Having always been excited about mixing and matching drivetrains in ways they were never meant to be used, Spencer’s interest was piqued with the D1x Trail shifter offering from Archer Components. With the second generation of the D1x, Archer added a multitude of new features to make this an appealing alternative to big-brand wireless shifting systems.

Allowing for wireless use of any cable-actuated derailleur opened some doors to intriguing (if unconventional) use cases. Check out Spencer’s review of the D1x Trail and all the strange combinations it enables below…

Editor’s note: Just as we were preparing to publish our review of the Archer D1x, we learned the company known for its innovative and niche products had shut down. The company will move back into its owner’s garage and he will keep up replacement parts and warranty as long as he can. Despite this development, we still wanted to share the review since it was a fun experiment and showcased what was possible with the Archer D1x.

Archer Components has been around since 2016 when they started making wireless shifting solutions that opened doors rather than closed them. Their wireless systems allow for a vast array of creative and innovative use of non-traditional drivetrain solutions. All of which are not limited by being a part of a holistic system. Hell, they even make a box that allows you to turn any controller with a headphone jack into a controller for the D1x shifter.

I think Archer’s systems fall short of the true idea of open source, but their app and system are far more open than what is offered by Shimano, SRAM, or any other major brand offering a wireless drivetrain. By allowing the user to dial in the correct shifting for each cog separately, unencumbered by the swaying tides of cable pull ratio or compatibility, the Archer D1x is truly a treasure for a tinkerer.

D1x Trail Shifter (Gen 2) Quick Hits

• Price: $449
• Includes: shifter, battery, USB charger, shift cable (60 cm), cable housing, mounting zip-ties, paddle remote & handlebar clamp
• Weight: 168 grams (shifter & remote)
• Compatible from 2 to 20 shift points
• Up to 30 hour run time (or 3 months of standby)
• Micro-adjust individual gears on the fly
• Sealed against the elements

New for Gen 2:

• Works with all Archer remotes
• New 350 mAH quick-charging cartridge battery (compatible with AXS batteries and soon, e-bikes)
• New battery delivers shifts at sprint speeds
• New USB-C battery charger
• 30% weight reduction
• Accelerometer used to wake shifter instead of on/off button
• Store various wheel configurations in the app without reconfiguring the shifter

The Archer D1x Trail consists of two main parts: the remote and the shifter. The remote is the paddle rocker attached to your handlebars that controls the shifter. The shifter is the box housing most of the electronics and motor that actually actuates the shift cable to change the gears on your bike. The shifter is usually mounted via zip tie to the bike’s chainstay but can be mounted anywhere with said zip ties, or even their bottle cage mount.

Paddle Remote

• Fully sealed against the elements
• Durable Cerakote surface finish
• MicroUSB rechargeable battery and up to 50 hours of ride time
• Remote weight: 35g (half the weight of AXS!)
• MatchMaker compatible left & right mounting options

Anyone who has used any iteration of SRAM’s AXS system will feel at home with Archer’s paddle remote. The remote uses an internal battery that will need to be charged separately from the shifter battery. A single button on the front of the remote turns the remote on and allows for micro adjustment of gears on the fly. A single MicroUSB port is used to charge the remote when needed. If you want to add that extra bit of customization, Archer offers the paddles in nine colors to match your bike’s color scheme.

Trail Shifter

• Fully compatible with all Archer remotes
• Sealed against the elements
• 133g – Shifter and battery total weight
• Compatible with e-bike power connectors

The shifter is the real meat and potatoes of the system. The box houses all the electronics and the motor that makes the magic happen. While the shifter box is larger than the small motors stashed inside modern wireless derailleurs, its flexibility is predicated on being able to shift almost any system you can dream up. That kind of flexibility requires the shifter size we see. If you are really intent on clean lines, the D1x might not be for you, but you are only limited by your creativity here.

Installation

The paddle remote mounts to a standard 22.2 clamp, as with all modern trigger shifters. The D1x Trail Shifter mounts via zip ties to the chainstay through cleverly designed internal routing around the shifter. It took me a minute to wrap my head around the routing. The head of the zip ties stays right where the tail comes out and creates a very secure connection to the bike. The connection keeps the rubber gasket pressed against the seat stay, keeping the elements out of the inner workings of the shifter.

The shifter is controlled with Archer’s companion app where all the settings and configurations are stored. One slightly weird aspect is that the remote needs to be turned off while you are configuring the shifter. This makes sense since you don’t want two inputs at the same time, but I had a brief issue getting my shifter to show up in the app due to that fact.

The app is basic and without flair, which is totally fine with me. The app worked reliably and didn’t give me any issues during my review period.

Shift Everything

Once you have the shifter installed and initialized, it’s time to configure the shifting. This is handled in the app by setting the number of cogs your cassette has, and then individually dialing in each shift point manually. This works by individually indexing each gear and shift. Have a cassette where one cog is a bit more worn and it needs a little extra nudge to shift? Just add a bit more pull to that shift point. This is an important distinction between the AXS system and the Archer system; micro-adjusting only affects the current shift point instead of the entire indexation across the cassette. This total customization of the indexing process frees us all from the oppressive bounds of brand-proprietary cable pull ratios.

I’m sure that the Archer system works great when you pair the correct derailleur, cassette, and chain – but I wanted to explore the capabilities of such a think-outside-the-box system. I tried two off-the-wall ideas that I thought would make for fun test beds for the Archer D1x Trail system.

