Box Prime 9… take 2

I wrote a review last year about Box Components Prime 9 drivetrain. If you want the low down, go read it, the guys at Box did. So when they came to me and asked if I would like to review Generation 2, G2, of their excellent wide range 9 speed system, I naturally said no.

Well no, I didn’t. I said hell yes (duh!).

Of course after the eagerness died down, a type of buyer’s remorse set in. I’ve been around bikes and the bike biz long enough to know that despite Jonny From Marketing’s best efforts to convince me otherwise, nine times out of ten, new bike stuff is either just a rehash of old bike stuff, or some daft new direction no one really wants, or needs but know we are going to be forced into using anyway. So while I was waiting for the G2 to arrive, I pondered just what I was going to say that I had not already said.

Turns out I need not have worried so much.

When I unpacked the box of Box from the box (see what I did there?), I was greeted with the familiar packaging – I have installed four Box setups on the racked bike, so have got to know it well. This time though, when I opened the box of Box (there it is again!), apart from the chain and cassette, that have remain unchanged, what greeted me was something very different. G2, it turns out was not an update, or a tweak, which if I am being honest was what I was expecting, but a whole new thing. The only similarity the G2 derailleur has to its predecessor is that it’s 9 speed. Everything else, and I do mean everything, is all new…

It’s always the little things that grab my attention first, so the first detail I noticed (after getting over the all newness of it all) was not some glorious, big ticket thing but one that I guarantee that you never notice… the B-Gap (B-tension) screw. The new B-Gap screw is now offset and pushes against a seating block, taking over from the traditional role of the screw itself. I found this to be a blessing as the Syntace hanger on the bike has a very minimal seating step for the screw and I’ve found that B-Gap screws can ‘jump’ the step and make a mess. This system completely eliminates this issue meaning that on the bike I tested it on, there was no issue setting everything up just right, and it staying that way (if you’ve ever had a B-Gap setting go wrong, you’ll know what I mean).

The next detail to shine was the shift cable, which now exits into a roller and then a grooved track in the derailleur body itself (the upside of moulded composites). This creates a smooth cable path to the pinch bolt, usually a minimal afterthought on many derailleurs, as well as seats the cable firmly.  The new cage design too has a beefiness to it that inspires a level of confidence that it’s going to hold up to abuse. So if you ride trails that have sticks and branches sticking out all over the place, ready to snag and kill your derailleur, this thing has your back.

And most noticeable of all, like the elephant sitting in the corner of the room? G2 is substantially beefier than the G1, which was far more traditional in its design. The G2’s body is hefty, boasting…

• New geometry > Near Horizontal actuation = light gear pulls & less ghost shifting.
• Tri-Pack 2.0 clutch with larger discs & finer threads > increased torque & adjustability = less chain slap & easier to set up.
• Wide offset cage > more pulley offset & cage surface = crisper shifting & tougher.

Did I say it was beefy? And made from composites?

But not stopping there, the shifter unit too has been redesigned. Gone is the more traditional shape of the G1 and in its place is a slender square that nestles nicely away under the brake lever and with that packaging change also comes…

• Metal injection gears > tougher & harder = increased service life & crisper feedback.
• Magnesium top-shell > added structure without weight = crisper feedback.
• Magnesium pull-lever > added structure without weight = crisper feedback.
• No-loss gear changes > immediate engagement = shorter & faster gear pulls.

And there are nice graphics. Clever even. That’s important… and I never really liked the graphic treatment on the G1.

All sounds like the business, doesn’t it? But let’s get to the juicy bit… all the design and construction refinements are one thing but how does the G2 perform when used in anger?

Truth be told, I was expecting much of the same as G1, which if you’ve read my previous review will know that that’s a good thing. But like the G2 design, the shifting performance was all new. I ride a lot of up and down singletrack, so shift through the block a lot during a ride, but right from the get go I noticed that the lever feel was crisper, faster and somewhat more comfortable. I’d become used to the G1’s shifting, which requires just a little bit of ‘over push’ on the up-shift to make sure the shift sticks (a tiny thing you get used to in no time) but the G2 was on mark every time, meaning that the shift speed has not only increased but, if at all possible, feels crisper.

Down shifts too are noticeably snappier, so pushing through the singletrack sections, moving up and down the block in rapid succession, the G2 delivers a definite step up from the G1 in terms of overall performance – I have not had a single misshift or even the slightest hint of complaint from the derailleur during some less than well timed shifting a.k.a shifting under load; something I put down to its solid construction coupled with the actual functional redesign, which delivers a stiff unit that offers no hint of flex or complaint, even under the most rubbish shifting conditions.

The chain and cassette, unchanged from G1, are as rock solid as always; the advantages in a 9 speed system are abundantly clear with the sheer punishment the chain can handle and the cassette provides clean and crisp shifts. It’s business as usual.

Overall, what can I say? I was not really expecting G2 to be such a radical redesign of a system that I thought was pretty damn good to begin with. That the G2 takes that pretty damn good and makes it better, noticeably better, is really what redesign should be about and Box has done it in spades. Where I had no hesitation is recommending Box’s Prime 9 to ‘serious’ riders, I will have even less doing so with the G2. The catch for me now is trying to prevent myself from replacing the remaining three G1 systems on the other bikes…