I'm a long time Shimano guy if you couldn't guess by the user name. I recently was gifted a old 2008 Specialized Stumpjumper that needed some TLC to get back on the trails. After fixing the shocks and brakes the last part that needed attention was the old Shimano/SRAM Drivetrain. The bike had a mix of X.9, X.7, and Shimano bits mixed together. After pricing a new read mech, cassette, chain, and a couple of chainrings I realized I was pretty close to the price 1x drivetrain. New Deore bits seemed to be out of stock everywhere but I kept running into Microshift. I really liked the look of their cheap but light weight 11-48 cassette. Since I had to replace the old worn bits anyways I decided I would give the Advent X drivetrain a try.
First off the total costs going from the 3x9 to the 1x10 sytem.
Derailleur, shifter, and 11-48 aluminum cassette. $164.13
Narrow Wide chainring $17.99
Housing $5
SRAM PC1051 chain $24.00
Total: $211.12
Weight loss. I forgot to include the chain in the weight differential but I lost a total of 414 grams not counting chain loss or gains. Pretty nice chunk of weight. The Stumpjumper went from mid 28's on the scale to 27lbs 8oz. I did write the Advent read derailleur weight on the F derailleur line. Just imagine it's in the right spot.
![1910499]( "1910499")
No real hiccups on installation. If you've installed a derailleur, cassette, and shiftier sometime in the last 25 years the process is pretty much the same. The feel fit and finish didn't blow me away. Feels very pedestrian and workmanlike. If holding an Ultegra derailleur feels like holding a Rolex holding Advent X feels like holding a Casio. That's not to say it feels like cheap junk, but you can tell the dollars were spent on features not fit and finish. At this price point I feels its a good compromise. The shifter came with cable and a ferrule. I'm not sure if there was supposed to be a plug where the shifter cable goes but it's just a big wide open hole with no cover.
![1910500]( "1910500")
I did appreciate that the limit screws were all keyed for 3mm allen wrenches instead of phillips heads.
![1910502]( "1910502")
With the 50mm chainline on my old SHimano cranks the front ring lined up with the 6th cog (biased towards the small cogs). With this alignment I had no problems with chain drop in the big cog pedaling backwards using the 32t Narrow wide chainring. I got lucky with the 114 link chain as I needed 113 links. Someone with a longer chainstays than a 2008 Stumpjumper or bigger chain ring might want make sure you get a chain long enough. I pulled the spacer from the drive side of the bottom bracket and moved it to the non-drive side to drop the chainline to ~47mm. This lined up the front chainring to the 5th cog so it's now biased towards the big cog. No problems with dropped chains pedalling backwards on any of the gears and I now get a bit less noise in the big gears where I spend most of my time.
![Image]()
Lever feel is very Acera/Alivio with a very hollow plastic sound and feel to the shifting. Advent X doesnt have that buttery smooth feel of a well set up Shimano sytem while shifting. You can feel the teeth working and grabbing pulling the chain to the next ring. You can downshift 3 clicks with one long throw with the Trail Pro shifter I purchased. This works great in the higher gears but in the lower gears it feels like the chain and cogs want to bind and you get a split second of additional pedal resistance as the chain and gears sort themselves out. It looks like I can avoid this by slowing the long multi click throw down in the lower gears. Be slower and smoother multi downshifting when you are at the low end lets the derailleur move up the cassette smoothly instead of trying to jump 2 cogs and momentarily bind itself. Upshifting will be sometimes be greeted with a nice smooth shift while other times an abrupt clang as the chain settles in place. Might not be the smoothest system but the shifts happen quick and reliably so far.
[Edit Update]
Looks like the B-gap adjustment was the reason for the derailleur binding on multi downshifts in the big cogs. B-gap is supposed to be 15-17mm! I was around 11.5mm at first before I looked up the installation instruction to see what the recommended B-gag was. There is where it would have been nice to at least include a small sheet of instructions. A novice installing the system might not know what the B-gap is and how and why to adjust it.
