Robot Noises For (Almost) Any Bike - Part 2

The Snow Dog makes whirring noises now.

 Back in October I posted here about the Archer Components D1X, an electronic controller and remote which can be configured in several different ways to shift the rear of a flat bar set up bike. The system runs on rechargeable batteries and has the unique feature of being able to be 'tuned' for each individual gear shift. I wrote a bit about it already here and here.    

After running it on my 10 speed Inbred, I thought about a good challenge for this system. One that might test the capabilities of the versatility and the tune-ability of  the D1X. I finally found the bits I needed and got it all assembled on the Snow Dog. 

The main bit I was interested in getting on the bike was an old 9 speed 'cassette-extender' cog that I bought off a guy somewhere back years ago now. Back when 36T cassettes were the lowest geared cassettes you could get. This was a 42T cassette replacement cog meant to go behind a standard 9 speed cassette and which required the removal of one of the stock cassette cogs. I removed the 11T cog and slipped this replacement cog behind the standard cassette on the free hub body. These cogs were notorious for not shifting the greatest, so this would present a good challenge for the D1X. 

The other thing was getting the system reconfigured from 10 speed to 9 speed, adjusting for a worn cassette, and finally, just getting the system on a fat bike like the old Snow Dog was a challenge. The wildly bent/contoured stays did not lend themselves to an ideal chain stay mount, but what killed that in the end was an unfortunately placed cable guide.  So, I ended up sticking this on the seat stay and that turned out 'okay', if not ideal in placement. 

Adding to the weirdness was my use of a 10 speed X9 rear derailleur.

Oh, and why not make this even odder by using a 10 speed SRAM derailleur on a 9 speed cassette? Well, after fiddling around with the fiddly set up procedure using the provided app on my smart phone, I did actually get it to work pretty well. The shifts are great and even the extender cog works great. So, now the Snow Dog whirrs and clanks into gear with ease, although I could tune it even better. The system is adjustable in the field, so you can actually fine tune each gear while you are riding.

I'll probably use it like this going on into Winter and use it for commuting and maybe some gravel travel stuff, depending upon the roads. But I am fairly impressed with how adaptable the D1X is. the new drop bar set up Archer is making should be out any day now and I'll be curious how the controller will be configured for that. I'm sure the shift box will remain the same. I'd also like to see Archer clean up the interface with the app so iOS users wouldn't experience freeze ups while configuring the system. Their instructions could also stand a bit of work too. But if you can get by those things actually using the Archer D1X while riding is pretty good. 

NOTE: Archer Components sent over the D1X shifting system to Riding Gravel for test and review at no charge. I am not being paid, nor bribed, to post this here.