How do you like what you bought your ebike last week?

[speedkills]

I'm often curious how people are getting along with their latest mods to their bikes. In the same spirit as What did you buy your ebike this week? - EMTB Forums I'm creating this thread as a place to write short thoughts on whatever parts or mods are on your mind that aren't worthy of a full review.

This is also a good thread to ask people about their experiences with a product you are considering. They might not have time or motivation to write a proper review, but not mind answering a question or two about it.

 

[speedkills]

I'll start with a few recent changes I have made to my bike.

Onyx rear hub: I love this thing but I would, as I'm someone that is annoyed by that whirring sound when coasting that some others love. Also, the ratcheting through tech sections is top notch. Would buy again.

 

[speedkills]

SRAM AXS Dropper: I'm enjoying this as I have always been a seat height fiddler, 20 years ago I was the guy who would jump off the bike real quick to tweak the seat height half an inch way too often to get it juuuuust right. 15 years ago I was the only person I knew riding a dropper post, even at Whistler, BC where you would see every part imaginable. Given that background, what I like most about the AXS is that it makes tiny adjustments much easier/more precise when compared to the dropper that came on my 2020 Levo Comp. I can just tap the button and get a 5-10mm drop or raise which I found distracting on my old dropper. I wouldn't list this as a must have for anyone due to the price for what you get, but I am and always have been super finicky about seat height so I'm happy with it. It seems a nearly perfect product to me, but I can see room for one small future enhancement, if SRAM put in a travel measurement device internally, then instead of timing the raise/drop to get the height you want, I could see pairing it with a shifter and having the up/down buttons trigger the seat to drop or raise to the next pre-selected height, which you could program with the app.

Also, not having the cable for the dropper is a nice little bonus, but if they made a cable version that actuated as nicely for half the price or less, that would be what I would recommend to any of my friends. The operation of it is so nice I find myself using it about twice as often as I did with my previous cable operated unit, just because I will use it for small changes based on if I am on a flat, mild climb, or steep climb, where with the cable unit I mostly just changed it between steep downhill and everything else as I found it tricky to get it juuuust where I wanted it while riding. That could definitely be down to my lack of coordination.

 

[speedkills]

AXS rear derailleur: Not much to say about this one. Shifting is perfect, but so is a dialed in cabled rear derailleur. The most interesting part so far is actually the shifter, which is a little big and bulky which I'm not a fan of. Two things I do really like about it though are the ability to adjust trim on the fly, which is a feature you will rarely use, but is quite nice for those first few minutes of setup after installing it, and shifting with my index finger instead of my thumb, which I find myself doing quite a bit and was totally unexpected.

They say there are 3 shift levers, but it really turns out there is a thumb lever that is in a Y shape, with your thumb fitting into the Y and you can press up or down to shift, and then a paddle that reaches forward you can press down on with your index finger. What I ended up doing unconsciously was also pulling up on that lever with my index finger, which gives me the ability to shift up or down with it. When you do that you aren't covering the brake which I normally do, but there are times where I ride with my hands on top of the bars, not wrapped around (usually mild long boring inclines) and in those situations I don't bother to cover the brake, and being able to shift with my index finger just feels right since I don't have my thumb wrapped around to reach the shifter.

This is one of those luxuries I just wanted to try out, and while I like it, If I had 3 bikes I couldn't see myself buying one of these for each bike, compared to the onyx rear hub which I definitely would put on each bike, so personally the rear derailleur rates less bang for the buck compared to the rear hub and dropper post for me.

 

[p3eps]

SRAM AXS Dropper: I'm enjoying this as I have always been a seat height fiddler, 20 years ago I was the guy who would jump off the bike real quick to tweak the seat height half an inch way too often to get it juuuuust right. 15 years ago I was the only person I knew riding a dropper post, even at Whistler, BC where you would see every part imaginable. Given that background, what I like most about the AXS is that it makes tiny adjustments much easier/more precise when compared to the dropper that came on my 2020 Levo Comp. I can just tap the button and get a 5-10mm drop or raise which I found distracting on my old dropper. I wouldn't list this as a must have for anyone due to the price for what you get, but I am and always have been super finicky about seat height so I'm happy with it. It seems a nearly perfect product to me, but I can see room for one small future enhancement, if SRAM put in a travel measurement device internally, then instead of timing the raise/drop to get the height you want, I could see pairing it with a shifter and having the up/down buttons trigger the seat to drop or raise to the next pre-selected height, which you could program with the app.

Also, not having the cable for the dropper is a nice little bonus, but if they made a cable version that actuated as nicely for half the price or less, that would be what I would recommend to any of my friends. The operation of it is so nice I find myself using it about twice as often as I did with my previous cable operated unit, just because I will use it for small changes based on if I am on a flat, mild climb, or steep climb, where with the cable unit I mostly just changed it between steep downhill and everything else as I found it tricky to get it juuuust where I wanted it while riding. That could definitely be down to my lack of coordination.

I agree - I use my AXS dropper way more than I would use my old cabled one.
The ability to drop like 1 or 2mm is great. I sit on the saddle, and just ‘tap’ the dropper button to drop the tiniest amount.

I ride with my saddle very high, which is great for roads and fire roads. On a bumpy trail, I like to lower just a fraction to give myself a little bit more stability. Same with technical climbs. Just a few mm to make me feel more planted. I’d struggle to get this right with a cabled post, but a tap on the trigger is spot on.

