This new gearset from Box Components has been in development for a while (it started appearing at trade shows three years ago) but now we’ve finally had a chance to put some trail miles in on it – 330 miles, to be precise. Is it time for SRAM and Shimano to be worried or have the BMX-based company got some more work to do?
When the Box system first appeared it was 10-speed, but with both industry leaders releasing 11-speed transmissions, they had a refresh and added another click into the mix. They’ve also designed their own 11-46t cassette, but that wasn’t available at the time of testing.
A big difference with Box’s system is that there’s only one shift lever, which operates both up and downshifts. Push the dimpled alloy trigger forward and you can go down as many as four gears in a single sweep if a climb suddenly steepens. Click the forward tab of the lever – or the sharp end of the shifter if you’ve got tough thumbs – inwards into the shifter and you’ll drop into harder gears one at a time. It’s an impressively intuitive and foolproof system, which we adapted to in a couple of minutes. The action has stayed crisp and positive enough that you can feel every shift clearly, even in the rowdiest situations.
Cable threading is simple, through a port on the shifter body, and the barrel adjuster makes tension adjustment easy. The shifter sits comfortably under either SRAM or Shimano brake levers too, although some of our testers felt it was too far inboard even in the outer of the two clamping positions. At 105$, the 124g shifter is 7$ cheaper than Shimano XTR (20g lighter) and 15$ more than SRAM X1 (same weight).
Out back, the 271g, 255$ rear mech is 4g lighter than 112$ Shimano XT but 9g and 15$ lighter than SRAM X1. It uses a ‘CamClutch’ to add chain tension and, while Box advise using a chain guide, we had no chain-drop problems without one. There’s also a spring-loaded cable guide arm that’s designed to shrug off impact damage, but our sample cracked across the bottom corner after just 250 miles and without being crashed.
The bushings are loose and worn after a Yorkshire winter too, which translates into occasional ghost shifts and real problems if you pedal backwards. Because the system uses the same cable pull as Shimano you could just buy the shifter to work with a Shimano rear mech if you wanted.
HIGHS
Crisp, intuitive shifting with gear-dump option for sudden climbs
LOWS
Limited lever adjustment Our rear mech became baggy and then cracked worryingly quickly
VERDICT
Crisp, intuitive, Shimano-compatible shift potential but disappointingly fast rear mech wear/cracking
Price 360$
