You can also install it anywhere along the shift cable. Not necessary have to plug it on the derailleur.

For that cable routing I'd recommend a brake noodle with the 135 degree angle. That will give you a much smoother bend, and still keep the cable close to the frame despite the adapter having to point up. I do this on the front derailleur of my recumbent so I don't have the cable hanging down, and it works great. Another simple, and cheap fix :p

This is one of my favorite things on KZfaq and that’s a short list. Being a older cyclist with some physical limitations and a big desire to go into the Mountain behind the house these ideas are a huge help. Thanks Russ

ROFL, "You too can be a moderately successful KZfaqr and make videos from your parents living room". Does KZfaq send you a plaque for that milestone achievement?!

Routing down the seat stay would probably give you an almost perfect routing. But you will have to fasten housing to top tube.

I’ve been using a Jtek cable shifter adapter for two years. I have a recumbent with a Shimano XTR rear derailleur working with Shimano bar end road shifters. 11 speed with an 11-42 cassette and a 2x chainring. Works great.

Be advised that the pulley wheels of the shiftmate tends to warp over time and cause shifting issues that I couldn't resolve. I switched over to a Wolftooth Tanpan which worked better in my experience; I found the metal construction of the pulleys are thicker and seemingly more hardy than the Jtek. The only issue with Tanpan is that they only work on Shimano and I don't think it works for SRAM... Anyway I've been using it for slightly over 6 months... and hopefully should last. Once again, your experience with Jtek may vary. My road/touring/gravel allroad rig is a Shimano 105 5800 11s dropbar shifters with a Sunrace 11-42 casette. Tip: I would suggest to run the rear derailleur housing cable up from the seattube and follow down the seatstays - that way, you minimise the bends and shifting friction that can occur and it's a slightly neater looking solution. PS, I just subscribed to your channel. Enjoy!

Thanks for this solution!

In the vertical orientation, you could make a complete loop of the cable to get a better entry into the Jtech.

Just a post to say thanks for the video content. Your videos are very clear as well as enjoyable - I ended up buying a 2018 surly midnight special last year after watching your review. Love that bike. I have had great success using a shimano dura ace road bar end shifters with XT 8000 rear derailleur hooked to an 11-42 cassette to give a 1x mullet drivetrain. It worked really well with a Shiftmate 8a. Took it to a bike shop and it hasn't been the same since - they don't see many of these in Australia! Have replaced the cassette and chain and am going to 11-46 on the back. I'm just in the process of troubleshooting the setup as now my shifting is really uneven across the cassette (bent derailleur hanger?) but overall the shiftmate worked well in the past and I hope will work well again! (I built the surly before the GRX groupset came out)

Reference Jtek's compatibility chart for their shiftmate units. You can do mismatched brands and speeds. Each shiftmate has two orientations for the pulley, which changes their application. Also, if you understand pull ratios you can do the math and figure out different combinations that may not be listed.

Thanks mate, very helpful video. I’d be worried about sticks grabbing that loop but that is probably just me as I have wiped out spokes from branches in the past.

I was pretty confused by the whole budget mullet thing because in mountain biking, a mullet refers to a 29" wheel up front and a 27.5 wheel in back (generally frames have something you swap to switch to mullet mode, and it still has geometry implications).

The adapter can go anywhere on the cable, not necessarily at the derailleur. I have put adapters at the shifter-end of the cable as well. Having the barrel adjustment there is also handy for mid-ride adjustments.

@0:57: Reminds me of "Wayne's World, Wayne's World, Party Time, Excellent!". Maybe you can be "Russ' World. Russ' World. Crazy Time. Bad Ideas!"

Russ how can the cave of bad ideas be a bad idea??? that would be ridiculous. Like they say you gotta break some eggs to make an omelet. Keep the cave and the bad ideas please.

You could also run it in-line at the front...or machine and extender so it protrudes more above the derailleur.

