Drivetrain disruptors - Ratio - Madrone - INGRID - Growtac and BIG SHIFTER

Imagine not having to worry about the expensive upgrade path for your bike's drivetrain.

• What if you could use the one derailleur on any shifter from Sram, Shimano, Campagnolo?
• What if that derailleur was repairable?
• What if you could use the one pair of shifters on any derailleur? Sram, Shimano, Campagnolo, Microshift, road or MTB?  

All of these things are possible now. You can break out of that walled garden, it probably just depends on your budget as to which solution you choose, and of course your taste.

Ratio Technology ----------- Madrone Cycles ----------- INGRID.BIKE 

Thankfully there are few smaller companies disrupting the dominance "BIG SHIFTER". I'm talking about mechanical shifting here. Not the electric stuff. There are options for both approaches now. Derailleur or shifter based. There are at least 3 derailleurs with adjustable cable pull, and at least one shifter that will let you use a multitude of different derailleurs. 

The derailleurs
The latest entry into the market is the Ratio Technology "Mech" - english slang for derailleur. Ratio-Technology have been at the forefront of BIG SHIFTER disruption since they launched their replacement 12 and 13 speed ratchets, after Sram decided not to support 12 speed mechanical shifting for the road. Ratio also produced derailleur extender cages, enabling the use of bigger cassettes, and alternative cable fins that allowed you to mullet certain Sram MTB derailleurs for use with road-based shifters. Ratio seems to have left no stone unturned while filling the gaps left by Sram, so the launch of their own derailleur should not be seen as a surprise.

Their new rebuildable derailleur allows for UDH and standard hanger mounts with two cages for different sized cassettes (46 and 52 tooth). They've launched with eight different cable fins compatible with many different shifting ecosystems and they plan on releasing more. The construction is a mixture of 7075 and 6082 aluminum with acetal thermoplastic for jockey wheels and 3d printing for the nylon knuckles. The parts are all available to purchase from their website and they seem to be proudly sourced from "The Lake District" in the UK.

The secret sauce is all in the design of the cable fin and having them swappable is something that Sram could have done easily themselves had they wanted too. It could have saved a lot of confusion over the difference between X-actuation and Exact-actuation. Some people were hacking it back in the day, even before Ratio's solution was available.

Sram have finally taken notice of Ratio's work and now have a 12 speed mechanical road-based shift option and more recently some rebuildable rear derailleurs. 

Clever graticules printed on the derailleur body make adjustment simple with graphics showing which directions to turn the cable adjuster and the limit screws. Image from Ratio Technology.

Madrone is the next most recent addition to the multi ecosystem derailleur crew. Based in Oregon US they have taken the CNC machined approach for the construction of their new JAB derailleur. The swapable cam (3d printed), similar to the Ratio Technology fin, is the technique they use to allow compatibility with many different shift ecosystems. Madrone even have an option for their competitor Ratio Technology's shifter kit. Madrone's approach grew out their dissatisfaction with the throw away nature of many derailleurs and they got their start by building kits to refurb tired Sram derailleurs, and like Ratio decided to go one step further with their own rebuildable derailleur design. 

They are selling three separate derailleurs for MTB, T-TYPE and Gravel. It appears that all of their parts are replaceable, right through to the adjustable clutch. 

The documentation on the websites of all of these companies is very comprehensive. Madrone offers 11 different cams/fins for combinations of 11 and 12 speed in 1x. Like Ratio they also have two different cage lengths, maxing out at 45 and 52 teeth. There is a very in-depth interview with Aaron from Madrone and Russ from PLP here. It's a good watch. 

Image from Joe Keto - https://jketo.mypixieset.com/

INGRID were actually the first ones to go down the path of the open ecosystem with their RD1 derailleur. Similar to Ratio Technology's offering it is a combination of CNC machining and 3d printed polyamide. Like the others the clutch is fully serviceable. In fact, Ingrid probably set the standard for the others to follow. Replaceable parts, multiple drivetrain compatibility and a combination of CNC and thermoplastic componentry.

