Are wireless bike parts ACTUALLY worth it? (GX AXS Review)

Yikes what a terrible take on this especially considering that it’s very hard to find anyone being objective that can justify bashing this product as much as he tried to but the comments really backed up my own conclusion on this product being well worth the investment. Im left wondering why this dude bashed this product so hard with very little to no evidence to support his claims.

maybe 2025 gx axs t-type

I ride a 2012 scott scale that is 19.4 pounds, 97% custom carbon parts and the drivetrain on it is XTR crank w 36t wolftooth and a NINE speed road cassette with all sram XO 9sp stuff i got on CRC for dirt cheap. Carbon rims on a fully self built and bartered and bargained for custom for under 2000 canadian in 2015 and Ive put over 5,000 hours on that bike since. that and my all gold NS majesty are all i ride besides 24 and 20" BMX street bikes around town for fitness...

SRAM has always been all about selling riders things they could live without Shimano has always tried to play the toyota of the industry..for better or worse, usually better. Im in my 40s and have been riding thirty years everyday. We never actaully needed anything past what I have. 1x9 SRAM XO or Older Shimano ultra expensive XTR. Most people shift way more than they need to.

Want proof? Okay Ill drive my manual coupe and livestream it... notice how I only have SIX speeds? and a clutch? The woods are off road so okay 50% more gears fine but past that? overcomplicating things and adding unnecessary weight.

Im experieced as hell especially climbing straight vertical; walls with weak ass worn conti racekings, but I can tell you im not the only rider capable of not even droppign to the largets cog possible to crest that kind of climb.... its technique not about bailing out wioth a kiddy cog.

Love your content thisi snt aimed at Loamy bro its just an angry mtb industry rant.

Put anyone on my sub 20lb scott scale (anyione under 175lbs) and theyll get it. Thei bikes are wrong bc the indstry has been inflatign theidea of innovation and subbing it with the word more. More unecesary electrincs, more gears, bigger wheels even though certain tire height diffs would almost make that diff negliginle outside of the FACT they changed the standard to 27.5 for basicallyno reason. The entiore bike industry decided to copy KHS bc they werre afraid theyd take pver....or just jumped on themost lucrative bandwagon they could just tp loot the mtb market... i dunna Im a really good bike wrench so I dont have to worry about prices I anymore....ppl are selling IBIS ripleys and last years carbon trance for 2k USD so my whole rant is irrelevant too

battery necessity will always be a dealbreaker for me

I actually like it I thought I wasn’t but I really like it I’m done I’ll never go back

my opinion match your, you are absolutly right man! First gen of this unit is required so much attention and the price still too hight anyways.

Doesn't maker sense to have a long list of "Cons" when you admit your choice of cassette was causing you shifting problems. Maybe if you replaced it with a SRAM cassette you'd have a better experience.

Seems to me lot of cons are just added, just so the list is long. I don't like the mechanical GX Eagle. It shifts good for maybe 10-20 rides and then have to adjust it, after a bit it needs to be set-up completely, I end up riding with shitty shifting setup for a while before I get it to my shop. Yea I don't take care of my bike too good, it is meant to be ridden, not pampered and barely find time to wash it here and there. This would be perfect, if it ends up shifting crisp for a long time. As far as cost, I can get the GX AXS upgrade kit for 380 euros, which is pretty comparable to mechanical GX setup i would think, so it is not that expensive anymore. Shifter can get for under 90 euros I think, so it just got lot cheaper then year ago. The chain slap, there is a fix to it on the web, so I guess it is worth it then?

I'm looking to go electric for reasons out of my control. In short, my right thumb is kind of fucked and shifting into lower gears just kind of hurts all the time. I was considering the Archer system, but it shifts kind of slow. Anyway, just wanted to throw out another reason why someone might want electric shifting.

I was out riding the other day and we passed a guy pulled off to the side of the trail and it turned out his battery is died because he forgot to charge them. You can't beat mechanical

Bro, I didn't read the comments. Your video is fire!
You didn't mention that Sram could make a gear engagement indicator. Right?

I love the Box.. 😢

I’ve had GX AXS on my e-bike for only 10 rides. So far I’ve had shifting issues, battery issues (mid ride) and tuning issues. Been riding regular shifters for years and I’m 100% going back! Absolute bobbins 🙁

Feelings as a disadvantage..😂 millennials

I must say im a mechanic in a high end mountain bike shop my friends and i have been running gx axis for 3 years none of us have had a single problem the bikes have bin crashed and smashed still not a single problem. And have fitted system to many customers bikes again not a single problem . Where as cable systems have been constantly adjusted and on some e bikes with suspect cable routing is almost impossible to get working well but wit GX axis again not a single problem. I would say that the new system is no biggy as any old time mountain biker is not going to change under load after years of riding. Im from the uk we’re the weather is crap and with a good xx1 chain and not putting any oil sept GT 85 on chain we have have 2500 to 2700 miles out of a chain cassette i rest my case absolutely the best system i can think of . For the new expensive one just get old gx axis. And leave the little charger in ya car so if you do forget to charge after 5 times of riding 10 mins plugged into ya car and ya soughted for 6 hours of riding. Moose cycles mechanic London uk

Thanks for honest review

Totally biased you definitely lost a potential subscriber, I will skip your videos from now on. The fact that you never talked about shifting under load once blew me away….

