Bike Yoke Shifty: SRAM Derailleur Upgrade - Review
BikeYoke's Shifty guide-roller replaces the standard plastic item near the top of SRAM's 11 and 12-speed rear derailleurs.
BikeYoke's Shifty is a beautifully crafted aluminium pulley that spins on a sealed, stainless steel ball bearing. Shifty replaces the plastic pulley which guides the cable around the back of SRAM's eleven and twelve-speed rear derailleurs. It looks sharp and it actually improves the feel and reliability of the shifting process. Its maker claims that the simple plastic pulley, which rotates on a metal axle, creates excessive friction that is compounded by dirt and grime. Replacing the stock item with a Shifty pulley is said to provide smoother, more consistent shifts in all conditions and weather. Bike Yoke's Shifty pulley is sold in either anodized gold or black and costs around $35 USD.
Shifty Details:
• Purpose: Reduce friction and increase accuracy
• Construction: Stainless steel sealed ball bearing, 6061 T6 aluminum pulley
• Direct replacement for standard pulley
• Installation: Uses existing SRAM hardware
• Colors: Anodized black or gold
• MSRP: Around $35 USD
• Contact: BikeYoke
• Purpose: Reduce friction and increase accuracy
• Construction: Stainless steel sealed ball bearing, 6061 T6 aluminum pulley
• Direct replacement for standard pulley
• Installation: Uses existing SRAM hardware
• Colors: Anodized black or gold
• MSRP: Around $35 USD
• Contact: BikeYoke
BikeYoke's Shifty aluminum upgrade alongside SRAM's standard plastic pulley.
Features and Performance
Truthfully, I chuckled when I received my Shifty guide-roller from BikeYoke. Really? A $35 bling pulley that probably weighed more than twice as much as the plastic one that was operating perfectly well. Each time I saw that gold-anodized gem glinting in its zip-lock bag, however, I couldn't help but think, "That thing would look so sweet on my Eagle derailleur."
Two 3mm Allen keys are all you'll need to install the pulley.
Shifty's diameter was identical. The derailleur remained in tune.
Okay, so I caved and installed the damn thing, which was stupid easy. The two pulleys can be switched without removing the derailleur cable. You could probably ace the job with the rear wheel removed and the derailleur in place. I removed the changer from the frame because I wanted to shoot pictures. Two 3mm Allen keys were required to unthread the sleeve nut and retaining screw. The housing then popped off, along with the plastic pulley. I used the Shifty pulley to push the derailleur cable back inside the housing and reinstalled the hardware. Boom!
So, I didn't expect much in the way of performance. I cared most about how great my gold pulley would look with my gold cassette and against the gold highlights of my Eagle derailleur. But, it did perform better. I rode around on three test bikes, each equipped with SRAM 12-speed transmissions, with run-times that ranged from three weeks to over one year. The Shifty-equipped changer felt smoother at the lever and shifted more crisply in two out of three cases. (There was no discernible difference between the new bike and my Shifty upgraded machine.)
Pinkbike's Take:
 | You don't need a BikeYoke Shifty, but after you see one mounted to a SRAM changer, I'll bet you'll be lusting after it. Noting that my well-broken-in, Shifty-equipped derailleur's performance was on par with a brand new SRAM Eagle transmission, here's the takeaway: If you regularly cleaned and lubricated your stock plastic pulley, it would probably continue to perform almost as well. Or, you could spend $35, install a Shifty and never think about it again. Reliability? Aftermarket aluminum chain-tension pulleys spin perfectly for years, so I expect my gold Shifty to be smooth and maintenance-free at least for the life of the derailleur. |
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You will miss it if you don't give a try to this part. Once I put it on one of my bikes, I replaced all 6 I have in my herd...
Feel better?
f*ck off pinkbike!
Tucked away and straight as it should be.
What are talking about?
I have a Sram version too, but it costs twice as much.
Oh really? Good point. Very insightful. Thanks for that feedback.
