As an alternative, in stead of picking up a blip box (and blips), how about going for a GRX shifter?

SRAM clearly just don't want to do a 1x12 mechanical road/mullet, presumably because they fear it might eat too much into their AXS 1x cash-cow. If a start up company can make and sell an aftermarket SRAM 11 speed to 12-speed mechanical mullet conversion kit for ~$100, SRAM could likely do it for a few pennies in incremental manufacturing cost.



.

I haven't seen much, if any, "bundle savings" when buying an AXS groupset as opposed to buying the components individually. So I agree that there's no reason to buy the full group set for a TT bike. And you don't even have to buy the SRAM crankset, as plenty of companies are making 12-speed chain compatible 1x chainrings for road cranks.

Rival AXS does bring the cost of a 1x12 electronic TT bike conversion down a bit, but the blip box, blips, and clics are still every bit as expensive as they were when AXS Red launched. $385 for the blip box alone is a bit tough to swallow, especially when a GX Eagle AXS shifter/transmitter is $150. Where's the Rival-price-level TT shift solution? I'm having impure thoughts about hacking an Eagle shifter into a make shift blip box.

---

"They're made of latex, not nitroglycerin"

Tight ratios.

Tight ratios.


Are you seriously contending that this gearing does not have tight enough ratios?

10-30t:10,11,12,13,14,15,17,19,21,24,27,30

And, if you really wanted, you can just get a Force AXS cassette if you really need even tighter ratios:

10-26t;10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,19,21,23,26
10-28t;10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,19,21,24,28

Read the quoted post

Fair point, i misread the original. Apologies.

i don't want a tight ratio on my gravel bike. i want it on my road bike, for sure. but for me, gravel is a lot more like MTB in terms of my gearing needs. i not only can accept bigger jumps on my gravel bike, i need bigger jumps.

however, i certainly concede that gravel means different things to different people, depending on a person's terrain and road surface.

---

Dan Empfield
aka Slowman

I was very excited to see this, but I think that in my case it will not change anything.

In order to upgrade from a sram red 11s, I need at least :
The mini group
The blip box (which is more expensive than what I paid for the whole sram red group)
The blips which cost a fortune
To convert my rear wheel to AXS
To buy a crankset that weighs a ton and a new cassette

I really want to go electric for convenience, but the price to upgrade a non-AXS bike is a lot for something that doesnt make you faster.

i agree with you. this group has 2 compelling market strengths: as OE spec, mostly on drop bar bikes; and as aftermarket upgrades on drop bar bikes.

i think it might also be compelling as OE spec on tri bikes if SRAM creates an attractive price for OE buyers on the blips and blip box. or if the price on Zipp's wireless extensions comes way down.

right now, one can contemplate a rival etap groupset on a road or gravel bike that costs, new, $3,500 or so. should that price translates over to a tri bike, i can't imagine why anyone would spec anything else on a bike in that price range.

---

Dan Empfield
aka Slowman

While eTap is certainly an elegant solution, Sram's decision to abandon support for all of who bought the previous generation (11-speed) just a couple years ago has made me a firm believer that Shimano is the way to go. I have a small non-repairable problem with one of the limit screws on my 11-speed front derailleur. 11-speed replacements are no longer available, and the AXS fronts are not backward compatible with 11-speed shifters. SRAM's solution to my limit screw issue is for me to buy a whole new group set and upgrade everything to 12-speed.

Wasn’t that essentially the same thing Shimano was saying to folks who ran into issues with their 10 speed di2 components once 11 speed di2 was launched?

---

"They're made of latex, not nitroglycerin"

For technical riding, yeah, wide steps can be nice.

The issue comes if you still want the gravel bike to feel at home in shallow non-technical riding. Then it can be nice for the gravel bike to have whatever gearing you'd want on a road bike, plus whatever bailout is needed for however mountainous the gravel roads get. This can require a lot of gear ratios.

i have 2x GRX on my bikepacker bike. it's essentially a gravel bike tasked specifically for bikepacking, aero bars, and yeah, for this your point is well taken, because i'll spend quite a bit of time on pavement and non-technical flattish dirt. my dedicated gravel bike is a different story.