An extra 60g, you sound like a coffee geek who'll tell you an extra 0.5g of coffee makes a difference to his brew lol.

I'm not a fan of "internet of things"-style unnecessary electronics like this in bikes. Mechanical systems are easier to understand and don't have too many external dependencies that affect maintenance (what operating system do you use? do you have a modern smartphone? these shouldn't be questions a biker should have to answer).
They're also a handy slippery slope for what we're already seeing in some cars, where you've got subscription services and all repairs have to be authorized so that you can't dig around in your own car because that triggers some kind of integrity check by firmware.
That also dovetails nicely into privacy. Do the smartphone apps or programs used for configuration send information about you or your build to the OEM? If not, what's the possibility that something like that may be implemented in the future? Non-electrical components can't do any of that.

If I was to ever get involved in things like this, it would be out of interest to reverse-engineer the software and protocols to find out how to tinker with them because neither shimano or sram have deigned to publish their software's source code and you'll be hard-pressed to get it working outside windows or a generic smartphone.

Imagine complaining about the price of the GX AXS set and riding with a crank like that 😂. I’m coming from a Shimano 11 spd XTR/XT setup. I recently installed rhe GX AXS set, with Sunrace Cassette (HG) and chain. It set me back by €550,- total, so yeah it’s expensive. But for me ig’s worth it. It’s so butterly smooth and fast. And you can finetune it. So all in all i’m happy. The only real con is the ergonomic of the shifter. I ordered rocker paddles to see if that works better.

I hate it when I shift gears in my car and I can no longer hear the horse neighing.

I just don't get it, a well indexed cable actuated system shifts perfectly. The extra cost and the clutch issue would drive me mad. Shimano XT with HG2 can be shifted under load and is super crisp. Would literally pay to NOT have gen1 AXS. The new UDH AXS system however, that does intrigue me.

Im a dirty rich person use $100 Bills for shit tickets so of course i love AXS who wouldn't

Loam? Why no mask? Donde Tonto? Regardless, great review, trust yer practical advice, there's enough to fix n worry about no need to overcomplicate life, thanks! 🚴

i have already own 2 replacement axs derailleurs and afterwards my wallet couldn't take it no more so i went back to tried and true cables and also i noticed there was hardly any chain slap on the cable derailleur vs the AXS it was to noisy off the back end almost sounded like a box of tools being thrown off a helicopter!

Lol it’s not a lot to deal with. I feel the feedback instantly while pedaling. And it’s really quick and dead on. I always found with Sram drivetrains especially I was always chasing keeping the shifting dead on. And routing cable housings internally is always a pain. A big hate I’ve always had is when you shifted your cable system and it didn’t shift likely because the cable is sticky. Then you had to shift back then try again or shift more gears. If you live in an area were you see various conditions, rain, mud, dust trails, the cables become issues. So I like that it’s accurate every time. Shifts are noted in my option during peddling and right away. I didn’t notice the weight gain or any adverse suspension action. I’m ok with if I have to make a micro adjust or b screw adjustment because it is mountain biking and screws get jolted and move no matter which system. Plus if you look around you can find pretty good deals on this GX AXS upgrade kit. So far I’ve been happy with it and I’m really happy to be done with cables.

Fuck no. Batteries are for vibrators.

Now I appreciate an honest opinion but saying "it doesn't work with some funky obscure cassette" is not something I'd take seriously. Most likely you'll have problems with any shifter.
Also, I get it that creating an account for this wasn't something to love, but come on man. It's a one time thing. Talk about first world problems.
You did make up a big list of cons, but most of them are just there so that the list looks longer. Look at all those people loving their axs :)

How could you accurately test the unit without a GX or SRAM cassette? Doesn't seem like an accurate review.

Mountain bike is the biggest fucking gimmick in the history of sports.

Dude has $400 aluminum cranks and complaining about gx axs upgrade pricing. Pretty silly.

This vid is irksome at best. Absolute clickbait really longbowing for CONS. Goes on and on whinging about the charger, the wall outlet, the "weird" Micro USB cable. Jesus Christ. You don't have a wall outlet for your phone when you go travelling? And all Garmin devices use Micro USB. Don't hear you endlessly complaining about having to charge your Garmin. You also lug loads of electrical equipment for your influencer channel. Carrying one additional charger brick and cable is "the worst" it's time you found an new profession.

