A detailed review of Garbaruk bike components

We've been stocking and fitting Garbaruk components since 2021. We use them on custom builds, drivetrain upgrades, and our in-house gravel bike brand, Gothic Cycles.

After thousands of kilometres of road, gravel and trail real-world use, this is our long-term workshop Garbaruk review: what these components can do for your drivetrain, which parts they're compatible with, and whether they're worth your money.

Have you been asking any of these questions?

Is Garbaruk a good brand? Can I use a Garbaruk cassette on my bike? Where are Garbaruk components made?

Well, you’re in the right place.

In this review:

• What is Garbaruk and where is it made?
• Will Garbaruk work on my bike?
• What makes Garbaruk components so good?
• Garbaruk cassette review
• Garbaruk GEN2.0 cassette review
• Garbaruk derailleur cage review
• Garbaruk jockey wheels review
• Garbaruk chainring review
• Garbaruk crankset review
• FAQ about Garbaruk
• Where to buy Garbaruk in Australia

Where is Garbaruk made?

Garbaruk bike components are made in Poland.

The company started in Kyiv, Ukraine, in the mid-2000s and manufactured all their components there until moving to Krakow in 2019.

The company gets its name from its founders, brothers Valeriy and Yuriy Garbaruk.

Everything is researched, developed and created in-house, which is rare in the bicycle industry.

What products do Garbaruk make?

Garbaruk make cassettes, chainrings, derailleur cages, jockey wheels, and cranksets.

While they specialise in drivetrain components, Garbaruk also create complementary accessories such as top caps, lock rings, and chainring bolts.

Will Garbaruk work on my bike?

Garbaruk components are designed for mountain bikes, gravel bikes and road bikes, but are made for 1X (single chainring) setups.

If your bike is a 2X or 3X (running two or three chainrings at the front) and you want to add a Garbaruk chainring, cassette or derailleur cage into the mix, you’re out of luck, sorry: these Garbaruk parts are only for 1X, and not designed to be run with multiple chainrings. (The one exception is their Road/Gravel crankset, which has a 2X Spider available. However! This is designed to mount chainrings from other manufacturers, not Garbaruk's own.)

Don’t despair, though: you can always drop a Garbaruk top cap on your rig or spruce up your derailleur with some fancy, lightweight Garbaruk jockey wheels.

Is Garbaruk compatible with Shimano?

Yes. Garbaruk will work with 11 and 12 speed 1X Shimano setups, but there are some limits. (Don’t worry; we’ll cover everything you need to know.)

Is Garbaruk compatible with SRAM?

Yes. Garbaruk will work with 11 and 12 speed 1X SRAM setups, but, as with Shimano, there are some limits.

Is Garbaruk compatible with Campagnolo?

Nope. Sorry.

So what makes Garbaruk components so good?

Here are the three main reasons we rate Garbaruk components so highly.

1. Garbaruk can dramatically expand your gear range

Garbaruk can convert your low-volume rear derailleur into one that can take on enormous cassettes. Whether you’re struggling up the hills or spinning out on the downhill runs, a Garbaruk rear derailleur cage will give you the option to fit a cassette that fixes your problems.

With the cage giving you a proper range of gears for all gradients plus Garbaruk’s huge range of chainrings, you’ll be able to pick and mix components to create the perfect, custom-made drivetrain for your bike.

2. Garbaruk components are lightweight

Garbaruk components are light, and also lighter than their big-box competitors.

For example, Garbaruk’s 12 speed Shimano Microspline 10-52T cassette weighs 350g, compared to Shimano’s 10-51 cassettes which clock in at 357g (XTR), 470g (XT) or 530g (SLX). It’s also comparable weight-wise to SRAM’s 10-50T model (357g). Garbaruk’s 12 speed SRAM 10-52 cassette is around 20-25g lighter than SRAM’s XX1 10-52 offering, too.

It’s not like a cassette weighs a kilo less but by using multiple Garbaruk components, you can shave a significant amount of weight off your build overall.

