Gevenalle CX Hydraulic shifters
Review: Gevenalle CX Hydraulic shifters
By Scott Mares | Published Feb 6, 2015We Liked
So, I have ridden Shimano and SRAM and I have never ridden the Gevenalle before. I have met the owner and he has been trying to get me to trying to get me on them for about 2 years now and I finally gave in. I have had Inge and Joe get on them and ride them and race them and even steered my team mates to use them but I have held out. Gevenalle came about to make a simpler an more robust lever for cyclocross. There has really nothing (except tires) been made specifically for cyclocross. Road parts are modified and used. The sport is really hard on equipment and in this instance simpler is better. So what they have done is taken a down tube style of lever and remade it to fit a aero brake lever. Put it all together and you have a very simple, serviceable, lightweight and economical system. Now I called it a system didn't I? Well that's because you should use the back end part as well. The rear derailleur is also designed for cross. This thing has a spring that is 20% stiffer than a Dura Ace spring and has Ultegra level pulleys. destroy it and its only $34 bucks!
So after about 6 min of riding around on it and playing with it I was totally comfortable with it and I didn't find myself looking for the Shimano shifters. So to summarize all of the good things about this system I have made a little list below.
- Light weight
- The brakes feel amazing
- extra long hoods!
- Shifting is crisp
- Parts are highly machined.
- Uses the Kiss Principal in design
We Didn't Like
So with everything there is a little bit of a trade off. You will have to decide what is more important to you. Really we could only find 2 things that we didn't like about them.
Not a 1 finger shift like Shimano
Wire outside looks unfinished.
However, with that said I am going to switch over both of my bikes to this setup..
The Final Say
What Hydraulic but don't want to shell $700 out for the levers and brakes? I sure don't. Would you want a set of levers that weigh less than SRAM or Shimano? How about have less moving parts and had a Awesome crash replacement program? So what isthe final verdict on the Gevenalle system? Its a great system for cyclocross. This system fills the 10,000 foot gap between what a normal human can afford and what we would like to have. You can get a 1X mechanical set for $139.00 or the Hydraulic set for $499.00. Cyclocross has been in a big boom lately and there has been some lag from the manufacturers to get hydraulic brakes that work with integrated shifter systems. Along the way to date there has been plenty of hick ups. First the UCI said "NO" to hydraulic brakes. Then they reversed that decision and now they are legal then the UCI said NO to hydraulic brakes for the road racing and that has been one big road block. Until recently they are now looking into it and making requirements for safety reasons. So Shimano and SRAM entered into a type of Hydraulic arms race to produce an integrated shift lever that works with their own hydraulic system. SRAM got there first and then fell fault on its face with a defect on a seal that would cause the brake to fail. Shimano kept stalling and people were left scrambling to change them out to mechanical brakes. Gevenallle has come up with a simple, effective, light weight, economical ($700 Shimano, $590 SRAM) solution to this. Bottom line the system works, its effective and easy to use. Its also much lighter than other current systems. We are going to be moving out cross bikes over to this light weight hydraulic system for the 2015 season...