ethirteen e13 Helix R Cassette reviews?
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I just installed the 11spd tonight, xt 8000 shifter and rear derailleur. Noticeably light and looks well made. Install was pretty quick- need to dial it in and will report back after I ride it...
Where? Been trying to buy one for weeks.
Thanks.
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I was on EThirteen's notification list for the Helix R 12 and didn't get the notification. I just happened to be browsing their site and caught them in stock. You may or may not run into the same issue.
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Same here, unfortunately. No notification just happened to check the website and was able to purchase the 11. I checked again last night and 11s were sold out again.
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No it was intergalatic, it is not pure purple you can see hints of blue on the teeth and towards the middle of the cogs is gold. Also my Sram NX derailleur was causing me some issues with my cassette so I got myself an Shimano XT shifter and SLX derailleur for the Helix R. Hope this works out when I get it installed.
The 11 speed Helix was just in stock so I ordered one.
I do like the Leonardi 9-48 12 speed cassette I currently run but it has began creaking a lot but also I find I don't need the full range and I find the gears too close for AM riding.
The goal is to run my AXS as an 11 Speed. We'll see.
I do like the Leonardi 9-48 12 speed cassette I currently run but it has began creaking a lot but also I find I don't need the full range and I find the gears too close for AM riding.
The goal is to run my AXS as an 11 Speed. We'll see.
The intergalactic is not a pure blue, it has some rainbow shade to it. It can look blue in certain light, but those pics look like mine. This isn’t a clean cassette, but the purple hues show up here.
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964 Posts
So got mine in and threw it on late last week. I have two rides on it so far.
My setup
SRAM XO1
I9 Hydra Hubs
New XX1 oil slick chain with install
Picked up the Gray one. Wanted intergalactic but didn't want to wait...lol. The gray is much lighter than the pics. Pretty hard to discern a difference from the outer portion at a distance.
Couple of things on install
I had a hard time getting the 2pc cassette to cam together. Thinking it might be tolerances in the hydra hub, I threw the road spacer behind it and it cammed together very easily. Took that back out and was able to get it to go together. Had a hard time getting the capscrew to line up but eventually muscled it till it lined up..
Added the new chain(old one was almost a link too long.)
I made a few barrel adjustments and it started shifting perfectly. No limit screw or gap adjustments required in my case.
Twenty miles or so on it now. Shifting performance is very good. It actually feels like a shimano setup now, very crisp, positive shifts, both under power and not.
Told my buddies it feels like an xt rear derailleur now(if you think that is a good thing)
Yes, I did replace my shift cable....lol.
I'd give it a solid 4.5 out of 5 stars, only downgrading for the difficulty I had getting it together.
![1913096]()
My setup
SRAM XO1
I9 Hydra Hubs
New XX1 oil slick chain with install
Picked up the Gray one. Wanted intergalactic but didn't want to wait...lol. The gray is much lighter than the pics. Pretty hard to discern a difference from the outer portion at a distance.
Couple of things on install
I had a hard time getting the 2pc cassette to cam together. Thinking it might be tolerances in the hydra hub, I threw the road spacer behind it and it cammed together very easily. Took that back out and was able to get it to go together. Had a hard time getting the capscrew to line up but eventually muscled it till it lined up..
Added the new chain(old one was almost a link too long.)
I made a few barrel adjustments and it started shifting perfectly. No limit screw or gap adjustments required in my case.
Twenty miles or so on it now. Shifting performance is very good. It actually feels like a shimano setup now, very crisp, positive shifts, both under power and not.
Told my buddies it feels like an xt rear derailleur now(if you think that is a good thing)
Yes, I did replace my shift cable....lol.
I'd give it a solid 4.5 out of 5 stars, only downgrading for the difficulty I had getting it together.
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586 Posts
So is the reliability better than their old cassettes?
I mean the connection of the 2 cassette pieces.
The old ones were terrible. Constant creaking if not drowned in grease. And even than.
The intergalatic color looks great, but 130-160 bucks for a replacement cluster is too much to be really called
"cost savings"
I mean the connection of the 2 cassette pieces.
The old ones were terrible. Constant creaking if not drowned in grease. And even than.