3. Garbaruk cassettes are cheaper than big brand alternatives

While we love the performance and lightness of Garbaruk bike parts, they’re also extremely good value for money.

For example, a Garbaruk SRAM 12sp 10-52T cassette is $469. By comparison, SRAM’s 12 speed options hit your wallet harder: X01 cassettes sit around $750, XX1 around $950, and the premium T-Type Transmission cassettes is just under $1,000. (Garbaruk’s T-Type model is $539!)

In real terms, for about half the price of SRAM’s high-end offerings, you can get a Garbaruk cassette that not only works beautifully but is also often lighter.

What our customers say

BMCR customer Philip reports:

“Bio-Mechanics Cycles & Repairs replaced my 11-speed Shimano cassette with a lightweight Garbaruk cassette and cage. The wider range of the new cassette allowed me to set a new PB on my local climb first time out, going 8.2% (almost two minutes) quicker. It also meant I did not have to change any other parts such as wheels or cranks. A great result and I would recommend anyone do this if you are looking for a performance advantage."

Garbaruk cassette review

Garbaruk’s flagship cassettes come in 11 and 12-speed options for both SRAM and Shimano, and—as of 2026—they’ve now added a 13-speed SRAM model to the lineup.

The main assembly of a Garbaruk cassette is milled from a single piece of chromoly steel, and then nickel-coated for extra durability. The largest cog is machined from 7075-T6 aluminium alloy—this is the anodised cog that’s coloured—then bolted to the main body in 12 places for rock-solid reliability.

All Garbaruk cassettes slot directly onto standard freehub designs for each brand and speed variant, and slide off your freewheel in one piece for easy removal (e.g. cleaning).

In short, they’re light, strong and beautifully made.

Garbaruk GEN2.0 cassettes review

Starting from 2025 and continuing into 2026, Garbaruk has been rolling out a new generation of cassettes: the GEN2.0. What’s different about the GEN2.0 cassettes? The tooth profiles, shift ramps, chamfers and mud-exit pathways have all been completely redesigned. Garbaruk have particularly stressed that the GEN2.0s have better shifting consistency, including under high torque and intentionally bad indexing, as well as better chain retention during backpedalling, reduced drivetrain noise and faster mud clearance.

In all honesty, on regular non-e-bikes (which is all we work on), we haven't noticed a dramatic difference in day-to-day riding. This isn’t a criticism: the previous generation already shifted beautifully. Our theory is that a lot of the GEN2.0 redesign is driven by e-bike use, where the higher torque loads and different riding patterns put cassettes under stresses that regular drivetrains simply don't replicate. Overall, if you're running an e-bike, GEN2.0 is probably a more meaningful upgrade for you than it is for a gravel or MTB rider on a regular rig.

Here’s the full cassette line-up, including the new GEN2.0s:

Garbaruk Shimano cassettes

• 11-speed (Shimano HG) – 11-46T, 11-50T
• 12-speed MTB cassette (Shimano HG freehub) – 11-52T
• 12-speed GEN2.0 MTB cassette (Shimano MicroSpline freehub) – 10-52T

Garbaruk SRAM cassettes

• 11-speed (SRAM XD) – 10-46T, 10-50T
• 12-speed GEN2.0 MTB cassette for Eagle Transmission (T-type) (XD Freehub) – 10-52T
• 12-speed MTB cassette (SRAM XD Freehub) – 10-48T, 10-50T, 10-52T
• 12-speed 10-44T Gravel cassette (SRAM XD/XDR freehub) – 10-44T
• 12-speed GEN2.0 Gravel cassette (SRAM XD/XDR freehub) – 10-48T, 10-50T
• 13-speed GEN2.0 cassette for XPLR (XD/XDR freehub) – 10-52T

As an added bonus for Shimano peeps, a Garbaruk 11-52 cassette means you can upgrade to a 12-speed drive train without needing a new freehub or rear wheel.