If you want to use a Jtek shiftmate for a shimano setup, use the 8A. I'm using it --here in Europe, the Shiftmate is significantly cheaper than the TanPan. Also, with the current Shimano rear mechs it's considerably less fiddly. But it's true: it's slightly temperamental at the beginning.

I love the Cave of bad ideas. I love this Channel 😍😊

BTW if you have a housing to housing adapter you can put this up by the bar much like the wolftooth variant. and it you get the barrel adjuster up at your bars, win/win.

So Revolver, against all odds, managed to go out of business sometime between now and the making of this video, during the biggest bike boom of the decade. And Peter White's online store seems to be clinging to the web design principles and comedic stylings of 1993. More's the pity, the range of Jtek adaptors is an amazing resource for exactly this kind of frankentinkering.

This looks promising! What’s your cassette again? Looking forward to the Shimano videos. I’ve had so so results with a Tanpan but like you, I didn’t have enough cables/cable housing to explore all the options. Cheers.

This series is amazing!

You could also run the Jtek into a cable stop on your frame at the down tube for cleaner cable routing.

Try a short (3cm?) bit of cable between the RD and the adapter to clear the knuckle. ;^)

Awesome content!

It looks like you could put a short extension at the derailur so the j- nine will clear the mount housing and have a straight shot

You can use any Exact actuation rear derailleur with SRAM 10 or 11 speed road shifters. So X3, X7,X9, XX, X0, Apex1,force1, etc. Not X actuation though because the ratio is different and that is for 11 speed MTB shifters. So just pick up an old X9 or X0 10 speed MTB derailleur and it will work perfectly with a 11 speed sram road shifter

Heh heh... you said "bulbous" Lol. Back in the mid 90's I worked at a bike shop with a teenage kid that was our resident BMX guy. He looked like an orange on a pencil.... we nicknamed him "bulbous" Can't even remember his real name now... Good times.

that thing can be installed at any point of the shift cable.

I think you must have hacked my browsing history or something :-p I followed you last week with your announcement of the Chris King raffle. You get a bike fit by a Portland company. I read about revolver bikes closing shop two days ago, then I start researching installing drop bars on my MTB yesterday, find the JTEK shiftmate, find that their Portland retailer is Revolver, then find your video. What is with this creepy synchronicity? Is revolver really closed in Portland? Or did you find a secret in?

Have you seen the hack where you switch the cable fins of a CX1 and Eagle derailleur?

i did a wolftooth tanpan to connect an xt rd to some ultegra shifters- it worked pretty damned well. but it was finickey to setup. doing something similar on a vintage trek touring frame to make it into a 1x commuter

Has anyone tried if SRAM rear derailleur 12s would work with Shimano road shifter 11s and 11s cassette without ratio converter?

I have seen a pro set up that had the jtek/ tan pan up front below the handle bars, inline

that 2nd layout wont work with my panniers :( but take cable out of housing under horizontal bar, and attach with cable ties ALL GOOD YESSS :)

Without jtek routing will not work?

OMG, where is the video with the TANPAN and the wolfTooth?

Why do they make the biggest gears a different color?

Ahh the dream of someday taking over my parent's living room with a bike project... certainly better than my living room. Also can the dog help out next time?

I think it was worth trying to cut loose the cable tie on the dropout to make the Jtek sit better.

I run the wolftooth version to go 1x on my shimano CX bike

Hi, What chain are you using with this setup? Is it okay to use a road crank (Apex) with an MTB cassette and derailleur (NX)? I am trying to setup something similar and am unable to find the relevant information online. Thank you

I take some of the previous derailleur mods you mentioned work to turn an 11spd NX into an 11spd NX Eagle so I can use my current shifting setup? After watching your LA series, I am realizing I might need to be going at least 46 in the back for my touring mtb, which I got specific for climbing(30t + 11-42).

What do you call that pulley in line with the breakline(in general)?

