It looks like a cool concept coupled with the 12speed. However it reminds me of a quote I've seen on slowtwich several times. Paraphrasing of course.

"Clipless pedals and STI shifting changed everything. Everything else is window dressing" I'll add electronic shifting and aerobars to that for triathlon.

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I still lapped everyone on the couch!

Wait, WHAT?!?

Wow. Just wow.

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Amateur recreational hobbyist cyclist
https://www.strava.com/athletes/337152
https://vimeo.com/user11846099

Looks like mybikeshop.com has all the new SRAM AXS stuff live on their site now with pricing for individual components.

Welp, they just took me out of the market. Who is looking to off load their D-zero for the new stuff?

well, look, i'm no rhodes scholar, but math is math. my gravel bike's 700c wheel is at least 5 percent bigger than my road bike's wheel and that's with only a 36mm tire. so, that's 2 or more teeth on a CR, no?

you know how we have these long horizontal slots on our tri bike seat posts now? we need long vertical slots on our FD tabs now. simple as that.

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Dan Empfield
aka Slowman

i didn't read what was written in the other review, but i wrote what was written in my review.

what users think: i'll get a pedal based power meter, swap it from bike to bike, it'll work forever.
what actually happens: readers don't put their power pedals on their gravel or MTB bikes, they don't last forever, they're constantly in for new bearings, new battery doors, what have you, and are generally nightmarish.

what users think: a chain ring based SRAM PM is a consumable and won't last 2 years.
what actually happens: the rider will move to a new bike before he wears out this chain ring.

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Dan Empfield
aka Slowman

I'm not sure the issue is with "wearing out chain rings"

ok. what's the issue?

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Dan Empfield
aka Slowman

I don't want to put words in Robert's mouth, but I'd assume that he's despondent about the lack of ability to swap simply chain rings based on use case.

Couple nuggets stood out to my persuasion, these days. The new RD has what looks like a very smart tensioning system without a clutch. It's done in a way that doesn't limit it by use, either road or gravel or whatever. The 10t road cog also makes a pretty big change in how to think about 2x gearing.

Other is *it looks* like while there's not an outright 1x solution there is cross-compatibility with Eagle, ala Di2 and XTR. Maybe SRAM has an outright 1x road/gravel offering in the wings but until then, it finally looks like they have a top level solution on par with Shimano.

the new RD has a fluid damper. it does not have a cage lockout. it can be used in both 1x or 2x solutions. but it's not long cage. my guess, but i don't know, and i've asked, and i'm awaiting a reply, is whether all 1x RDs are moving to a fluid damper and away from the clutch.

you can run eagle and AXS RED eTap. i'll be writing about that tomorrow. further, you can configure anything that's a shifter to run anything that's electronic. derailleur. dropper post. suspension lockout. heated seat. boom box.

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Dan Empfield
aka Slowman

in the narrow context of this PM, i'm not concerned. 12 cogs, 10t cog, there's an awfully wide range gearbox here, yet with a lot of 1 tooth steps. there is no shift system i've ever seen where you're less likely to need to change your gears for a specific race. in general, yes, i see the problem. just, specific to this groupkit, i think SRAM's done a good job of erasing that complaint. i cover the specifics of "X-Range" gearing in one of my articles from today.

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Dan Empfield
aka Slowman

Agreed!

Hopefully they also do a cassette that fits an 11 speed body for compatibility with direct drive trainers and/or older wheels on the more traditional Shimano/Sram splines. I can't remember how much longer after 10-42 11 speed xd that we saw the Sram 1130 series 11-42 cassettes that fit 10 speed cassettes.

Count me in as someone thinking it's crazy integrating the chainrings into the power meter. Bought a Force groupset to put on my gravel bike a couple of years ago and have been wearing out one set of chainrings per year. Granted riding on gravel, and sometimes during winter, wears them out quicker but I don't even ride that much anymore and haven't seen anything like it with other brands. It also seems like they're more sensitive to wear than the Shimano and Campy chainrings I've had before and the chain starts skipping before you can see significant wear on the chainrings. Maybe the new ones are better though..

