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I’ve got 11sp Apex on the cross/gravel bike - it’s horrid. However today I realised that if I touch the cable at the mech slightly when moving down the block the mech instantly moves (eg I’d just flicked the lever and had little response).
I’ve got full length jagwire outer with Teflon inner and a fairly clean cable run. So all i can think is that the mech spring just isn’t strong enough (b tension is correct). Does anyone know if 11sp Shimano (RX or GRX preferably, or something MTB) would work instead? Possibly with an adaptor of some sort?
hhhmmm that a no then?
Jtek Shiftmate anyone?
I don’t think sram and shimano road mechs / shifters are compatible tbh. The cassettes and chains are though.
Easier (non bodged) option is just to stick on rival or force for a better quality mech.
Either that or you’re going to have to swap shifters as well and that’s when it gets spendy.
Yeah, not compatible, and I wouldn't go down the route of adding adapters to try and sort sticky shifting as they're only going to add friction.
I've had similar problems with SRAM. If it's the hydro levers, then the shift cable routing out of the lever is appalling, and impossible to route without creating friction.
SRAM stuff is supposed to work with 1.1mm inners rather than 1.2mm inners, although this didn't solve the problem for me.
Switching from a SRAM Force 22 (non-clutch) mech to a Rival 1x clutch mech did improve things - possibly a stronger spring?
Yeah it’s 1x hydro stuff with the horrid routing.
You can hit the paddle to change gear, see the mech move a little (but not far enough) then over the space of the next 30 seconds or so watch it very, very slowly move far enough to eventually shift. Never seen anything like it.
I don’t trust them enough to believe that an upgraded mech won’t have the same spring (already a clutch mech)
Good point about the cable size, can’t remember what I got last time so would be an easy thing to try, although I’m not getting hopes up as it’s been terrible since day 1
Apex is the cheapest of cheap hydro groupsets they do, so I’d expect a more expensive mech to do the job better. Looks like 11 speed Sram mtb mechs aren’t compatible with 11 speed road - I had a quick look to see if that’s a cheaper option. But it’s not.
Looks like there’s a big jump from £50 for an Apex 1 mech to £90 ish rival 1 to £115 for Force 1.
A whole swap to GRX looks quite pricey in comparison.
I actually didn’t like my shimano 105 hydro groupset - I hate the moving brake lever to shift - maybe I’m a clutz - but from time to time I’d catch a finer on thre wrong lever as I hit the one I wanted to shift and the whole lever them flaccidly moves in with no resistance and no gear change.
In comparison I loved rival 10 speed double tap on a previous bike (rim brakes).
When I worked out the cost of swapping everything to rival or force 22 vs di2 stuff it worked out about the same cost though. So I’ve gone Ultegra Di2 hydro and it’s amazing!
Apex is the cheapest of cheap hydro groupsets they do, so I’d expect a more expensive mech to do the job better.
Not my experience, as above. Switching from Force to Rival seemed to improve things for me, and in any event, even the Apex stuff should actually work.
My wife's CX is full Rival, and is better than my Force shifter + Rival mech.
I think it's been pointed out before that whenever SRAM design something new, they seem to forget all the lessons of what's gone before. Non-hydro SRAM levers have a choice of cable routes, but when they designed the hydro stuff that went out the window and I can only assume that the person who designed the cable routing had never actually seen a road bike.
I think the end result is a system that's incredibly sensitive to cable setup, and maybe spring strength varies from mech to mech.
Shimano tend to be a bit slower to get to market (e.g. road hydro, road 1x), but it does have the advantage that it actually works. The two may be connected...
Shimano tend to be a bit slower to get to market (e.g. road hydro, road 1x), but it does have the advantage that it actually works. The two may be connected…
Erm, the initial 105 (non series) lever hydro road levers tend to self destruct where the cable pulls through the inadequately strong white guides within the lever.
I have put a 1.85 spacer behind my cassette, wouldn't shift down before, but it will shift now, although it's still slow. I would buy an upgraded Sram mech but if the cable route is rubbish , it would be a waste of money ?
That’s the catch, would be very annoying to spend the money for no gain