes my stem talk. I mean, piece about Shifty V2!
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