Don't even have SRAM AXS. Just find this guy especially disingenuous, exaggerating to the point of being a phony.

P.S e13 cassettes are known to be "average" shifting at best. There are loads of alternative 12sp cassettes (often cheaper) that shift better than any e13 that isn't SRAM: namely Miche, Sunrace, Shimano.

SRAM GX is probably the worst bang for buck. The B-Knucle wears over time and develops heaps of slop. The pivots on the parallelogram have slacker tolorances so over time it develops play and shifts less accurately. The cluch in GX AXS is also wildly inconsistent - some stiff others loose. Whoever says "SRAM GX Mechanical is good value" has no idea. Deore/SLX mix costs about 40-50% less but performs better in every way (shifts better and is more durable).

This guy is also trying to pose as a "man of the people" while a pair of 5Dev cranks which are no lighter than a pair of SLX cranks (with an aftermarket chainring) with a worse standard (30mm, which means smaller bearings) which costs about 5-6x more. Hypocrite much?

Kind of pointless reviewing it with a none compatible cassette, That's like reviewing tubeless ready rims but using inner tubes and saying you couldn't tell the difference, howay man!

Of course a cheap guy will tell you it's not worth.

Wait a sec - have you weighed this thing? it weights over 478gms. Compare that to a Shimano 786 XT rear mech at around 250gm. W.T.F.

Yes love it but xo axs and dropper

I get what you're saying, that being said I don't see you riding e-bikes and managing the maps and setting up them to be perfect, for range, power delivery etc... you got to put the time and for some it's annoying, for others it's a treat... and yes evolution comes with a cost, for sure! Keep ripping! (PS: Just order mine) now it retails 399€.

If you already have an eagle GX, it's not worth it but if you don't, definitely is.

I think this is fare. I would probably say that there is a group that this appeals to. It is not the dirtbags that work to live, live to ride. If that is you, then you probably would want to keep the money for gas and burritos. You do your own wrenching on your bikes. You don't pay a professional to do a one or twice yearly full maintenance. You have or don't mind to spend the time to keep and maintain a cable actuated drive train. Replace cables and set up shifting. Then there are the busy frantic working with family people. That's me. I am done and hate all the maintenance that comes with dirt and sludge contamination. Cable stretch. Shifter wear. etc, etc. AXS is set up once. Then clean and lube the chain.. I personally appreciate that simplicity and will pay a little more.

Dramatic.

It seems AXS is cool, but I have yet to meet someone that doesn't have a ride ruined every year or so because of a dead battery...while I have had cables for decades and only once was it ruined for a broken cable. I just hate the hassle of charging my phone and other electronics...not sure I would like having to to that with my bike gear.

My thumb stiffens during 2hour ride due to arthritis, axs solves that problem.

Expresses obvious bias against price of group at the beginning. Spends 14 minutes confirming his own bias.

Runs set-up with non-recommended parts. Explains in detail why this set up isn't the best way to go. Then complains about performance of set-up. Should have stopped here at 6 minutes.

Makes claims prefaced by a stated lack of proof.

The time spent on the battery caps is nonsense. Been traveling with eTap and AXS for several years covering countless road trips and over a dozen flights and I don't even have those red caps. No issues. And there's no way this bro is killing a set of batteries on a trip to Whistler.

Spends more time whining about his own psychological problems than actual issues with the group.

What a waste of 14 minutes.

А как же из плюсов легкий демонтаж заднего переключателя при обслуживании? Его отдельно можно целиком помыть под водой и поставить на месте без повторной настройки! Видимо вы не обслуживаете велик на столько.

I think the only real issues with axs is remember to charge the battery every know a then. The clutch is definitely weaker and it’s not the best underload.

Ah well...I don't have to like every video I guess. I'm not 'in love' with my GX AXS setup but I felt you were really reaching on the Con's list. While your Pro's list was shorter, the weight of each item was more substantial than almost every Con. I didn't agree with the 'feel' Con, I'm happy I don't have to 'feel' what's going on back there and I think the whole idea is that with consistent precise shifting, you shouldn't have to worry about that anyways (assuming you're running a SRAM cassette of course). Set up an account...once...not a big deal...and more importantly, they didn't ask you for your credit card #!!! Anyways, while scrolling through the comments...it sure appears the overwhelming majority are in favour of AXS performance. Let's get that clutch improved and ditch cables forever!

I don´t get why it fits bad on another cassett brand. Then that would be the same with cable derailleurs, no? I would say overall the 12x is running worse then in the older days 11,10 or 9x; just caused by the smaller gaps. In combination with some dirt it effects the precision a lot faster. Or have you checked if non sram xd-cassettes have a different pattern? Would be intresting. Thanks :)