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BA coaching http://www.bjornandersson.se

they've been working with the relevant direct drive trainer companies, since before the launch. some may be launching their drivers soon, or perhaps did already. SRAM tried to keep a tight lid on this, even tho some of it was on our forum a month or two ago. when i went to park tool's site, they didn't have the ct-3.3 chain tool. i called them up. why? embargoed. so it might be that (some) trainer companies already have them.

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Dan Empfield
aka Slowman

You're right again, CycleOps is already on it. One freehub body. XD without the spacer and XDR with the ~2mm spacer. For a trainer I would think an inexpensive cassette that fit the body on there already would make sense eventually. Thanks for pushing all this info out today and responding to so many posts.

it doesn't happen that often but I'd throw in bending a chain ring into the downside as well.

I'm really excited by this groupset to be honest. eTap was a boon to travel with (very simple to remove and reinstall the RD when packing your bike) and I can see some really novel equipment setups with the inter-operability between Road and MTB. Some of the critiques about equipment life are overblown IMO. In many of the reviews making their rounds on the interwebs SRAM directly addresses this by talking about the materials used and the additional chain wrap on the cassette.

I (finally) see a 1x TT bike in my future.

I haven't seen any commentary on whether or not the entire groups has increased or decreased in weight. Has anyone noted? At 2550g for the road hydraulic 2x set with PM, it sounds around 100g heavier than 9150.

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"No matter how hard you train, Somebody will train harder. No matter how hard you run, Somebody will run harder. No matter how hard you want it, Somebody will want it more, I am Somebody"~ST Post

Dan, you are bike-fitter-in-chief round these parts and whilst I've seen your comments about chain stay length I don't think I've heard your thoughts on these crank lengths?!

Whaddya reckon?

yeah. i think i could too.

a 10x46 is a 120" gear, same as a 50x11
a 33x46 is a 36.5" gear, same as a 39x28

adjust to suit. now, if you wanted the world, here's with an eagle:

a 10x50 is a 131.5" gear, same as a 55x11
a 50x50 is a 26.3" gear, same as a 34x34

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Dan Empfield
aka Slowman

For me it's the chainring selection. On my three bikes I am currently running the following: Roadie - 110 BCD 52/34 Rotor Q-ring, TT - 130 BCD 56/44 Rotor Q-ring, Track - 144 BCD Kappstein 11/128 or Rotor 1/8.

Also the 10t cog does nothing for me but add friction. I would rather have a stock 11-32 x 54/36

That's definitely one disadvantage - after all, it's great that there are three different chainring/cassette combos, and they do seem well thought out, but yes, what if you want to change, whether for a specific use (e.g. a big climb event), a different bike or simply because you get stronger/weaker or have a change in focus, e.g. climbing to sprinting, or vice versa, or whatever else it might be.

Even without that disadvantage, at about 9K miles/year, I tend to replace chains every couple months and chainrings and cassettes annually or so. Yes I could get more miles from them, but we all know that "snickedy snick" (trademark pending) feel from when you're shifting an all-new drivetrain - it's sublime. Spending $410 (+ tax I'm sure) just to change chainrings (for whatever reason) seems like a tough pill to swallow.

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Amateur recreational hobbyist cyclist
https://www.strava.com/athletes/337152
https://vimeo.com/user11846099

SRAM generally does a pretty good job at weights. when you say 9150, is there a hydraulic version you're comparing this to? because i'm pretty sure there's a weight penalty to hydro, esp because in addition to heavier levers you also typically include the rotors in the weight, but you don't include a bicycle's rims in the weight of a rim brake system.

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Dan Empfield
aka Slowman

if you don't make anything shorter than 170, you've disincluded about a third of the triathlon population.

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Dan Empfield
aka Slowman