Garbaruk derailleur cage review

Garbaruk’s famous rear derailleur cages are a game-changer. Machined from 7075-T651 aluminium alloy, they’re stiff and weigh less than 50 grams. Their biggest benefit, however, is that they let your rear derailleur take on bigger cassettes.

Let’s say you’re running a Shimano GRX 11-speed rear derailleur. Traditionally, this derailleur only works with cassettes up to 11-42T. But! Pop on a Garbaruk cage and your bike can now take cassettes up to 11-50T. That’s a 19% expansion in your gear range.

Want to convert your Shimano 2X drivetrain to 1X? You can do it with a Garbaruk cage, too. (Note: you’ll need a new rear derailleur as the Garbaruk cage isn’t designed to work with the 2X version of the GRX system.)

Garbaruk cages can also transform your SRAM setup. Forget your 10-42 cassette limitation: with a Garbaruk cage, your drivetrain transforms into a 10-50 hill-eating machine… and you didn’t even have to replace your derailleur. That’s a lot of bang for not much buck.

But how does a Garbaruk rear derailleur cage actually extend your gear ratio?

It repositions your jockey wheels so the upper wheel sits closer to the smallest cassette cog when compressed and moves further away from the largest cassette cog when extended. This optimised position means your drivetrain will now work with much bigger rear cogs.

Check out this diagram from Garbaruk and look at the difference in position between the red jockey wheels (using regular derailleur cage) and the green ones (using a Garbaruk cage).

A Garbaruk derailleur cage is also much better than messing around with something like a Wolftooth roadlink. Although roadlink-style products purport to let a road derailleur run a MTB-style cassette, we’ve never found them to be an efficient or reliable solution. A lot of riders who try out these systems end up binning them and going for a Garbaruk cage instead.

Check out a derailleur with and without a Garbaruk cage:

Bit of a shift, huh? (lol jokes)

Anyway, here are the various cage options, including which rear derailleurs they work with.

Garbaruk Shimano cages and derailleur compatibility:

• 11-speed: Deore (M6000 10sp), SLX (M7000), XT (M8000), and XTR (M9000) rear derailleurs
• 11-speed GRX: RD-RX812 rear derailleurs
• 11-speed GRX Di2: RD-RX817 rear derailleurs
• 12-speed MTB: RD-M7100 (SLX), RD-M8100 (XT), RD-M9100 (XTR), RD-RX822 (GRX 12-speed SGS) and Deore M6100 rear derailleurs
• 12-speed MTB and GRX Di2: Deore (RD-M6250-SGS), Deore XT (Di2 RD-M8250), XTR (RD-M9250) and GRX (RD-RX827-SGS) rear derailleurs

Garbaruk SRAM cages and derailleur compatibility

• 11/12-speed: 11-speed NX, GX, X1, X01, XX1, APEX 1, Rival 1 and Force 1 rear derailleurs, and 12-speed XX1 Eagle, X01 Eagle, GX Eagle, NX Eagle, GX Eagle AXS, X01 Eagle AXS, XX1 Eagle AXS and Apex Eagle rear derailleurs
• 12-speed Eagle T-Type: GX Eagle Transmission (RD-GX-E-B1), X0 Eagle Transmission (RD-X0-E-B1), XX Eagle Transmission (RD-XX-E-B1), XX SL Eagle Transmission (RD-XX-SLE-B1), S1000 Eagle Transmission (RD-S1000-E-A1), and Eagle 90 Transmission rear derailleurs
• 13-speed XPLR: RED XPLR 13-speed (required for 10–52T cassettes), Force XPLR 13-speed and Rival XPLR 13-speed rear derailleurs

Note: Garbaruk cages are only compatible with 1X systems.

Garbaruk rear derailleur pulleys/jockey wheels review

Garbaruk’s oversized pulleys are ridiculously light. They’re CNC-machined out of a single piece of 7075-T651 aluminium alloy.

They’re also often the first thing people notice on a drivetrain. We've had plenty of customers come in specifically because they spotted a set on someone else's bike.

