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Archer D1X Trail systems does wireless shifting on a budget

  • Ron 

While the pandemic has put a bit of a damper on my trail time, I got to try out Archer Component’s D1X Trail system on my new All-City Electric Queen trail-focused hardtail this spring. The system offers a wireless shifting option for any 1x drivetrain for significantly less than the electronic options from SRAM and Shimano (which isn’t even wireless).

Archer bills the D1x Trail system as the ultimate upgrade for any 1x bike, and the system can work with anywhere from a 2 to 20 speed rear end. The system retails for under $400 and includes the 2 button remote and the shift box.

Breaking it Down

As noted above, the D1x Trail system has just two components – the remote and the shift box. You use your existing derailleur.

The shift box is the ‘brains’ of the system. It mounts on either the chain stay or the seat stay and uses a short shift cable (with housing) to connect to your derailleur. Positioning can be pretty flexible, and my experience in installation was to place it where you can get the best, shortest connection to the derailleur with minimum bend in the housing.

 

The shift box is attached to chain or seatstays with strong plastic straps and alloy clamps on the body of the unit.

 

To install the shift box, you remove a rubber cable cover, insert your shift cable and then mount the unit to the bike. For me, it took some fiddling to get the rubber cable cover back into the proper place before mounting it to the bike, making me worry a bit about water getting in the system. It’s probably best to install the two batteries into the shift box before mounting it to the bike as well (make sure that you’ll be able to get them back out for recharging).

The shift box mounts to the stay using two stiff retention straps and small clamps to hold the whole thing together. I used a Park Tool Fourth Hand tool to ensure that I had the straps as tight as possible before tightening the clamps. Once the shift box is in place, the run a short bit of housing from the shift box to the derailleur and tighten the cable down as you normally would.

The remote attaches via a SRAM Matchmaker clamp. Even though I am using Magura brakes, I was able to get a good position for the unit.

Up at the handlebar, you can remove your shifter and replace it with the remote. The remote is basically just two switches and a battery mounted for actuation with your thumb. The remote can be ordered in light action or heavier action versions. I went with the heavier action models as I like a firm feel.

The D1x Trail system now allows micro adjustment to the system right at the remote. More about that later.

Since I already had my shifter on a SRAM Matchmaker clamp, it was easy enough to pop the cabled shifter off and install the remote.

Putting it Together

With both components of the system installed, the next step was to make everything talk to each other. I downloaded and installed the Archer Components app from the Apple app store (Android version also available) and paired to the shift box via Bluetooth.

The app can be configured to shift anywhere from 8 to 20 speeds and also provides access to other shift options like a ‘get me home’ gear and multi-gear shifting.

Once I told it my number of speeds, then it just came down to fine tuning the shift points using the app. With each cog, the app gives you the option to do macro or micro movements to dial in the shift. I started with the smallest cog, ensuring that the system was taking up any cable slack before going from there. The system can move the shift points in increments as small as .25mm! All in all, it took less than 5 minutes to get the bike shifting cleanly from gear to gear.

The instructions included with the unit look to be a little outdated, by the way. Especially with regards to the app and micro-adjustment of the unit. More on that later.

Looking at other reviews of the system, it seems like the Android version of the app may be more up to date than the iPhone version. I saw options for changing the function of the remote buttons (which button shifts up or down), and for a ‘dump’ option that shifts to the highest or lowest gear with a long hold of the shift button. None of these were mentioned on Archer’s site or in their manuals or videos.

On The Trail

With everything installed and working on the work stand, it was time to head to the trail.

While it took a little bit of time for my brain to adjust to the remote and which button did what, I was soon heading down the trail.

The initial experience was great. The system moved solidly, if a tad slowly, through the gears and there were no missed shifts or grinding. Throughout subsequent rides, as I grew more accustomed to the system, I grew to like it even more. While the shifts were not speedy, they were consistent and it made every ride a little more fun.

Then I crashed.

It was a muddy day and I was attempting to navigate a wet skinny across a boggy section of trail when I went down on the right side. When I got back up, cleaned myself off and tried to bridge back to my riding companions, the bike was in the highest gear and shifting was not taking place. When I got back to my friends, I discovered that the shift cable came loose from the derailleur.  That’s on me. I was able to do a trailside fix to reattach the cable, but shifting was laggy and inconsistent.

When I launched the app to try and fix the issue, the shift box and remote were not showing up there. I remembered how to use the micro-adjust with the remote to do some small adjustments using there, and it got me home, at least.

Back in the shop, I again tried to connect to the shift box in the app and initially could not get it to show up. After visiting Archer’s website, I was reminded that there is a specific order to power off the shift box, launch the app and connect before making adjustments. Once I got everything recalibrated, I was back in action for more rides.

Battery charging is easy enough. I just put the bike back up on the stand, tilted it forward a bit and popped the batteries back out.

Who’s It For?

I’m a fairly early adopter of bike technology, so part of me would say that the Archer D1x Trail system is for anyone, but I also recognize that there are luddites that cling to their triple chainrings and toeclips with a death grip that would dismiss electronic shifting with ardor and ride off in their jorts with their nose in the air.

All that said, if you’re already on a 1x system, the Archer D1x will make your riding better. Easy, smooth shifting is something that everyone desires and this system makes it possible. With careful installation, you can be riding smoothly for up to 80 hours.

Tags: 1x, alloy, app, Back, Bend, Bicycle gears, bicycles, bike, bluetooth, brakes, chainring, Components, custom, cycling, Derailleur gears, Hand, home, ID, iPhone, light, Look, mount, mountain biking, Multi, power, Rubber, Shimano, speed, Sports equipment, SRAM, SRAM Corporation, technology, Time, Trail, Transmission
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