NXS was part of a family of brands, companies and products associated with Paul Gallagher, an American who is possibly based in Pattaya, Thailand. As with many families this one’s story contains plenty of high drama and beguiling complexity.

The tale may go something like this:

• According to his LinkedIn entry, Paul Gallagher worked for Hayes (the brake manufacturer) from 2004 to 2006. He later worked for SRAM, as a brake design engineer, from 2012 to 2016. This is a person who can reasonably claim to have genuine experience of bicycle component design.
• Some time in the 2010s, Paul Gallagher dreamt up the idea of a groovy, modern, digital version of the 1970s Maruishi PC electronic derailleur system. The idea was to have an electronic gear ‘lever’ that wirelessly controlled an actuator attached to the seat stay or chainstay. This actuator pulled a short length of Bowden cable thereby operating a conventional mechanical derailleur. Unlike the bulky, clunky, wired Maruishi PC system, modern technology allowed for a device that was wireless, small, neat and infinitely configurable.
• Paul’s first attempt, in 2016, was branded XShifter and funded through Kickstarter. Interest was intense and the project smashed its Kickstarter funding target. Note that the branding was never very consistent. XShifter was also written 'Xshifter', 'X Shifter' or 'XSHIFTER'. And did I forget 'X-shifter'? Proofreading - it's a lost art.
• As I understand it, the initial product range was supposed to include two different actuators (single cable - called ‘XShifter’ - and double cable - called ‘XShifter Dual’) and two different control ‘levers’ (for straight bars - called ‘XRemote’ - and drop bars - called ‘Road Remote’). The products were due to go into production in 2017.
• Paul Gallagher describes himself on LinkedIn as having been the CEO of PGXGear International of Shenzen, China, from 2016 to 2020. So the XShifter was presumably originally designed and produced by this company - named with his initials concatenation with ‘X’ and ‘gear’.
• In 2017 the, still vapourware, actuator was possibly redesigned and certainly renamed in a somewhat confusing manner. The single cable model was now the ‘XShifter Impuls-e E-Link' or possibly just the ‘XShifter E-Link'. The double cable model was the ‘XShifter Impuls-e E-Link Pro' or ‘XShifter E-Link Pro'. There were now also 4 control levers the 'Pod X' for straight bars, the 'Pod R' and 'Mini Pod' for drop bars and the 'Pod TT' for time trial bars.
• By 2019 three products seemed to be genuinely available - a redesigned single cable actuator ('E-Link') and both the straight bar (now 'X Pod') and drop bar ('Mini Pod') control ‘levers’. These products also seemed to be genuinely functional.
• However those pesky forums (fora?) appeared to be replete with posts whingeing about the late arrival of the goods and, how shall we say this, ‘patchy’ customer service. All of this was exacerbated by two factors: firstly, instead of answering customer service emails, Paul Gallagher loved to make both bombastic claims and extravagant YouTube videos extolling the world-changing virtues of his hard-to-get product. Secondly, by this time, Archer Components were quietly and efficiently shipping their competing D1X while also finding the time to answer their emails and offer decent customer service.
• By 2020 XShifter was being produced by a company called Cell Cycling LLC. Again, Paul Gallagher describes himself on LinkedIn as having been the owner of Cell Cycling from 2020 to 2023. It is possible that Cell Cycling was originally based in Taichung, Taiwan, but subsequently moved to the USA. I don’t know the fate of PGXGear, Paul’s previous company.
• Also by 2020, the actuator had been redesigned once more and rechristened ‘XShifter ELink 3.0’ or possibly 'Cell ELink 3.0'. The word 'Impulse' is embossed on the side of the product in very large letters - but does not appear on the packaging or instructions. Only the word 'Cell' appears on the box - with no mention of XShifter or ELink. All very mysterious and confusing - a marketing professional is conspicuous by their absence.
• In 2022 Cell Cycling appears to have declared that the XShifter brand and all the XShifter hardware was now dead. A new brand called NXS was launched with completely new hardware. Most notably the actuator was tiny and mounted directly into the cable adjuster of the derailleur. There was much talk of ‘integrated networks’ and ‘open ecosystems’ and other fashionable terms which I have often read but never properly understood. I have heard it suggested that 'NXS' stands for 'New X Shifter', but I have no real evidence for this.
• In 2023 Cell Cycling seems to have disappeared in some way and a new company called OG Bikeworks LLC mysteriously appeared in its place. Following the established pattern, Paul Gallagher describes himself on LinkedIn as being the owner of OG Bikeworks from 2023 to the time of writing (2025). It appears that OG Bikeworks was possibly initially based in the USA. Paul seems to claim that ‘OG’ stands for ‘Original Gangster’ and his LinkedIn photo shows him looking funky in a leather Harley-Davidson jacket. Hmmm…
• What could this new company, flaunting both this relatively new brand and this fairly new product, need more than to ditch its entire product range and launch a new Kickstarter project? And so it came to pass in 2025 that some new-improved NXS system featured on that benighted web site. This time the level of enthusiasm (and therefore the sum raised) was real but modest.
• The Kickstarter project seems to indicate that OG Bikeworks was now based in Pattaya, Thailand.
• Three different companies based in four different countries seems a lot for one man pursuing one basic idea. But despite these slightly dodgy vibes, I have to say that I know of a number of people who use XShifter and/or NXS products - and they do seem to like them.
• At the time of writing (2025), the overall future of the company and the specific question of whether the earlier supply chain management and customer service issues have been resolved, remains unclear - at least, to me.

But more fundamentally, the market for electronic gear systems has, in the last few years, been utterly transformed by the introduction of a plethora of affordable products - including mid-range offerings from Shimano and SRAM. And many more, low priced, Chinese entrants are just around the corner…

The window of opportunity for Paul Gallagher’s dream may be remorselessly closing.

Finally I should note that a couple of independant (and rather different) witnesses have testified to me that the main market for both the XShifter products and the NXS system was not gnarly-mud-splattered mountain bikers nor was it snake-thin road racers. It was Brompton-riding, designer-coffee-drinking, techy, hipsters living in the mega-cities of East Asia. Shanghai, Hong Kong, Shenzen and Singapore get name checked. If anyone knows more about this, please let me know!

(You will also find much of this text on the XShifter brand page.)