Bike Build Story: The drive, shifter, rear derailleur, cassette. As in Part One already explained, we try to build a bike "Made in Europe". I can't really do that with the circuit. Rohloff and Pinion do not fit the bike or the concept. To keep it exciting, I decided to use parts from Box Components. Box parts also come from the Far East, but not from one of the industry giants.
As just mentioned, not made in Germany, but at least from the "small" manufacturer and thus a contribution to the variety on the market. From an ideological point of view, I did a lot of things right, but I can't hide the fact that I still wasn't happy with my decision. The Box Components circuit – I installed the shifter, cassette and rear derailleur – was two-thirds convincing. A third was a total failure. More on that later.
Box Components Circuit - The Facts
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d4wKveX3uz4
Box Components One Rear Derailleur: The 11-speed rear derailleur is compatible with Box and Shimano 11-speed shifters. The so-called "Cam Clutch" technology is intended to minimize the movements of the cage and thus the chain slap. With the "Pivot Tech" technology, the rear derailleur should move backwards in the event of contact with obstacles. This is to prevent damage to the derailleur itself or the derailleur hanger. The weight is around 270 grams and the price is around 180 euros.
Box Components One shifter: The lever comes with "push-push" technology. You only have one lever that can either be pushed forward like an ordinary thumb lever to switch to lighter gears or towards the middle of the handlebar to switch to heavier gears. You can downshift up to four gears with one operation. The weight of the aluminum and plastic lever with the aluminum clamp is around 120 grams. The price is around 100 euros. The shifter is compatible with all BOX and Shimano 11-speed rear derailleurs.
Box Components Two Cassette: The cassette fits Shimano freewheels, offers a gear ratio of 11 percent with 46-418 teeth and is therefore on the same level as a Sram 11-speed group, which comes to 420 percent. It is relatively heavy at 480 grams. The price of around 120 euros is a bit too high for that. Visually and in terms of design, the cassette is strongly reminiscent of the SunRace counterpart.
Box Components Shifting – On the Trail
The box gear shift parts from the One series are no longer available, they spent a good year on our bikes. The shift lever is now offered in a different design, it comes with two levers, the "push-push" technology is passe. The rear derailleurs now come with a forged upper parallelogram link and a revised clutch. The makers don't leave the MTB community out in the rain and promise accommodating solutions even in the event of problems.
I find the switch to a traditional shifter a shame, because after a bit of getting used to it, the Box Components Shifter has grown on me. I like the shifting mechanism and will probably drive it to the bitter end. The cassette does its job without any abnormalities, the shift quality is impeccable. Only the rear derailleur got on my nerves. The "cam clutch" effect is hardly noticeable. In addition, there was the fact that two rear derailleurs each got play and rattled within a short time.
Our durability problems were not isolated and Box Components have made improvements: The rear derailleur has been revised in a few places. In the meantime, a Shimano XT rear derailleur does its job on our bike with absolute confidence. As already mentioned, there is not much to complain about either the shifter or the cassette. The extra weight of the cassette doesn't particularly bother me, but sometimes I would wish for a larger translation range.
The shift lever is great, a small blemish is the fact that it doesn't harmonize perfectly with every brake lever, you don't always find the perfect positioning. But this also happens with other shift lever-brake combinations. It remains to be seen whether the Box Components rear derailleur will be more durable in the future. Above all, we would also like to see a stronger damping of the cage...
