DT Swiss 54t Star Ratchet Upgrade Kit [Rider Review]

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If you are running DT Swiss hubs, for just over $100 you can drastically improve your hub engagement. Simply adding a DT Swiss 54T ratchet kit will boost your engagement from 18 all the way to 54 points! A pretty massive upgrade for most riders. Check out what this customer had to say about it!

Overview

Mountain biking where I live in Santa Barbara is typically straight up then straight back down again with tons of rocks tossed into the mix. Our trails are “old school” with rock gardens (fields?) and sections of jank that stretch on as far as the eye can see which makes them super fun all though quite technical and brutal on equipment. Out of the core group of people I ride with, someone always has a bike in some state of disarray but that’s just par for the course. Being able to quickly put down a bunch of power to clear an obstacle is really important around here so I wanted to give the DT Swiss 54t Star Ratchet Kit a try and see what kind of difference it makes to my ride experience.

Installation

I put the ratchet kit onto my Yeti SB130 Lunch Ride that’s rolling on DT Swiss XMC 1200 30mm wheels and to clarify, no I’m not a dentist I just work in the outdoor industry. Never met a dentist on the trails actually but I’m sure they are out there! I’m not a great mechanic by any means and thankfully this installation does not require any special tools at all. I used a 5mm Allen wrench to loosen my rear through-axle then pulled my wheel off. Then I pulled my SRAM eagle cassette off with my hands which exposes the previously installed pieces of the 36t star ratchet and two springs. Should only take a little bit of force. I took note of how they were installed, removed them, and using the supplied “special grease” lightly coated all of the new parts then installed them. I put the cassette back on and felt it lock back into place then gave it a spin just to make sure everything was working properly which it was. I reinstalled my wheel and rode my shakedown lap around the block to make sure my bike was not going to explode on me or anything.

Thankfully I did everything right and immediately noticed that the 54t ratchet has a slightly higher pitch when freewheeling.

There are plenty of videos on YouTube that compare the sound from DT Swiss’s 18, 36, and 54 start ratchets in addition to a bunch of install videos.

Ride Experience

The first trail I rode was my local loop Romero Canyon and I was pleased with how everything was feeling especially when I got to the more technical sections where a quick burst of power was required to crank up and over a large boulder.

Final Thoughts

Now, this is a marginal gain for sure, not a night and day difference but, I can feel a difference in the engagement which makes technical sections slightly easier therefore a bit more fun which is the whole point of riding to me. I can’t wait to ride out in the desert to really put the DT Swiss 54T Star Ratchet to the test.