ratio 1x12 wide ratchet and cage kit – 4000 km of analog happiness
hello friends :>
rim brakes. cables. mechanical shifting. my gravel bike for the ride to marseille is analog on purpose, and I love her for it. there was just one small problem: I wanted 1x12, and the only thing I had was an old 11 speed sram apex group sitting in the parts bin. the answer turned out to come from a tiny workshop up in the english lake district, and it has now carried me something like 4000 km without me touching a single barrel adjuster. not once!
let me tell you about it.
price: £116.25 direct from ratio technology (around €137, as of 06.10.2026) – disclosure: ratio sent me this kit free of charge for testing. honest words anyway, always.
kit tested: 1x12 wide ratchet and cage kit, silver cage
in the box: 1x12 ratchet for sram 10/11 speed shifters, 52 tooth capacity derailleur cage, jockey wheels (12t up top, 14t below), stainless enduro bearings, stainless hardware
cage weight: 81 g (ratio's claim – a sram gx cage is 85 g for comparison)
materials: cage plates cnc machined from 7075 aluminium, jockey wheels in delrin, both made in-house in the lakes
my setup: sram apex mechanical shifters and derailleur converted with the ratio kit, garbaruk xc crank, garbaruk 11-52 cassette, connex 12 speed chain (waxed), paul minimoto rim brakes – the full build lives over in my karamba gravel bike post
distance: roughly 4000 km, including 1000 km of loaded bikepacking from bern to marseille
why bother?
this apex group has a little history. it came off my girlfriend's bike – she upgraded to something newer a while back, and the old apex ended up in the parts bin, quietly waiting. still working perfectly. just 11 speed.
my new bike runs rim brakes, and I really wanted 1x12 with exactly these sram levers. and you just can't buy that! mechanical 1x12 from sram only comes paired with hydraulic brakes. and honestly, I don't get it. why is there no purely mechanical 1x12 anymore? why does everything have to be pushed toward hydraulics and batteries? there are plenty of us out here who want an analog bike on purpose – because we believe in it, because of the frame, or because we want to be able to fix everything ourselves in the middle of nowhere.
this is where ratio comes in. these folks have been building upgrade kits for a good five years now, and the idea is beautifully simple: swap the ratchet inside your shifter for a 12 speed one, swap the cage on your derailleur for a longer one with more capacity. and suddenly your old 11 speed bits are happily shifting a 12 speed cassette with up to 52 teeth. no new derailleur, no new levers, no battery.
and what's more sustainable than simply keeping old things going? instead of a perfectly good groupset gathering dust (or worse, heading for the bin), a handful of well made parts gives it a whole second life. I find that genuinely lovely, and to me it's worth as much as the engineering itself.
installation: not witchcraft, but bring patience
full transparency: my mechanic did the install, as part of building up the whole bike. but judging by ratio's install videos, it's very doable yourself with a bit of time and calm. it's not witchcraft. you do need some finger skills though, especially opening the shifter and getting the new ratchet seated. if you've had a lever apart before, you'll feel right at home. if you haven't, make yourself a cup of tea, put the video on loop, and give it a slow evening.
ratio has separate videos for levers with cable brakes and with hydraulic brakes.
good to know: on top of the kit you'll need a compatible 12 speed cassette (up to 52t), a 12 speed chain and a 1x12 chainring. some 10 speed shifters also need ratio's cable spool. the kit finder on their site will point you the right way.
shifting: fit it, forget it
okay, the bit that makes everyone nervous about a conversion like this: does it actually hold up?
short answer: yes. long answer: in 4000 km I did not have to adjust a single thing. it shifts crisp and precise and drama-free, from day one until today. no skipping, no fiddling with cable tension, none of that "hm, this felt better yesterday" feeling.
with the 11-52 out back I could use every gear I wanted, from steep loaded climbs to just floating along the flats. I'm honestly still a little amazed it all works this smoothly.
a quick word on the chain: I'm running a connex 12 speed with their connex link, the one you can open without tools. at home I hot wax it, and on tour I topped it up with optimize, a german drip wax that, fittingly, is also sold under the connex label. ratio recommends a sram eagle chain, but the connex was totally happy in this 12 speed setup – no shifting issues, no noise, nothing.
