So I have a bike with full 11sp Sram Force 22 mechanical groupset - 11-30 cassette and no powermeter.
I also have an unused 12sp Sram Rival AXS crankset 46/33 with powermeter. Does anyone here have experice to know if the AXS crankset will work with the Force 11 speed mechanical groupset *with sram 11speed chain? I am thinking I can pick up a DUB BB for bsa and give this a run for lower gearing and power meter. *Sram compatibiity chart gives the standard - you will explode in firey crash doing this please buy more of our $$$ 12sp stuff ans. Real World??
I asked a SRAM rep this and he said it would work but shifting may not be as crisp. I did it and it worked fine for me. I’m not sure how it would wear over time though.
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thnks. Nice to hear. Good point that chain wear may not be optimal.
It will work ok(ish) enough for most folks, until it doesn’t. It’s definitely not recommended/approved, but it seems like a fair number of people are doing it.
The 12 speed road chainrings are designed to match the larger roller diameter of the flat top chains, and - anecdotally - both chain and chaninring wear much more quickly when using an 11 speed chain. You will want to be really careful about monitoring chain wear, and it would be a good idea to use something like the new Abbey tool to do so.
Good writeup on the 11/12 speed compatibility issues from the chain side of things here.
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Exactly, just because it spins doesn’t mean it works!
SRAM’s 12-speed flat-top chains (e.g., Red/Force AXS) use inner rollers measuring approximately 7.1 mm in diameter, compared to ~7.75 mm for standard 11-speed chains (e.g., SRAM PG-1130 or Shimano HG). This 0.6 mm difference is intentional for narrower 12-speed chains to reduce weight and improve precision.
Short-term use often feels fine (shifting is 80–90% effective per anecdotal rider reports), but long-term effects include visible chainring “shark-toothing” (hooked tips) after 2,000–3,000 km and skips under torque. This necessitates chains every 1,500–2,500 km to spare rings (vs. 3,000+ in matched setups)… all for what?
I recently got the E1 Sram Red crank arms with the Dub bottom bracket, but got a 3rd party aero chainring that is designed for 11 speed chains. This allows me to continue using my 11 speed mechanical groupset and not spend thousands on upgrading everything to 12 speed (including rear wheels) and replacing my V1 Wahoo Kickr that refuses to die. I’m not sure that would work for your particular crankset but it’s been a great workaround for me.