Box One/Two Prime 9 X Wide £400 (without chainring)
Box’s range-topping drivetrain is a fairly neat package and its nine-speed reliability is appealing. We were sent a Box Two cassette, though, nearly 250g heavier than the premium Box One version. Each Box Two sprocket is made from stamped steel pinned to an alloy spider, and because the cassette uses Shimano’s older HG freehub standard, the smallest cog is 11-tooth and the largest 50t, giving it a narrower range than others here. With just nine sprockets, the gap between each gear is larger, too. Box recommend using their own Prime 9 dual-coated chain to reduce wear and increase smoothness. The mech’s clutch is adjustable and the jockey wheels run on sealed cartridge bearings rather than bushings.
Installation was straightforward. We were grateful for the shifter’s hinged bar clamp, but its width meant some testers struggled to get it in a comfy position. Indexing the gears was much trickier than expected, as the cable tension sweet spot was small. Out of this zone the chain skipped badly, but once set up correctly no further adjustment was needed. The clutch tension caused the mech cage’s initial movement to be sticky, giving a stiff shifting feel and interfering with performance. Reducing tension improved this but led to chain slap. Even with the factory clutch setting, chain control was poor, the gears skipping on rough trails under load. Also, we had to push the shifter paddle a long way to engage gears, which led to misshifts, and even then the feel was vague. Despite expecting to feel big jumps between gears, in practice we didn’t need to stretch out the ratios before changing gear because the biggest step between sprockets is only eight teeth. www.moorelarge.co.uk