Battery seems to last forever (mine is currently on charge for the 3rd time since owning - and I’ve had it since the end of March and done about 700miles!).
I’d definitely buy one for any future bikes... or the newer version if that happens!

 

[speedkills]

SRAM AXS ios app: It's pretty crap. Doesn't let you change settings like shifter trim on the phone, only look at it which is odd so you could for example record the trim for your derailleur and then if you broke and had to replace it with a new one, you would have to manually set it the same and use the phone to verify it, but couldn't actually just restore the setting.

That and it is super fond of telling me over and over that I cannot add components to my bike, that they need to be part of the same system, yet with no instructions I can see on how to add them to the same system. I mean I understand some people or shops will have multiple AXS bikes, but I would have thought their programmers could have optimized for what I believe has to be by far the most common case, a person with only one bike with AXS components. Instead they have made this frustratingly difficult.

 

[speedkills]

Now someone else post a mini-review. And no, I don't want to hear "just stop trying to make how do you like what you bought for your bike last week happen".

 

[Beekeeper]

Bought a half inch wrench but it made me feel really annoyed..

got delivered to my neighbour by mistake yesterday ?

For a moment I thought my ‘half inch’ had been ‘half inched’

 

[Beekeeper]

I’m liking the new front grill on my bike.
looks just like a Jaguar S type

 

[Beekeeper]

Bad ass dude. Does it hold a rocket for a little extra boost?

It has air conditioning ?

 

[Beekeeper]

Ohhh so the grill is a filter so it doesn’t send a hornet to your nuts.

??

 

[Nicho]

It has air conditioning ?
View attachment 38074

How fast do you have to pedal before you start to lift off the saddle?

 

[Norcalsl]

Love my AXS shifter and derailleur. Precise and effortless every time. I'm done with messing around with a cable.

 

[Singletrackmind]

AXS rear derailleur: Not much to say about this one. Shifting is perfect, but so is a dialed in cabled rear derailleur. The most interesting part so far is actually the shifter, which is a little big and bulky which I'm not a fan of. Two things I do really like about it though are the ability to adjust trim on the fly, which is a feature you will rarely use, but is quite nice for those first few minutes of setup after installing it, and shifting with my index finger instead of my thumb, which I find myself doing quite a bit and was totally unexpected.

They say there are 3 shift levers, but it really turns out there is a thumb lever that is in a Y shape, with your thumb fitting into the Y and you can press up or down to shift, and then a paddle that reaches forward you can press down on with your index finger. What I ended up doing unconsciously was also pulling up on that lever with my index finger, which gives me the ability to shift up or down with it. When you do that you aren't covering the brake which I normally do, but there are times where I ride with my hands on top of the bars, not wrapped around (usually mild long boring inclines) and in those situations I don't bother to cover the brake, and being able to shift with my index finger just feels right since I don't have my thumb wrapped around to reach the shifter.

This is one of those luxuries I just wanted to try out, and while I like it, If I had 3 bikes I couldn't see myself buying one of these for each bike, compared to the onyx rear hub which I definitely would put on each bike, so personally the rear derailleur rates less bang for the buck compared to the rear hub and dropper post for me.

SRAM just released a new style

AXS rear derailleur: Not much to say about this one. Shifting is perfect, but so is a dialed in cabled rear derailleur. The most interesting part so far is actually the shifter, which is a little big and bulky which I'm not a fan of. Two things I do really like about it though are the ability to adjust trim on the fly, which is a feature you will rarely use, but is quite nice for those first few minutes of setup after installing it, and shifting with my index finger instead of my thumb, which I find myself doing quite a bit and was totally unexpected.

They say there are 3 shift levers, but it really turns out there is a thumb lever that is in a Y shape, with your thumb fitting into the Y and you can press up or down to shift, and then a paddle that reaches forward you can press down on with your index finger. What I ended up doing unconsciously was also pulling up on that lever with my index finger, which gives me the ability to shift up or down with it. When you do that you aren't covering the brake which I normally do, but there are times where I ride with my hands on top of the bars, not wrapped around (usually mild long boring inclines) and in those situations I don't bother to cover the brake, and being able to shift with my index finger just feels right since I don't have my thumb wrapped around to reach the shifter.

This is one of those luxuries I just wanted to try out, and while I like it, If I had 3 bikes I couldn't see myself buying one of these for each bike, compared to the onyx rear hub which I definitely would put on each bike, so personally the rear derailleur rates less bang for the buck compared to the rear hub and dropper post for me.

SRAM just released a new version shifter lever to replace the "paddle" that comes stock in the AXS Controller.

 

[Norcalsl]

SRAM just released a new style

SRAM just released a new version shifter lever to replace the "paddle" that comes stock in the AXS Controller.

I've got the AXS derailleur and will probably be replacing the "paddle" controller with the newly-designed one. Obviously Specialized was getting complaints about the paddle functionality. It's not that big a deal, but I never ride with my thumb in the paddle so the design isn't optimum.

 

[Singletrackmind]

A stem cap to reply to all those e-bike haters!

 

[CodyDog]

Purchased a spare motor cover for my Levo Comp. Lots of big rocks and drops in Colorado. Guess I thought I'd be proactive for if/when I break the motor cover on a big hit.