---

Dan Empfield
aka Slowman

I am looking forward to seeing a new Canyon with this......

---

"see the world as it is not as you want it to be"

Question releated to the release of this groupset, and really releases in general. Just about every bike related email list I'm on (big internet retailers, multiple LBS, The Pro's Closet, bike media websites, etc. etc. - and I'm guessing the roundup next Tuesday) has a big HOLY MOLY SRAM RIVAL AXS! email/article in my inbox today.

1. Is SRAM flexing any muscle to have these sent? Are they paying dollars to businesses to spread the word? Or are people covering it themselves because a) wow electronic for $1400 and/or b) oh man we need in on this?!

I'm just trying to read through the stoke and hype and stoke and pump and stoke to see what this actually means, and how these campaigns are driven.

it is possible. we were approached by a media agency that had some dollars allocated for us around the launch of this product, and that particular agency does offer that sort of thing. (we elected not to participate.) but i don't know what the parameters of those particular media buys were.

i talk a lot to SRAM, and spent an hour with them yesterday. i don't get the sense that this is how they operate in general. in the case of the pro's closet, i think i'm familiar with the pathway to how that rival piece showed up in your inbox and mine, and it's straight-up fair. no shenanigans. and no retailer is going to be paid to send out an email piece on rival.

you'll get our weekly newsletter on monday and we'll have our rival piece in it. we opted to write our piece without any financial inducement. (SRAM knows the parameters of our partnerships, should they choose to become a partner.) in my case, i think that groupset is relevant, both in what it is and in what it signals. in my opinion, in 5 years there will not be any more mechanical shifting in tri bikes. i'm looking forward to that day. this rival groupset is a step toward that.

---

Dan Empfield
aka Slowman

This is very informative, thanks! I haven’t been on a SRAM equipped bike in about 4 years and am not as up on their technology as Shimano. I have had Rival 2x10 and 1x11 mechanical disc, which at that level 4+ years ago was pretty cheap, and more compatible with existing HG freehub, any mechanical disc brake, etc. so I actually did part swaps. I think the practical way to try this new kit would be a pre-equipped bike.

Yes but that isn’t a cheap project. You still need wheels with an xdr driver and the rival etap cassette is $200. You will be spending several grand depending on how much you spend on wheels and that only gets you electronic shifting from the extensions.

The bigger deal will be if Shimano goes with a semi-wireless 105 set that remains 11spd so you don’t need new wheels

There are 12 speed hg cassettes. Not enough, but I would assume there will be more down the road.

Gawd, I hope so. I'm stunned that none of the usual aftermarket cassette makers (SunRace, Miche, IRD) have come to market with HG/AGX compatible 12 speed road bike cassettes, yet.

---

"They're made of latex, not nitroglycerin"

https://www.sunrace.com/...oducts/detail/csmz90

The rotor 12 sp cassette is also HG

Sure, if you want a 450%+ range, there are plenty of options. Even SRAM has an HG compatible 11-50 Eagle cassette for $100. I'm talking about ratios that would work with a SRAM AXS road rear derailleur.

.

I'm aware of the Rotor 12 speed cassettes. The 11-36 12 speed is the only one that fits the specs of an AXS mid-cage road RD, although I wouldn't be surprised if you could make the 11-39 work. But it's hella-expensive; far more expensive than a Rival AXS cassette and XD-R free hub conversion. And you're out of luck if you want anything tighter, ratio-wise.

I've seen some stuff on Aliexpress, but of course that's always a quality crap shoot.

---

"They're made of latex, not nitroglycerin"

I guess 11-speed BlipBoxes are now nearly impossible to source, as well. Not cool. Especially since those are relatively prone to failure because they're a sensitive electronic part that is often mounted in a place where riders drip sweat.

---

"They're made of latex, not nitroglycerin"