Cell BIT for X-Shifter Wireless Shifting is World’s lightest electronic shifter at 1.5g

Don’t trust them. Just read what they did to people in Kickstarter.

Read what they did with their last product. I’d expect bike rumor to do better then promote what at this point looks like a scam of a company.

I’m one of the Kickstarter backers and happen to be lucky to have shaken enough trees to mostly get my order. I’ve used DI2, Cell/Xshifter, and Archer, so I’m in a good place to comment about where Cell fits into the scheme of things. I’ll do the good, bad, ugly in reverse order because the good is good enough to warrant ending on a high note.

Ugly – The odds of getting warranty support from Cell-Cycling or a fulfillment of their “money-back guarantee” is close to zero. I still have outstanding warranty claims on a failed E-link, inquired about small parts, and other issues that Cell has refused to respond to. I can also say from experience that they’re *very* selective about what posts in their forums get approved, and not in a good way. Don’t expect support of any kind. Seriously. This part of the reputation is richly deserved.

Bad – The shifter pods still need improvement. The app is just barely functional. A lot of functionality promised in 2016 has yet to materialize. Cell/Xshifter completely underestimated how hard it is to develop good software. The Android version (made by a supporter in his free time) is significantly better than the iOS version. You must park the bike in a small cog. If you replace the E-link battery in a large cog, the shifter will try to move to the smallest cog. The problem with this is that Shimano 12-speed RDs can derail their pulleys and trash their cages if you shift into a too-small cog while on a too-large cog even when using a carefully measured chain and carefully adjusted B-tension screw (destroyed an XT cage this way and had a close call with another). This is fundamentally a Shimano issue, but the way the E-link resets on a battery replacement makes it more extreme.

The original E-links can and do burn themselves out if you dump a lot of gears without pedaling or the derailleur hits the limit screw stop (for example, during a fast off-the-saddle descent leading right to a steep climb). You can work around the limit screw issue by backing way off your large cog / large chainring limit screw and handling the limit strictly by app tuning. The “dumping gears” issue doesn’t have an ideal workaround, I just limit how many gears I dump

Good – Kickstarter notwithstanding, Cell is in fact promptly delivering on new orders placed over the past year. The E-links are supposedly being improved to make them more durable. I’ve been using Cell/Xshifters since 2017 and I really don’t feel any need or desire to go back to mechanical shifting. Shifts are fast, consistent, and accurate once you get the tuning dialed in – not as fast or silent as DI2 but much faster than Archer. I’m certainly happy to avoid all the proprietary baloney Shimano and SRAM are throwing out there. I love the fact that I can switch between different speeds and derailleur types at my whim.

The bottom line is that if you want the advantages of electronic shifting and are willing to price in the fact that you shouldn’t expect warranty support, and can live with their foibles, these offer near-DI2 performance without the hassle, proprietary limitations, or the cynical pricing of the DI2 ecosystem.

I was one of the early Kickstarter backers – coming up on four years past-due for delivery of my “super early bird” pledge. lol.

Cell cycling may be filling orders now, but at one point some of us kickstarters were referred to them to get our pledges filled. I heard back once from them, then never again.