e*thirteen by The Hive TRS Plus Cassette Upgrade Kit [Rider Review]

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The beauty of current mountain bike tech is evident even at the entry level. If you want to have the big gear range of brands like SRAM and Shimano it's within reach. Our valued customer Jay shares his thoughts on the e*thirteen by The Hive TRS Plus Cassette Upgrade Kit. Check it out!

Overview

I've been riding my Trek Fuel EX9 with the SRAM X1 11 speed drive train for about 4 years now, and my gears were finally starting to get worn again. I had the 10-42t cassette on the rear paired with at Wolf Tooth 28t oval ring upfront. I was on my 3rd cassette and I decided to try the e*thirteen TRS Plus Cassette 12-speed upgrade kit. It really came down to price, for me. The upgrade kit came with a brand new cassette that offered more range, a larger low gear (46 vs 42), and a smaller big gear (9 vs 10), bumped me up to 12-speeds vs 11, and also came with a new chain. All of this was had for just a little more than buying a new 11-speed cassette.

The kit came well packaged with everything needed to do the swap, including tools. So if you're worried about not having all the bike tools to do the job, they've got you covered. The cassette is 2-piece, with the inner two large rings separate from the rest. They assume you use those more so they wear out faster. In the future, you could replace just those inner cogs rather than the whole cassette. Smart! Installing the cassette took a few tries, but I finally got it on there. The inner cogs needed some help from a rubber mallet to fully seat on the hub. The outer part of the cassette gets fit in the place where you can see the arrow and the 'lock/unlock' icons. Then you use a cassette tool to turn the cassette piece into place. It takes a little force, so don't be shy. Once it's locked into place, you put in the 3mm screw to make sure it stays put.

Once everything is all adjusted, you're good to go! All in all, this is a great kit.

Next, you need to modify your existing shifter to give it an extra 'click' to make it 12-speed. For this part, I found a few videos online that explained the process. Surprisingly, e*thirteen doesn't include any instructions whatsoever with the kit. So get on YouTube and find you a good one. I think I switched between Pink Bike and this one from VitalMTB: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OxyzCH9n6Sg. The process is not hard, but I suggest you watch the video a few times to get familiar with the parts and the process first. Basically, you take apart your shifter, swap out the inner cog from the 11-speed to the new 12-speed cog. Then put it all back together. The last thing you need to do is put the supplied bearing caps onto your derailleur pulley wheels. Again, they've supplied all the tools and parts needed for that.

Once all the changes have been made, you're good to install the brand new chain and hook up your shifter to the derailleur again. They supplied a brand new cable and housing (again, with the giving of all the parts!) if you need them. Adjust your derailleur to work with the new cassette. Mine needed some b-screw adjustments to make sure it was pulling far enough to get to the new big cog. 

Final Thoughts

I've put a few rides on it so far and it's awesome. It shifts as smoothly as my stock X1 did, but it has much more range. For the price, I really can't recommend anything else for someone running 11-speed still.