Here at Bikerumor, many different types of products make their way across our workbenches before ultimately hitting our local roads and trails. Try as we might, it’s not always easy to keep up with them all, and to give everything the attention it deserves. In our new Shifting Gear series (see what we did there?), we’ll highlight products that we haven’t had a chance to fully review yet, either because they’ve just arrived, or because they’ve quietly been chugging along on our bikes in the background. But in either case, we’re stoked to share what we are loving about each one.
In this second installment, Cory unpacks some fresh gear out of his testing queue – all of it fitted to a new Sour Crumble steel trail hardtail made in Dresden, Germany. But we’ll leave that bike for another time. For now, a shiny chainring, UDH upgrade, a silly bottle cage and some dummy bolts, lots of wax made easier, plus some small parts that remind us that servicing components is often better than replacement. There’s no shortage of interesting new products lined up in the workshop.
Wheels Mfg Shimano Direct Mount Chainring
Wheels Manufacturing dropped their first US-made SRAM direct mount chainrings last year, adding a Shimano option just last month. The beauty of chainrings is that they wear out, generally after a few seasons depending on how you ride, which means they are a perfect opportunity to give your old bike some new bling. At $75 a pop, they aren’t exactly cheap. But the precision of these machined-in-Colorado 7075 chainrings is on point, and Wheels Mfg has a long record of making solid, long-lasting components. Plus, Wheels offers the rings in 2 direct mount standards, the 4 sizes that make sense for most mountain bike riders, 2 different narrow-wide tooth profiles to work with most chains, 7 shiny colors, and multiple offsets to get the perfect setup for your bike.
I opted for this 57g, 30T purple ano -1.5mm offset ring to replace the stock chainring on a brutally used & abused XT M8100 crankset that I’ve had for about 5 years. A little shiny purple anodized bling always makes an old component feel new again, so we tossed them on my wife’s colorful new Sour Crumble steel trail hardtail. I plan to put an almost identical green one (with +1.5mm offset) on a newer M8200 crankset on my primary trail bike to see how it wear compared to the stock Shimano ring.
… and a matching Wheels Mfg UDH & Spacer Stack
And of course, you can’t just add one bit of colorful anodized aluminum to a bike at one time. So, we’re throwing on a matching $33 Wheels Essential Headset Spacer Kit and an all-aluminum $42 UDH.
The spacer stack (36g with top cap & stainless bolt) is great because it includes 2x 1.5mm, 2x 2.5mm, 1x 5mm & 2x 10mm spacers so you can really dial in the perfect height for your cockpit. Plus, the spacers and top cap feature a tiny stepped design that makes sure they interlock tightly for a clean look and even compression.
On top of that, this 30g replacement Universal Derailleur Hanger is entirely machined from 6061 aluminum for max shifting stiffness, not a mix of plastic & alloy like SRAM’s original UDH. It’s always great to make a spare hanger now that so many bikes thankfully share the same standard. Why not make it a more precise hanger with some shiny matchy-matchy anodizing at the same time?
PDW Otter Cage & Zit Bitz
This is a simple but fun one.
I already dropped a photo of the PDW Otter Cage and smiley face Zit Bitz into my review of their neat little bag-strapping Bingo headset spacer and slick Heads Up! trail bell. But now we’ve been riding with this $26 Otter Cage, and it really works well.
The otter is made of simple stamped and bent-to-shape 5052 aluminum, with laser-etched whiskers. And it weighs just 57g. But this little guy holds tough. We smashed this hardtail down some gnarly trails and haven’t ejected a bottle yet. I’ve even loaded it up with the super big 975ml Zéfal Magnum Pro bottle, and it stayed secure.
In fact, this otter is so strong that he doesn’t really want to let go of your bottle. So this probably isn’t the best cage for really fast-paced racing when you need to get a bottle without thinking about it. But the Otter Cage is so darned cute, so we’re happy to have him along for trail rides.
For a little bit of extra silliness, I picked up a set of $15 PDW Zit Bitz (4 per pack, in various styles). Instead of boring cap head bolts to fill unused braze-ons, a couple of anodized alloy dummy bolts with knurled heads make for a nicer look. I carefully Sharpied in the heart for this Zit Bit filing the toptube bag bolt holes that aren’t in use at the moment. Sure, plastic plus or even ultralight alloy bolts would be a tiny bit lighter, but they wouldn’t be as cool.