We mean, just looook at them:

Can I use Garbaruk pulleys in a standard derailleur cage?

Yes.

Many Garbaruk pulleys work with regular cages, so if you’re wanting to add some smoothness and colour to your drivetrain, this is a quick and easy way to do it.

Do you have to use Garbaruk pulleys with a Garbaruk derailleur cage?

While you technically don’t have to – regular, boring jockey wheels will work fine – we recommend it for two reasons:

1. It eliminates the gap that can exist between regular lower jockey wheel and the Garbaruk cage, thus removing extra space for objects (e.g. a stick) to get caught.
2. They look awesome.

There are many, many derailleur variants, so here’s the basic info you need:

Garbaruk Shimano jockey wheels and derailleur compatibility

• 11/11T: most 10 and 11sp derailleurs
• 11/12T: many MTB and gravel 11 speed setups with a standard derailleur cage
• 11/14T: for a newer 11 speed XT setups with a standard derailleur cage
• 11/16T: for 11 speed MTB setups with a Garbaruk derailleur cage
• 14/14T: for 12 speed MTB setups with a standard derailleur cage
• 14/16T: for 12 speed MTB setups with a Garbaruk derailleur cage

Garbaruk SRAM jockey wheels and derailleur compatibility

• 12/14T: for 11/12 speed MTB setups with a standard derailleur cage
• 12/16T: for 11/12 speed setups with a Garbaruk derailleur cage
• 14/16T: for Eagle Transmission with a standard or Garbaruk derailleur cage
• 14/16T: for XPLR 13 speed with a standard or Garbaruk derailleur cage

Garbaruk chainring review

Garbaruk make 1X chainrings for road, MTB and gravel. There’s something to suit almost every major manufacturer – Shimano, SRAM, Tune, Specialized, FSA, Cannondale, Easton, Race Face, e13, Hope, Bosch, Rotor – as well as more niche ones, such as THM.

Hot tip: Garbaruk also machine their chainrings to suit Shimano’s crank arm profiling, so their rings blend into the drive train, unlike other brands. (cough W*lftooth cough)

The Garbaruk chainring range is massive – almost 100 different models in multiple tooth sizes. There are 4-bolt rings, 5-bolt, direct mount, round, oval, aero… pretty much everything you can imagine.

So why should you choose a Garbaruk chainring?

• They’re light (of course).
• They’re made from extremely durable 7075-T6 aluminium alloy.
• They’re recessed to help shed chain-clogging mud and dirt.
• Their teeth are taller, which holds the chain better.
• They’re narrow-wide.

What’s a narrow-wide chainring and why do I want one?

Look at your bike chain. You’ll notice that the links have slightly different widths. Regular chainring teeth are sized to accommodate the smaller links, which means that there’s a gap in the bigger ones. A narrow-wide chainring has teeth that are narrow as well as wide (hence the name), so each tooth fits the chain properly without gaps. When your chain and chainring fit together perfectly, your drivetrain not only operates more smoothly but is also less likely to drop the chain.

Greater chain contact, smoother pedalling, and less chance of chain-drop: narrow-wide is the way to go on 1X.

Garbaruk cranksets review

Light, stiff, durable and beautiful, Garbaruk’s cranksets are everything we’ve come to expect from this company.

These aluminium cranks comprise a two-piece hollow body, and are designed to be as light as carbon cranks but without carbon’s fragility. No more stressing about rock strikes or carbon fractures – a Garbaruk crank will keep you rolling.

Garbaruk cranksets are available in three models – Road/Gravel, XC and Enduro – and multiple lengths: 165mm, 170mm and 175mm. As of 2026, the Road/Gravel cranks are also now available in 160mm, ‘cause everyone wants tiny cranks all of a sudden.

With a stunning, minimalist design, you can also choose your crank arm and lock ring colours. What other bike component company gives you this kind of flexibility? Nobody!

About those colours…

Now, we love black. It goes with everything. But sometimes you want some colour. With blue, green, gold, violet, red, orange and silver components to choose from, you can pick, mix, clash or coordinate your Garbaruk parts to your heart’s content.