What about some sort of spacer between the RD and the jtek, to get it above the hanger bolt?

Nice work! I wondered ho long a cage can you add before it hits the ground

does it need to be by the derailleur? seems like its better near the handlebars

Hi Russ, can we use the 11 speed Sram/Shimano Chain with the 12 speed derailleur that you have used here? Thanks from Germany

Puppy wants to help! QT pie! Glad the cave(s) of bad ideas is still going.

You should try the wolf tooth tanpan ,if you go back to shimano.

I have Sram Apex 1 11 speed shifters and a 42T cassette. I want to go with at least a 46t cassette but the 11 speed sram NX or GX rear derailleur only goes to 42T. How do I get a larger cassette on the back? with the 11 speed APEX shifters?

Do they have some 8 speed cassetes? 40-12 eight speed with 3x front?

Hey bike nerds. I'm now considering doing this on my commuter/gravel bike which has a standard 5800 105 groupset (50/34 and 11-32). Looking at Shimano MTB rear derailleurs, it looks like nothing that can handle the 40 or 42 rear cog can also handle a 16 tooth jump in the front. Is it folly to try this wit ha 2x up front? Has the cave ever tried this bad idea?

I tried the J-tec with Ultegra shifters and XTRR derailleur but was not happy with the vague feel to the shifts...so I ended up buying a Ultegra derailleur with a clutch.

Can I use a SRAM 2x11 for a 1x12?

Hey Russ! Will you be reviewing the RedShift Seatpost sometime soon? Super interested in investing in one :)

Try re-routing the cable housing to the seat stay rather than the chain stay. I know you probably want to keep that internal routing, but that bend and it sticking way out to the side is not something I'd be ok with. Must be a better way.

I'd say that's more for the sake of drop bars. Otherwise you'd use mtb shifters and call it done.

Bought a Jtek Shiftmate. Never worked. I had the same bad shifting with or without it.

I wonder how cheap this all would be compared to some sort of IGH + Derailleur kludge, if one exists. Or using as wide a range FD. Adds complexity, but that's part of what makes the new stuff pricey - engineering is making something work, but expensive, quality engineering is making something barely-work.

I wonder if it would be possible to just replace the pulley already in the derailleur with the jtek double pulley, then just use an inline barrel adjuster wherever.

Who won the race?! The postcard or the package? Inquiring minds and all...

Dang. That’s a nearly 90 degree bend in that cable. A bad idea, indeed. But it sorta works.

Those jtek shiftmates are not cheap to get in Canada, at least nowhere I could find one. Tanpan was most sensible option for me

Is it a 12 speed derailleur working with an 11 speed cassette and shifter? That is handy for going big.

SRAM SX Eagle has a better cable entry angle than the NX or GX.

Could you install the jtek thing at the lever end of the cabler run instead?

Having the cable sticking out to the side seems like a terrible idea with a lot of negative possibilities. I know the bend looked wonky, but when you have it routed up it seems to shift just fine, why not leave it that way?

Why not just replace the derailur cable pulley w the one from the Jtek?

So, it's all because you don't want to use mtb shifters right? No need for all this if you're ok with mounting a mtb cassette, rear derailleur and shifter in a road bike right? Am I missing something? cause I was thinking on doing that, and this video make me a little confused

Thank you for the awesome video. just realized I never liked this video although I already watched it twice... sorry.

God loves a trier 😄

what is a bigger compliment? "your ideas are terrible" or "you have some really good bad ideas"

‘Really large feet like 11 and over’? I have UK13 (US14) and like to think of myself as mid range … 😌

I want drop bars. I have a 1x12 SRAM eagle but I won't spent 225€ or 800€ for campagnolo chorus sti. Is there an SRAM sti I can use?

That cable bend hurts my eyes; I'm sorry, but at least it worked.

Its a tan-pan right?

Survey says: Bodge

Still janky, that would still be a nope for me. Thanks for showing it.

FIRST