Silca Chain Waxing System + Strip Chip & Endurance Chip
I think we first really wrote about Silca’s hot wax solutions almost 6 years ago. I liked the concept of waxing chains in the bag. But the chain prep was a pain, and the second time waxing a chain took a lot longer than the first. Then, two years back Silca launched their own complete $100 waxing system with a dedicated wax melter and stand to hold your freshly waxed chains. But that still wasn’t enough to make me really embrace waxing.
It was the magic Strip Chip that converted me… even if it took a couple of years. Even after Silca explained how it works on our podcast.
Pop this little black chip into your pot of wax, and it magically eliminates the need to remove the factory grease from a brand-new chain, maxing waxing a 1-step process. And it’s just $4 per new chain for the Strip Chip. Adding a single 12g Strip Chip seems like it’s about the same volume of wax that ends up on the chain, which makes it feel like your original pot of wax is never-ending.
Then, if you are like me and you prioritize clean and smooth operation over absolute speed, you can also drop a $29 Endurance Chip into your pot of Silca Secret wax to extend the life of your waxed chain by 2-3x. The even bigger 72g Endurance Chip was so big I had to take some of the regular wax out of my pot to not overflow, again making it feel like an almost endless supply of wax.
Now, with several new and freshly waxed chains, it’ll be easy to rotate them on my main bikes and just drop them back in when it’s time for a refresh. No degreasing required. The trick is only that I needed to get some more quick links, since most are officially one-use only.
The only remaining issue is that I will still need to degrease some used chains to get everything on the wax program. But it feels a lot easier and more manageable now that the Strip Chip has proven itself, and the Endurance chip doubled the time between rewaxings.
My only pet peeve is that Silca grossly exaggerates the amount of time required to wax a chain. Sure, it is 15 minutes for the actual process of wax penetrating one chain. But that ignores the 20 minutes or so to get the wax up to temperature, the extra 10 minutes to get the wax to higher temps to melt in the strip chip, another 15 minutes to cool it down to the regular waxing step, not to mention at least a half hour for the wax to cool at the end of the process to put it away.
When I wanted to wax one new chain, it took me a little over an hour. When I waxed 4 new chains, it was about 2 hours in total.
No doubt, it is way easier than ever to get the benefits of a waxed chain at home. And the time it does take is mostly spent waiting with a timer on your phone between steps. But don’t expect it to happen too quickly. So, plan ahead another task you can do while wax is heating up or cooling down in between.
Now we just see how fast all my drivetrains are in 2 or 3 months’ time!
BikeYoke Revive dropper post service kit
This write-up is less about the dropper itself, and more of a love letter to user service & repairability. After 4 years of riding with it, this well-used dropper just died when its lower bushing failed, letting several of the guide pins slide out of their grooves into the base of the post. That could have been the end for most droppers, but this one just needed a little love to revive it.
You see, this old dropper is labeled a Manitou Jack, but thanks their collaboration with BikeYoke, it is for the most part a rebranded Revive dropper. And that’s a really good thing, because BikeYoke prides themselves on serviceability. And I already had a BikeYoke Revive/Divine service kit when this guy failed.
So instead of shopping for a new post, or even having to send one off to be repaired, in just under an hour from the moment I pulled it out of the bike, fixed it, and was good to go again. With just a standard set of tools plus a pair of snap ring pliers, I bled off the internal air pressure, off came the actuator, out went the broken bushing & bent pins, in went the new parts, and the post was dropping like it’s hot again. It cost just 20€ for a BikeYoke service kit, and I was back in business.
Anything can fail, and every component will eventually reach the end of its life. But being able to service it until then is why BikeYoke is still my first choice when I need to buy a new dropper post.
Stay Tuned…
In the coming months, I’ll be putting all of these products and many more through their paces. We’ll do our best to follow up with in-depth reviews for those components that need a deeper look. But be sure to check back if you’re interested in hearing my thoughts on these and more Shifting Gear mini-reviews to come.