Ingrid also use a replaceable fin under the derailleur to tweak the pull ratio and have an extensive list of compatibilities with many shifters, mtb and road, Sram, Shimano and even Campagnolo. Well, they are Italian. Currently Ingrid lists 10 different fins although it appears that the Ekar 13 speed is not fully compatible - 11 and 12 speed only. It appears that Ratio are the only ones claiming to support 13 speed, via their replacement ratchets in Sram shifter bodies. 

The Ingrid derailleur is fully serviceable, and many of the parts are replaceable. Whether it is cost effective to replace the parts is another issue, but that's not limited to "boutique" derailleurs like the Ingrid RD1. The roughly 570 euro price tag of the Ingrid will put many off but that might just be the price you have to pay for Italian flair combined with the right to repair. There is not a lot of information out there about the INGRID derailleur, other than what is on their website, but they do tend to get used on "dream builds" like this titanium Singular Gryphon.

The thing that makes INGRID stand out is that unlike Ratio and Madrone, they did not start out by making parts to improve Sram derailleurs. They forged their own path from scratch. Credit to Sram that their derailleurs can be worked on by home mechanics, unlike most other groupsets. When INGRID started on their initial design in 2017 they would not have been thinking about UDH, but I am sure they are now. Let's hope that these drivetrain disruptors are around long enough that the parts are still available for the people that have invested in them. Reviews on INGRID derailleurs are rare but this one surfaced last week from the Radavist. 

Image from INGRID.BIKE

This concludes the derailleur segment. How do you rate these different derailleurs that have just about all arrived at the same place? 

Ratio: Any colour, as long as its black! Can do 13 speeds, and maybe even 10 speeds? 

Madrone: Four colours and that shiney CNC look. 

INGRID: Eleven funky colours with a very geometric aesthetic, but not currently available in UDH. 

Brand	Weight	Model	Cost	Cages	UDH	Colours	Cassette max
Ratio	340/377	Mech	329 e	2	Y	Black	46 S 52 L
Madrone	308/326	Jab	255 e	2	Y	4	45 S 52 L
INGRID	270	RD1	570 e	2	N	11	46 S 52 L

The prices above were extrapolated from local currencies so YMMV

The shifters

There is only really one new disruptor in the shifter area itself. Maybe there are another two if you count the Gevenalle AUDAX shifters in friction mode, and whoever else makes thumbies/bar-end shifters in friction mode - Microshift?

The real disruptors are Growtac with their stepless (friction) road shifters and the ability to use practically any derailleur there is, road or mtb, just by swapping out a winding spool to change the amount of cable pulled. The procedure is a bit more complicated than swapping the fin on the underside of a derailleur but it has a similar effect. 

In a world that seems to think it's necessary to use electricity to charge their derailleurs, the fully cable operated Growtac shifter/brake combo is always going to look a bit fringe to most, but with many people using Growtac's light-weight and funky coloured brakes the brand is getting noticed.

The Growtac shifting experience is generally quiet, and despite what people think, it doesn't really get stuck between gears, that only happens on poorly indexed normal shifters. The advantage that the Growtac shifters have over the derailleur disruptors is that the derailleurs are largely confined to 11 or 12 speeds. The Growtac Control shifter will work on any number of gears.

Growtac have also launched "click plates".So if the stepless "feel" of friction shifting is not your thing, you can install the click plates for the groupset you require. So far there do not seem to be any Sram plates, but there are quite a few for Shimano. They do say that it is not actual indexing, it is the feel of indexing, so what that means, I really don't know. I have not experienced it.

If you want to learn more about my experiences with the Growtac shifters go here.

Image showing a "click plate" from Growtac website

Chart showing click plate compatibility

That's it. Will you pay more for the ability to upgrade your derailleur and replace its parts over time? A few people have tried it in the smart phone arena and I'm not sure it's been a raging success. When you look at the work these companies have put into these products without the resources of the big companies, they definitely deserve our respect.