Ever dreamt of putting a mountain bike drivetrain on your drop bar bike. You know, to create the ultimate adventure bike with wide range gearing and a fast front end?
Gevenalle has expanded their line of index-or-friction shifter equipped brake lever with the new GX model, which pulls just the right amount of cable to keep an XT rear derailleur in line with your MTB cassette. It’s compatible with Shimano’s modern clutch-equipped DynaSys and Shadow Plus 10-speed rear derailleurs with a cassette capability up to 36T. That’s a big jump from the 28T max of their BURD rear derailleur, putting you in the gearing range of the CX1 group.
Like the CX shifters, which work with Gevenalle’s own rear derailleur and other 10-speed road derailleurs, the GX gets a modified Microshift lever set attached to a Tektro lever bodies…but even those have been heavily customized and improved…
Ever since Shimano changed the cable pull between their road and mountain offerings, there hasn’t been an elegant way to run a modern road shifter and MTB derailleur. The GX changes all that.
The shifter lever sits out front of the brake lever and runs from one side to the other to effect a full shift from the smallest cog to the largest.
It can be indexed or free friction shifting. They come preset as an indexed shifter, which is probably where we’ll keep it.
The shifter is based on Microshift’s newer BS-M10 shifters, then customized in house along with the custom mounting hardware, anodizing and laser engraving in Portland, OR. Because shift lever is physically larger than the CX models, the mount was made larger, too. Mark Dinucci did the design work for them and used the opportunity to improve the exit angle for the cable housing. It’s now 10º lower than the CX models for a sleeker complete appearance. The larger levers mean the GX shifters can’t be retrofitted to the CX units, though.
The brake levers are further customized with two distinct cable mounting points. This lets you get the right amount of cable pull for anything from calipers to cantis to mini V-brakes to road or mountain bike disc brakes. Even the lever’s bearings are upgraded!
The levers are sold as a front and rear set, but the front shifter is removable if you’re running a 1x drivetrain. If you’re running gears it’ll handle both a double and a triple. It’s micro indexed with faint clicks in one direction and free flowing in the other.
One very nice feature of the Tektro levers on which the GX’s are built is the easy-to-reach mounting bolt. No need to wrestle with the hoods to find the screw, just pull the brake lever open and it’s right there. Of course, you’ll want to get your position dialed before you get the brakes’ setup final.
We got an early production sample in already and will be building up one heck of an adventure/gravel bike using a 36T max XT cassette and 10-speed XT rear derailleur with Gevenalle’s own front derailleur. Look for a full build out coming soon.
Actual weights are 205g (front), 213g (rear) and 85g (derailleur).
So, if your very old Shimano 9-speed derailleur craps out and time comes when replacements aren’t available, take comfort knowing there’s now a solution for running modern 10-speed versions with a drop bar setup!
Retail is $219 for the pair, and just $34 for a repair/rebuild (including shipping) should you crash them.