The intergalatic color looks great, but 130-160 bucks for a replacement cluster is too much to be really called
"cost savings"
I have about 125 miles on mine now. Shifting under power has been very clean, major improvement over GX, often it’s instant and noiseless. However, I am having some ongoing issues with my GX shifter backing off cable tension occasionally after longer rowdy descents so I may upgrade there. That’s not new to this cassette, though, and not shockingly, the really crisp shifting is at proper tension. Probably time for a new cable.
So is pairing the Helix with say GX just a road to a full upgrade of GX? It might be. You get attuned to the performance increase with a XX1 chain and then other things cross your radar again that you were ignoring. Of course, the cost savings vs say XX1 pay for an upgraded shifter so there’s that, but it’s likely that going this route is going to generate other spend if the really fined tuned performance was important in the first place.
Also, the 9T gear is really low and it does run smooth for the very limited time I’ve been in that gear. I rode next to my son on a road descent where he was on the GX 10t and the difference is obvious, both of us with 32T chainrings. That could be good or bad if you use that gear on trail.
Bottom line for now: unless something weird crops up, the only thing left for me would be any issue of premature wear/failure. The Helix is not presenting as any more or less finicky than other Eagle setups, but it may get you upgrading other stuff you’ve been telling yourself you weren’t going to upgrade.
Yea I should add that we couldn’t get the two pieces together when my son installed his (the orange version is awesome). He needed some shop work anyway on a Zeb install so we punted and let them deal with it. There does seem to be some really fine tolerance on that first mating depending on the hub, then it will go after that.
Neither of us have noticed any creaking noise, but we’re at maybe 200 trail miles combined.
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8 Posts
Went out for a quick loop today, it was 18° out and icy so I really couldn't push much...
Definitely happy with it. Shifted smooth and crisp and had zero issues throughout- coming off a 10-42 I noticed a big gain climbing with the 46. I'm xt m8000 shifter/derailleur and it shifted without hesitation under load. Downshifting into the lower gears was seamless.
We're expecting around 12" of snow tomorrow so unfortunately won't be able to give it a real good run for awhile...
Definitely happy with it. Shifted smooth and crisp and had zero issues throughout- coming off a 10-42 I noticed a big gain climbing with the 46. I'm xt m8000 shifter/derailleur and it shifted without hesitation under load. Downshifting into the lower gears was seamless.
We're expecting around 12" of snow tomorrow so unfortunately won't be able to give it a real good run for awhile...
I mounted up the 11 speed Helix on to my AXS.
Made a few adjustments and set the high limit so it wouldn't try to shift to a non-existent 12th gear.
The goal was to have a wide ratio transmission and to get rid of the very low first gear (48-52t) that I find useless anyways.
It seems to shift very well, but the real test comes tomorrow on the trails.
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Made a few adjustments and set the high limit so it wouldn't try to shift to a non-existent 12th gear.
The goal was to have a wide ratio transmission and to get rid of the very low first gear (48-52t) that I find useless anyways.
It seems to shift very well, but the real test comes tomorrow on the trails.
Sent from my KYOCERA-E6920 using Tapatalk
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121 Posts
I installed the 9-50T Helix R on a Hope Pro 4 Hub mated to Shimano XT Derailleur & XTR Chain. The bike seemed to shift well on the stand with no adjustment from the SLX 10-51T cassette that I removed. It does make more noise than the complete Shimano setup. I'm hoping that settles after a couple rides and some tweaking. I need some days without snow to really put it to the test.
I bought one (12 speed) and, for the first time ever, had to take a cassette to my LBS for them to install it. I use a Hope hub so, a spacer was used for the 42-50T cluster. That said, the mechanic can't get the set-screw to clear the slot machined in the cog. Tolerancing issues maybe?
From your pictures, I can't tell if the set-screw head is resting on the 36T cog or the cog's machined slot (semicircle) is over it. Any advice or comment on how to proceed? I've contacted ethirteen and currently await a response. Thanks!
From your pictures, I can't tell if the set-screw head is resting on the 36T cog or the cog's machined slot (semicircle) is over it. Any advice or comment on how to proceed? I've contacted ethirteen and currently await a response. Thanks!
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964 Posts
I had to really crank on it and finally got it to line up enough to fit. I have removed it a time or two to work on some things and it fits fine now. It was just really hard to get to line up and even seat together the first time, even with the bb tool and a chain whip. Since then, I can just cam it in place by hand and the hole for the set screw lines up. I'm on I9 hubs FWIW.
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