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X-Shifter’s universal wireless shifting kit goes live

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At Interbike, we spotted X-Shifter roaming the grounds with their wireless shifting upgrade kit that turns any derailleur into a wireless, quasi-electronic shifting one. Whether it’s for road or mountain bike, anything from base level up to premium units, X-Shifter connects to them and gives you control with a single thumb pad to manage both front and rear shifts.

Since we first saw them, they’ve added a road specific shifter unit, upgraded their software to include multi-shifts, optional control of both front and rear shifting in an optimized sequence for you, and added in a few more customization options that could be coming soon…

The product will be available in Single and Dual versions, plus combos where you combine two Single units with one shifter. These give you options for setting them up on 1x and 2x, road or mountain, or even tandems, recumbents, and other types of bicycles. They can even be used to control cable-actuated dropper posts. The Dual has two separate servos inside to independently pull two different cables, one for front and one for rear.

xshifter-universal-wireless-bicycle-shifting-upgrade-kit2

New since Interbike is the polished finish shown in the top image, plus the new road bike shift button that provides a much more integrated appearance on drop handlebars. Click the image above to enlarge for details and claimed weights.

Check our original post for video of it in action and our first impressions, then hit up their Kickstarter campaign to nab one for as little as $199 for a Single and $249 for a Dual. They claim production is ready to roll as soon as they’re funded with delivery in March 2017. As for stretch goals and future customization through the accompanying app, check their Facebook page and look for the poll where you can tell them which features are most important to you. Suggestions thus far include things like saved settings for different wheels/cassettes, being able to program specific multi shift patterns and more.

Lastly, they’re working on an improved mount that’ll use a sleeve that bolts into Di2 battery holes to provide a cleaner, more long-lasting mounting solution than the current zip ties.

Xshifter.com

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18 Comments
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me
me
7 years ago

Rule!

mudrock
mudrock
7 years ago

I was getting tired of my bar-end shifters anyway.

MaruadingWalrus
MaruadingWalrus
7 years ago

I think my three speed fixed gear needs wireless electronic shifting….

Nash
Nash
7 years ago

Wouldnt adjusting your derailer be easier than having this thing on your bike.

SImenf
SImenf
7 years ago

I like the idea of user configurable stuff like this. The shorter wire should make it less prone to stretch and misalignment over time. The only thing it doesn’t have, as far as I understand, is autotune of the gears. Cool that it allows you to operate cable based droppers as well – on the same remote.

whatever
whatever
7 years ago

Hope this takes off. Put pressure on the big boys prices. Have been saying the circuit boards are cheap, and so are servos, and a couple good engineers should be able to make a very workable system fairly easily.

King County
King County
7 years ago

As some have said, this has a lot of specialty uses without buying a new group; eliminating complicated cable routing on full susp bikes; add external gearing cleanly to a cable guideless bike / single speed; shifting from odd handlebars/ bullhorns,etc. Only thinking that this is solely a replacement for Etap/Di2, is short sighted. If I was this company, I would market it with that segmented aluminum cable housing. Probably overkill, but people will perceive it as being better.

Callum
Callum
7 years ago

Make a Push-Pull unit for a Rohloff and you can have my money.

Alee
7 years ago
Reply to  Callum
Domitarou
Domitarou
7 years ago

Probably the genius people in this company already thought about this, but I am thinking that…
If it has some kind of a feature to save and load “Profile”, for example you have Shimano 9 speed cassette with Campy 10 speed rear mec, then the “Profile A” will work, and if you have old Suntour 7 speed free wheel with Superb Pro, then the “Profile B” will work… and everyone can post, share and mutually use their profile with information of combination via apps… that’ll be fantastic.

Tim
Tim
7 years ago
Reply to  Domitarou

Yes well spotted. This should be easily achieved via the app. They would need to set up the app so that you configure which derailleur and leverage ratio it has works with which cassette and adjust the cable pull appropriately

Huffytoss
Huffytoss
7 years ago
Reply to  Domitarou

Based on his videos, it doesn’t use profiles. Once you set up the derailleur, you go into the app and tell it the shift to the extremes so it knows where the high and low are. Then you tell it the number of gears, 2 through whatever, he has confirm up to 12. It just divides the total travel by the number of gears.

Mike A
Mike A
7 years ago

I still think this is a brilliant idea.
Unlike many dodads and gizmos the industry sees each year, I see a lot of value in this.

Tim
Tim
7 years ago

This is a fantastic idea and I hope it works out for them. The real benefit here is the precision and repeatability of electronic shifting without the wear on an expensive servo built into a derailleur. I’m still lusting after etap but this costs 10% of an etap group.
Winner!

Frank
Frank
7 years ago

This looks really cool. For me, the big selling point is not that it’s electronic or wireless, it’s that I finally have a solution to multiple cassette and shifting standards on the one bike.

Paul G
7 years ago

Hi everybody, thanks for your comments.
We smashed our goal on Kickstarter in only 2 days and continuing to grow. I want to personally thank everyone that made a pledge on Kickstarter and supported us. We are so excited that this product will become a reality. There has been such an overwhelming response to the XSHIFTER which has given us direction to really improve the product in many ways.
With your feedback we have already:
1. Developed the remote control for Road bikes.
2. Developed a modular mounting system that really cleans up the appearance and robustness.
3. Proposed many new smart functions for the APP.
4. Configured dropper post actuation.

Thanks again to all the people that have provided their input and supported us.
Cheers.
Paul
http://bit.ly/xshifter1

ABWW
ABWW
7 years ago

please please please make a wireless rohloff shifter!

DaveS
DaveS
7 years ago

Interesting product. If I’m understanding the concept, this device will allow mixing different manufacture derailleurs and cassettes… like back in the pre index shifting days. This would allow a bike to be truly versatile when in need of drive train repairs.

Question. Are the pins (and other shifting ads needed for index shifting) needed for the x-shifter? This could greatly reduce the cost of the wearable parts of the drive train making this product even more appealing.

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