My m8000 was overtight from the factory, I loosened it and it's been better than the 10 speed xt clutches, for me. I bet 95% of them don't get checked.
"Hey OneUp... wanna do me a favor?"
*shipping, anodizing and service fees not included.
We didn´t get the exact shade of the Eagle, but to be fair, it is really hard to match anodizing colors, if they come from different suppliers and when applied on different materials.
Even the Eagles differ in shades (probably not that much, but they do from batch to batch).
Anyway, the new Shifties have a slightly different gold, however, also not 100% to the Eagle one.
Like golden eagle titaniumgun.com/coating-services
Right, I forgot, that the Eagle cage is made from steel. ;-)
I think everyone knows, what I meant.
Even Eagle cage and cassette have different shades of gold.
No doubt that we´re far off, though ;-)
Actually I think these upgrades are good for the SRAM OEM market. Instead of customers being put off by a certain pricy but still not quite there component, customers know they can still get the complete bike and upgrade the components instead of completely replace them.
That said, it still kind of sucks. Those Eagle rear mechs are supposed to be the top level stuff (according to SRAM). Getting it up to this Bike Yoke level would maybe only increase price by 15 usd or so, now you need a 35 usd upgrade.
Wonder why they’d do that?
Protip: pick your evil...
From my experience they are also significantly more reliable, but that's a subjective line item.
Cheers to Bike Yoke by the way. I love their dropper post and it is great that the small guys can show the mighty SRAM how to build a reliable derailleur!
PS @pierson 100: I run Shimano XTR and XTR (shifter) + XT on my two MTB bike. Cassette is SRAM 1042 or the exceptional 11 speed Garbaruk 1048.
Imagine shaving 2-3 times a day (making your face look like you're a meth-head) because you're worried your facial hair will grow backwards into your brain if you don't shave.
The reason for the smoother feeling shifting? Easy, metal doesn't give or flex near as much as plastic. So when you have heavy cable load with bike and rider seated, the aluminum pully keeps the cable firm in place and directly straight with zero give over the plastic pully.
forums.mtbr.com/attachments/drivetrain-shifters-derailleurs-cranks/242798d1173820270-avid-rollamajig-derailleur-cable-device-avid.jpg
But PB advertisement doesn't pays itself
Because you are being a dick with the way you act right now.
1. First of all you have no idea of prices for such a little product. For example those ittle bearings are pretty sensitive to a pressfit, that is just a little too tight. Try to find good quality stainless bearings for your 1USD. Also: The actual Shifty body needs to be extremely precise in inner diameter, otherwise the bearing will noticeably spin roughly.
2. There are two more anodized aluminum flanged reducers inside the bearing to generate the correct spacing and width of the Shifty. Those also cost quite some money. Even If you produced in tens of thousands of units, you would not get somewhere close to where you mentioned. And we produce in way smaller quantites, and assemble and pack (yes this thing needs to be assembled and packed) by ourselves.
Even if SRAM implemented those parts in their RDs, it would cost them more than that.
3. The official price is actually 26.81€ in our webshop and the price includes shipping to anywhere in the world.
Although it does not really take a ot of R&D, it still takes a lot of time to drwa those little pulleys and have samples made, discuss with the suppliers and do that for several days and weeks, until you get the first finished product.
30USD might not be "cheap" for such a little part, but we also want to have a little benefit from it and not work just for fun´s sake.
And please tell me, where we place advertisement, that justifies your words.
So please: Just STFU, if you just want to troll!
I can be a dick, but if someone is nice to me, I will treat him the same way.
By the way: We´ve been selling the Shifty for over a year, already. Cannot complain.
the Shifty is listed 31€ (26.85€ w/o taxes i guess) , but shipping IS NOT included, so extra 5.95€ that the customer pays.
I might have exagerated but hey, I know what bearings cost, and I can imagine the prices you get.