and the cage itself? just unreal. cnc machined aluminium, clean edges, zero play. and in silver it's an actual little jewel on the bike – I couldn't resist pulling out the big lens for some detail shots. you can feel that it was made by people who actually ride, and who test their parts in the lake district, which is not exactly a laboratory.
on the road: 1000 km loaded to marseille
on the marseille trip the kit got the full treatment. bags, hike-a-bike, dust, long days, more dust. and on a trip like that, a drivetrain you never have to think about is pure gold. you want to be riding, looking at the mountains, eating croissants – not crouching at the side of the road with an allen key turning a barrel adjuster. that's exactly what the ratio kit gave me: peace.
and there were plenty of climbs where I was very thankful for that big cassette. none more than the hill just over the border near annecy, where the last bit up was a two hour hike-a-bike – you might know the descent that followed from my rick xc pro review. on a fully loaded bike, that 52 tooth lifebuoy isn't a luxury. it's the difference between still pedaling and already pushing.
one more thing people tend to underrate on tour: mechanical stuff can be fixed anywhere. every little village bike shop has a shift cable. charging a dead battery halfway up a french hillside? less so.
the one gripe: jockey wheels
there really isn't much to complain about. one thing caught my eye straight out of the box though: the jockey wheels. they're plastic, delrin to be precise, and next to that gorgeous alloy cage they felt a little "cheap" at first.
to be fair: that's a deliberate choice. delrin is a high grade engineering plastic that runs quiet and low-friction, and ratio machines them themselves. and after 4000 km they look exactly like day one and run perfectly. so functionally, zero reason to complain.
but still – an alloy option, maybe even anodized in a fun color, would be the cherry on top. for a kit that wins so much on craft and beauty, I'd love to see that as an option.
and one more point that isn't really on ratio, it's just the nature of the thing: you keep your old levers, and with them their ergonomics. the newer sram levers simply sit nicer in the hand. if you're happy on your old apex hoods though, you won't miss a thing.
what does it cost, compared?
for some perspective: the mechanical sram apex eagle groupset launched in 2023 at an RRP of €1,095, and currently sells for around 800 €. that gets you levers, derailleur, crank, cassette, chain and brakes – but only with hydraulic discs, which was never an option for me with rim brakes anyway.
the ratio kit is £116.25, so about €137. even once you add a cassette, chain and chainring, you land well below a new group. and more importantly, you keep a working groupset in the loop instead of letting it sleep forever in a parts bin.
looking ahead: the ratio mech
it's exciting to see where ratio is heading. they've just launched the ratio mech, their very own mechanical rear derailleur – also made in the lake district, modular, user-serviceable, with spare parts straight from ratio. it works with a whole bunch of 1x setups, from old sram 11 speed shifters with a ratio ratchet all the way to shimano grx 12 speed.
I would absolutely love to test that one next. mostly I'm curious whether it can really squeeze out a noticeable difference over the converted apex derailleur – because after 4000 trouble-free km, that bar is sitting pretty high.
the short version
good stuff ✔️ makes 1x12 possible with mechanical sram levers and rim brakes – no factory option for that exists ✔️ crisp, precise shifting, never adjusted in 4000 km ✔️ full range of an 11-52 cassette, works perfectly with a connex 12 speed chain ✔️ outstanding craft, cnc machined 7075 aluminium – and stunning in silver ✔️ lighter than a sram gx cage ✔️ keep using an old groupset instead of buying new – kind to your wallet and the planet ✔️ small workshop, made in the uk
meh / depends ➖ install takes some skill – very doable with the video though ➖ you'll also need a 12 speed cassette, chain and chainring ➖ the conversion may void the sram warranty on levers and derailleur ➖ you keep the ergonomics of the old levers – newer sram hoods feel nicer
not so good ❌ plastic jockey wheels look a bit plain next to the alloy cage – work flawlessly though
so who's it for?
the ratio 1x12 wide ratchet and cage kit is for anyone with an older sram apex or rival group in their parts bin or still on the bike – and a soft spot for analog riding. mechanical, cables, no battery, no app, no firmware update. instead of buying a whole new groupset, you go 1x12 with a huge range for a fraction of the price, and give old parts a second life.
for me it was the only way to build my bike exactly how I dreamed it. and after 4000 km without lifting a finger, I can say: I'm extremely happy. it was the right call.
big recommendation. go slow, keep it simple, ride the old stuff. 🌞
thanks for reading friends, see you out there!
