Box 3 Prime 9 Speed Groupset thoughts?

nathanm

nathanm

Eats Squid
Building up a cheap small hardtail for the kids to use and for Jayne to hone her pumptrack skills.

Got everything but the drivetrain which I want to be 1x for simplicity as the kids and Jayne struggle with shifting. As it's getting hard to find 10 speed stuff, particularly with a decent size cassette and then having to get a goat link. 11 speed groupsets are expensive second hand and also harder to find so I'm tempted to pick up the Box 3 Prime 9 Groupset and give it a run.

Interested in peoples thoughts and experiences or should I just hunt up some old 10 speed stuff given I've got a derailleur already. its supposed to be another cheap build so price is my only concern given I'll need a crankset as well.
 
Labcanary

Labcanary

One potato, two potato, click
I've got it on my baby-hauling bike. It's pretty good for the price. I got the 11-46t cassette option.
I tested it out on some trails recently and the clutch seemed to do the job well over chattery stuff. It did slap on bigger hits but nothing concerning.
With box 3 the clutch tension is not adjustable and you can't switch it off/on. The latter didn't seem to cause any issues in getting the rear wheel on though.
Shifting felt solid and it was easy to dial in. You can shift 2 at a time going into easier gears but I think it's one at a time into the harder gears. I haven't really taken much notice of this function.
I like it. For the price the box 3 is perfectly usable, in future I might consider box 2 and if I was offered it for free (hah, like that would happen!) I'd totally rock box 1 in the 9 speed groupset.
 
Elbo

Elbo

pesky scooter kids git off ma lawn
I use the Box 3 Prime 9 groupset on my hardtail commuter. Used for 6 months so far and it works perfectly. As @Labcanary mentioned, the clutch is always on, but it seems to work well with a Narrow Wide Raceface chainring up front. Haven't dropped a chain yet and the shifting feels pretty good. Nice to have the range over the 11-46 cassette without the finicky setup and tuning of 11 or 12 speed.
Definitely good value for money. It does look a bit bigger and 'box'ier ;) than Shimano stuff.
 
M4RT0

M4RT0

Likes Bikes
When I was looking to upgrade my old Stumpy drive-train, the microSHIFT Advent had just come out and got some solid reviews (including Pinkbike), so I was seriously considering that - although, you need to buy the shifter to work with the derailleur.

Products | microSHIFT

microSHIFT components: shifters, derailleurs, cassettes
www.microshift.com www.microshift.com

Not super easy to get in Australia though and with the exchange rate/Australia tax I don't know if the cost makes it viable.
 
Litenbror

Litenbror

Eats Squid
M4RT0 said:
When I was looking to upgrade my old Stumpy drive-train, the microSHIFT Advent had just come out and got some solid reviews (including Pinkbike), so I was seriously considering that - although, you need to buy the shifter to work with the derailleur.

Products | microSHIFT

microSHIFT components: shifters, derailleurs, cassettes
www.microshift.com www.microshift.com

Not super easy to get in Australia though and with the exchange rate/Australia tax I don't know if the cost makes it viable.
Click to expand...
I think there were a few people on here who had some less than stellar experience with the micro shifts long term reliability. @moorey ?
 
gippyz

gippyz

Likes Dirt
I ran 10spd microshift, and no major issues thus far (6 months). I managed to somehow lose the cap which activate/de-activate the clutch on the RD. Other than that, all is working well.

A mate managed to bend his 9 spd microshift cassette within few months of using. Warranty replacement was easy, but that experience was enough for him to say no more.
 
H

Halo1

Likes Bikes and Dirt
The cassette range looks good for me.
I am running 11 speed with a sunrace cassette that has a 40t to 46t jump. I tried running an xt with a 37t to 46t jump and the 37t was not enjoyable and I was between gears.
Any one tried the Box 50t cassette ?
 
wkkie

wkkie

It's Not Easy Being Green
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