With coloured components, however, there are two things to keep in mind.

Firstly, Garbaruk anodise their components in colour batches. Anodising involves putting items in a chemical bath and then shooting electricity through it. (Fun!) This means there can sometimes be slight colour differences between batches. It’s something most people don’t notice, but we think it’s worth mentioning.

Secondly, anodisation is subject to wear and tear. It will start to happen where the chain contacts the teeth of the jockey wheel, chainring or anodised cassette cog. Again, this isn’t really a problem and doesn’t affect performance, but is worth pointing out.

That being said, when you look this good, who cares?

Frequently asked questions about Garbaruk

Who is the supplier of Garbaruk in Australia?

BMCR Gear is an official Australian stockist of Garbaruk components, importing directly from Poland. We stock one of the widest Garbaruk selections in Australia and ship nationwide from our Adelaide workshop. You can browse the full range at BMCR Gear.

What are the benefits of using Garbaruk components?

Gear range, weight, performance, and value. A Garbaruk derailleur cage can dramatically expand the cassette capacity of your existing rear derailleur, often without replacing any other parts. Garbaruk components are also lighter than comparable offerings from Shimano and SRAM, and significantly cheaper. See our full breakdown for the details.

Is Garbaruk lighter than stock parts?

Generally, yes. For example, Garbaruk's 12-speed Shimano HG 11-52T cassette weighs 344g, compared to 357g (XTR), 470g (XT) or 530g (SLX) for equivalent Shimano options. The weight savings per component are modest, but across a full Garbaruk build they add up meaningfully.

Is Garbaruk comparable with other brands?

On quality and performance, yes! Garbaruk components are precision-machined in Poland to a standard that matches or exceeds big-brand alternatives. On price, Garbaruk is typically significantly cheaper than equivalent SRAM or Shimano components.

Is Garbaruk compatible with Shimano?

Yes. Garbaruk will work with 11 and 12-speed 1X Shimano setups. See the compatibility sections under each product review for the specific models supported.

Is Garbaruk compatible with SRAM?

Yes. Garbaruk will work with 11, 12 and 13-speed SRAM setups. See the compatibility sections under each product review for the specific models supported.

Is Garbaruk compatible with Campagnolo?

No. Garbaruk components are not compatible with Campagnolo drivetrains.

Can I use Garbaruk pulleys in a standard derailleur cage?

Yes. Garbaruk make a wide range of stock replacement pulleys that work with regular cages — a straightforward way to add some smoothness and colour to your drivetrain without any other changes.

Do I have to use Garbaruk pulleys with a Garbaruk derailleur cage?

No, but we recommend it. Regular jockey wheels will work, but Garbaruk's own pulleys eliminate the gap between the lower jockey wheel and the cage, reducing the chance of debris getting caught. They also look pretty damned schmick.

What is a Garbaruk GEN2.0 cassette?

GEN2.0 is Garbaruk's latest cassette generation, introduced across select 12 and 13-speed models through 2025 and 2026. It features completely redesigned tooth profiles, shift ramps and mud-exit pathways. The improvements are most significant for high-torque and e-bike applications; on regular bikes, the previous generation was already excellent, so the real-world difference is subtle.

What's a narrow-wide chainring?

A narrow-wide chainring has alternating narrow and wide teeth that match the varying link widths of a bicycle chain. This gives better chain retention, smoother pedalling and less chance of chain drop, making it the preferred choice for 1X drivetrains.

Where to buy Garbaruk in Australia

Garbaruk components are noticeably cheaper, lighter and just as well-made as the big-brand alternatives. They can expand your gear range hugely, and – let’s be honest – they’re a lot prettier.

If you're ready to upgrade, browse the full range at BMCRGear, our independent webshop stocking one of the widest Garbaruk ranges in Australia. We’re often cheaper than the big online stores, too.

Wherever you ride, we can get Garbaruk to your door.

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