![1910509]( "1910509")
I might sound a little harsh so far but I have to stress how impressed I am with the Advent X drivetrain as an upgrade to a 3x9 system at less than $200. 11-48 Wide range. Great gear spacing. Clutched rear mech. Easy to set up and tune 10 speed. Works well if you understand it's weaknesses. When I first heard Specialized was moving to Microshift on some of their bikes my first reaction was "That sounds terrible". Now with some research on the Advent system and my first install I'm actually beginning to think entry level bikes with Tourney/Acera/Alivio need to jump on the Microshift bandwagon. If Shimano/SRAM don't bother to catch up producing an economical wide range 1x system for those sub $1k bikes they really deserve to start losing significant market share to Box and Microshift. I hope to really put it through the paces this weekend and give it a proper shakedown test.
First off the total costs going from the 3x9 to the 1x10 sytem.
Derailleur, shifter, and 11-48 aluminum cassette. $164.13
Narrow Wide chainring $17.99
Housing $5
SRAM PC1051 chain $24.00
Total: $211.12
Weight loss. I forgot to include the chain in the weight differential but I lost a total of 414 grams not counting chain loss or gains. Pretty nice chunk of weight. The Stumpjumper went from mid 28's on the scale to 27lbs 8oz. I did write the Advent read derailleur weight on the F derailleur line. Just imagine it's in the right spot.
No real hiccups on installation. If you've installed a derailleur, cassette, and shiftier sometime in the last 25 years the process is pretty much the same. The feel fit and finish didn't blow me away. Feels very pedestrian and workmanlike. If holding an Ultegra derailleur feels like holding a Rolex holding Advent X feels like holding a Casio. That's not to say it feels like cheap junk, but you can tell the dollars were spent on features not fit and finish. At this price point I feels its a good compromise. The shifter came with cable and a ferrule. I'm not sure if there was supposed to be a plug where the shifter cable goes but it's just a big wide open hole with no cover.
I did appreciate that the limit screws were all keyed for 3mm allen wrenches instead of phillips heads.
With the 50mm chainline on my old SHimano cranks the front ring lined up with the 6th cog (biased towards the small cogs). With this alignment I had no problems with chain drop in the big cog pedaling backwards using the 32t Narrow wide chainring. I got lucky with the 114 link chain as I needed 113 links. Someone with a longer chainstays than a 2008 Stumpjumper or bigger chain ring might want make sure you get a chain long enough. I pulled the spacer from the drive side of the bottom bracket and moved it to the non-drive side to drop the chainline to ~47mm. This lined up the front chainring to the 5th cog so it's now biased towards the big cog. No problems with dropped chains pedalling backwards on any of the gears and I now get a bit less noise in the big gears where I spend most of my time.
Lever feel is very Acera/Alivio with a very hollow plastic sound and feel to the shifting. Advent X doesnt have that buttery smooth feel of a well set up Shimano sytem while shifting. You can feel the teeth working and grabbing pulling the chain to the next ring. You can downshift 3 clicks with one long throw with the Trail Pro shifter I purchased. This works great in the higher gears but in the lower gears it feels like the chain and cogs want to bind and you get a split second of additional pedal resistance as the chain and gears sort themselves out. It looks like I can avoid this by slowing the long multi click throw down in the lower gears. Be slower and smoother multi downshifting when you are at the low end lets the derailleur move up the cassette smoothly instead of trying to jump 2 cogs and momentarily bind itself. Upshifting will be sometimes be greeted with a nice smooth shift while other times an abrupt clang as the chain settles in place. Might not be the smoothest system but the shifts happen quick and reliably so far.
[Edit Update]
Looks like the B-gap adjustment was the reason for the derailleur binding on multi downshifts in the big cogs. B-gap is supposed to be 15-17mm! I was around 11.5mm at first before I looked up the installation instruction to see what the recommended B-gag was. There is where it would have been nice to at least include a small sheet of instructions. A novice installing the system might not know what the B-gap is and how and why to adjust it.
I might sound a little harsh so far but I have to stress how impressed I am with the Advent X drivetrain as an upgrade to a 3x9 system at less than $200. 11-48 Wide range. Great gear spacing. Clutched rear mech. Easy to set up and tune 10 speed. Works well if you understand it's weaknesses. When I first heard Specialized was moving to Microshift on some of their bikes my first reaction was "That sounds terrible". Now with some research on the Advent system and my first install I'm actually beginning to think entry level bikes with Tourney/Acera/Alivio need to jump on the Microshift bandwagon. If Shimano/SRAM don't bother to catch up producing an economical wide range 1x system for those sub $1k bikes they really deserve to start losing significant market share to Box and Microshift. I hope to really put it through the paces this weekend and give it a proper shakedown test.
