On the final day of Eurobike, Chinese drivetrain parts manufacturer, WheelTop, showed us their prototype Wireless MTB Drivetrain; the WheelTop EDX OS Series is a $400 USD package comprising derailleur, two batteries, and wireless shifter. While the vast majority of WheelTop’s business is OE, their new wireless electronic drivetrain will also be available aftermarket in due course. And, given that the firmware is post-purchase configurable to any 7- to 12-Speed Cassette on the market, they may find there’s a high demand.
WheelTop EDX OS Series Wireless MTB Drivetrain
WheelTop’s wireless derailleur has the range for cassettes up to 10-52T, but can be configured to work with pretty much any 7- to 12-speed cassette you fancy. The EDS OX wireless system is still under prototyping, and it’s not clear how exactly the reconfiguration would work., i.e. whether it would cost you extra pennies to reconfigure to a new cassette, but the possibility remains, making the system super versatile.
The EDS OX derailleur has a traditional layout with the familiar parallelogram mechanism shifting through gears, with a roller bearing clutch damping the movement of the chain tensioner. A representative of WheelTop tells us the clutch is adjustable and fully serviceable, though we weren’t able to get a look under the cover.
The cage itself holds a 12t upper pulley and a 14t lower pulley. We weighed the derailleur, with battery, at 351g, which makes this prototype around 25g lighter than the SRAM XX1 AXS derailleur. The majority of its constituent components are alloy, including the cage, while the pulleys are made from injection-molded plastic.
The WheelTop EDS OX shifter has two buttons for up and down shifting. It seemed like only single shifts were possible but we can’t confirm that yet. The buttons had a very nice positive feel to them, a lot more like the feeling of regular cable shifter than the SRAM AXS paddles. That said, the action is definitely a hell of a lot lighter than anything cable actuated.
Via a button on the shifter, you can flip the system between two different modes; regular shifting mode, and a calibration mode that allows you to make super fine tune adjustments to get the derailleur set up perfectly.
The shifter currently is only compatible with the WheelTop 22.2mm clamp. Apparently, a drop bar shifter may come later, but there’s just this flat bar option for now. We weighed the WheelTop Shifter in at 67g, though we don’t know whether that includes the battery or not; will confirm later.
Given that WheelTop manufacture numerous cranksets and cassettes already, it looks like they’ll be able to offer a complete wireless drivetrain at a very competitive price, and maybe even a competitive weight, too. We’ll be keeping an eye on WheelTop so we can update you guys when it finally launches.
Pricing & Availability
A representative of WheelTop tells us the EDX OS System will retail around $400 USD; that money will fetch you the derailleur, shifter, two batteries and charger. No word on an actual launch date just yet.