No way the whole thing cost more than $3.5 each to produce, The only logical reason for assembling yourselves is you save a little bit more, not because you need all the control in such a delicate process (that takes seconds). BUt hey, this is some extra bling for people with $1000 drivetrains, so go ahead.
(PS: not hating on your company, your other stuff looks sound, but please don't get so offended if someone points this is overpriced AF)
I did not say you ARE a d***. I said, you were behaving like a dick in this matter, and that is just what you did.
I know I am person, who is not always politically correct (as many would think it should be like "customer is king"), but I am for sure not a person who would swallow everything. Just because a user is a potential customer, does not mean, he can throw anything at me, that he wants, especially not, when "protected" through internet´s anonymity.
I am honest to our customers and I am there for them, whenever thy are in need, I think a lot of customers would prove that sentence right.
Anyway, I see a person as a person. I do not see any person as a potential customer or potential $$$ when someone posts something about one of our products, so I don´t feel like I have to touch him with silky gloves.
What goes around comes around. If someone is rude to me, I am rude back.
It might sound strange to many at first, but this is the way I treat people. I am always polite, but if someone BS me, then I will BS back.
I don´t want to have a business that is based on a false face. I´d rather not sell a product to a customer, who is not convinced about our product, than having to forcefully convince him.
And you are wrong again. Please tell that shipping is not included to the hundreds of customers, that ordered the Shifty without paying a single penny for shipping. Shipping is free wordwide from orders over 20€.
Why would you even say, I am lying? Please...
Shipping is free on the Shifty and everything over 20€. Period. You call me a liar?
Also, the parts cost is more than the 3.5 USD, whic you assumed. You have no idea, which materials we use, nor do you know which bearing supplier we chose. Yeah, you can get bearings for very very cheap, but there is huge differences in quality.
Then:
The reason, why we assemble them by ourselves is not, that we want to save some extra money, I´ll tell you why we do this:
Those tiny bearings react very sensitive on pressure from the outer rings. If the press-fit is just slightly too much, then you can feel that the bearing will run a little bit rough. We want every single Shifty to run perfecty smooth, even if this small roughness would no affect the function at all. Probably most of the customers wouldn´t even notive this roughness, but I would.
If we had them assembled outside, people would not really care about this small flaw and just accept it, pack it and send it to us. It is impossible to control such a quality, if you don´t do it by yourself.
That´s the reason.
Your turn. Looking forward to hearing from you about my "free shipping" lie...
Thanks for backing me in this case. 3 aluminum machined parts, all of them anodized while one of them additionally laser etched and one high quality stainless stell bearing do not fall from a machine for free.
And also not for 3.5 USD. ;-)
38€ will get you not 1, but 2 pulley wheels, shipping included depending on the shop. They have quality bearings, smaller parts, laser etching and are anodized but they're not made in Taiwan, they're made in the UK, paying UK wages and taxes, still everyone is having a profit.
You'll never recognize the shifty is overpriced (no one ever does) and you'll never convince me of the opposite.
Take care.
Also the MSRP of the Hope Jockey wheels is about 45€, not 38€. Also it does not include world-wide shipping. Also it is made from different materials. But hey, again, I do not want to discuss anymore, I am not a missionary and I do not have to justify myself in front of you.
But at least I´d like to ask for one thing: Not being called a liar, when you are making up things that are obviously not true.
if it walks like a dick, quacks like a dick, it's a dick.
you sound like a psychologist to boot....
Would be less confusing if you capitalized "no" in ShimaNO.
Ha.
Oh yea, back in the days of clear plastic grip shift'rs. Bass worms were a necessary upgrade to make SRAM shifters work
Sincerely Your dentist
If you do notice the pressure becomes firmer to press the gear lever then you have 3 options;
1) purchase this gimmick & renew cables (costly)
2) clean the original roller wheel & clean cables (FREE)
3) MAN UP! its a little lever your thumb pushes! since when has ANY shift lever became so painful to push that its ruined your ride?
I rest my case.
You can read it in our article description and video.
but that's just me soooo...