Mixing DEORE XT Linkglide and SRAM Eagle

While Shimano’s new CUES system unites many of their 9, 10, and 11 speed drivetrains under the same cable pull ratio banner, it doesn’t play nice with SRAM’s Eagle drivetrain. I’ve loved my time playing with the SRAM AXS system. I have found the clutch tension on the system to be a bit lacking personally, and wouldn’t you just know it, the Deore XT Linkglide derailleur has an adjustable clutch.

You’re probably saying, why not just use a Shimano Hyperglide+ 12-speed drivetrain and have the same range and the adjustable clutch? Well, I don’t have that shit just lying around, but I did have all of these parts in my bin and I liked the idea of the mixed drivetrain. If you come at me with that silliness, be prepared to get trolled in the comments, fair warning.

Derailleurs are passive devices and do whatever they are told with regard to movement via cable pull. The Archer shifter gives you total control over that process so the Deore XT derailleur doesn’t know it’s not being actuated by a Shimano shifter or moving through SRAM gears. With little effort and minimal time finagling, I had the Shimano derailleur shifting through the whole Eagle cassette with ease. I had to do some guesswork on the b-screw adjustment as these two aren’t really meant to play together, but there was a time before b-screw gauges and it could be divined from the void.

When you strip away the proprietary 3-D movement and cable pull ratio of drivetrain systems they all will find a way to play together. Much the same way friction shifting allows almost any combination of drivetrain components to work, the Archer D1x gives you that kind of freedom, but in an indexed electronic wireless package.

Wireless Sturmey-Archer 3-Speed

C’mon y’all; with Archer in the name, you know I couldn’t resist testing it on the iconic Sturmey-Archer 3-speed internal hub. Before you get any ideas, the Archer D1x does not work with Rohloff or Pinion systems as they require two cables to shift. Since the 3-speed hub only requires one cable to shift, we get to play.

My friend deposited this vintage Dahon folding bike in my possession many years ago. Decrying that “I just needed it,” it has had a small spot on the shelf in my shed ever since (thanks Adam). I’ve done some silly modifications to make it a bit more comfortable, but that’s another whole story. The most important part is that it has a stubborn Sturmey-Archer 3-speed hub to test our Archer D1x on.

Attaching the D1x shifter to the small folding bike frame was tight and much more difficult than a standard bike’s chainstay, but I was able to wedge it in there. The cable pull between the gears on the SA 3-speed doesn’t feel linear, with the gap between first and second gear feeling much farther than second to third. Since the D1x allows us to adjust the cable pull to whatever we want, I just dialed in the shift points for each gear and, voila, there you have an electronic wireless Sturmey Archer 3-speed hub. Turns out I wasn’t the first to think of this, of course. Russ from Path Less Pedaled had the same idea with an earlier iteration of the D1x; hats off to another tinkerer.

Before I swapped this bike to the Archer D1x, I relocated the standard cable shifter to a similar spot so that I didn’t need to worry about cable housing while folding the bike. The D1x system seems like a great option for folding bikes if you don’t want to fuss with break-apart cable fixture or to position your shifter in strange places on your bike.

Get Creative

In this review, I have scratched the surface of the possibilities enabled by the Archer D1x system. Archer offers remotes for drop bar bikes and buttons that can be positioned anywhere on your bike in conjunction with their MFR box. The opportunities are truly vast when you consider tandems, recumbents, tall bikes, longtail cargo, or adaptive bicycles. Let your mind run free, unconstrained by the limits of cable routing and shifting compatibility.

Wireless Friction

This journey started with a personal dream to have something akin to wireless friction shifting. It is a silly nonsensical dream, but a dream nonetheless. In my mind’s eye, I see a thumb shifter lever attached to a stereo volume dial connected to Archer’s MFR remote box which allows you to plug in any switch with a 3.5mm headphone plug. Moving the knob would move the shifter through the range of shift points, giving that friction feeling, with well, no friction!

While the current system doesn’t currently accommodate my silly dream, the ability to micro-adjust each gear individually does scratch the friction-shifting itch in my brain. It allows me to combine drivetrains as I always have, just wirelessly, which is pretty sweet. Maybe one day my dream will come true…

Who is it For?

While the $449 price tag is much lower than other wireless systems, it is by no means cheap, which begs one to ask: who is this for? To me, the Archer D1x system really speaks to the tinkerers in the bike world. Adapting to new drivetrains and vintage systems alike, the D1x allows you to be so flexible. I’m not gonna sit here and tell you that you need wireless shifting for your bike; you probably don’t. But maybe you want to experiment. Maybe you don’t want to be locked into a system that may lose support one day. On the other side of that coin, how long will Archer be around, and with the app being necessary to configure the shifter, how future-proof is this small company? I can’t say. The capabilities of the Archer D1x tickle a silly part of my bike mechanic brain that dreams up ridiculous use cases and combinations and for that, I have loved my time with the D1x Trail Shifter.

Pros

• Great battery life
• Works with almost any cable-actuated derailleur
• Frees users from the confines of cable pull ratios
• Wireless for most bikes
• Works with AXS batteries and e-bikes (with adapter)
• Many remote options
• Lots of possibilities for adaptive use

Cons

• The shifter is bulky and visually unappealing on the chainstay
• Doesn’t work with Pinion and Rohloff
• Less convenient and slick than big-brand systems

In light of finding out that Archer Components has shut down it’s a bummer to be vindicated in my skepticism of the continued support of new and niche tech can be. Though, it seems for the time being Archer will continue their warranty and replacement parts as long as possible, operating out of the owner’s garage. I’m truly saddened to see another innovative small company get swallowed up by the bike bust ravaging the industry at the moment. I felt Archer was really hitting their stride with the second generation of their D1x trail shifter and all the opportunities it afforded.