It works well. I am still running apex levers.

I have Apex on an gravel bike I've had for several years. I did replace the jockey wheels at one point. That is easy enough. Just over a year ago, I did replace the derailleur. I went ahead an replaced it what a Force. The Apex one started shifting like garbage and I couldn't figure out why. I finally realized the spring was worn or something. I tried cleaning everything well, but it didn't help. The Force can't be rebuilt, so I had to buy a new one. But, it has been great. The brakes work awesome.

I recently upgraded an old RED fully mech group set to 12 sp.... flawless shifting. The groupset was probably close to 11 years old, and updating it saved me so much money - I'm also running SRAM on three other bikes (11 sp hydraulic) which are destined for said upgrade - Soon I'll be all 12 sp... for a fraction of the price compared to buying new, all thanks to Ratio Tech... Chears guys! 😊

Oh no. We need to do MTB content. Thank you. I am going to be pushing this message of priorities a bit in the next few weeks.

Does the freehub has small enough play though? In order to accomodate tighter spacings

@@feedbackzaloop if you have play in your freehub, it’s either broken or Mavic

@@stevoc123 or ride 10 speed shimano not to notice it.

​@@stevoc123 or zipp :3

@@HCMORGI 😀

Yeah they will just not have new units to convert. Not really as big a deal because the new buyers are not the take your shifter apart crowd. I love mine. It is for more of a camping gravel rig and I run mechanical brakes for ease of service and easy repairs. They certainly are not the best braking but they always work with minor adjustment.

That's why I bought my mountain bike with sram, the cassette was a standard HG freehub despite being 12 spd

I forgot to mention saw it on bikerumor.

Interesting.

It will be huge here too. Big hills and wilderness. Perfect for this set up

You can have drop bar eagle with ratio technology stuff.

Yes but I'd want a smaller chainring for some occasions - is there a compatible 32t? Should be no big deal I assume - I'm already running a 32t & Eagle RD on my MTB

Until I can get spares on next day delivery from somewhere I’m just not interested. Keeping an eye on them though.

@@Mapdec that is valid, but good Chinese wheel sets forced western brands to respond. If we want to see price drops in SRAM and Shimano, highlighting these products can help. Excited to see new apex stuff all well - I'm a big fan of my SRAM rival etap.

Good post. It feels like they put the price of Rival up to fit this in. We all got emails feeling us to buy in Rival before the price increase.

XC MTB is the next big thing according to GCN. Gravel has gone full circle.

It’s a great question. And I suspect it won’t be long. I do think a mechanical groupset will always exist for wilderness riding, but it won’t be at Ultegra. In a way, nor should it be. Ultegra was always intended to be a racers groupset. 105 and Tiagra were for touring. They were and still are much more durable. We all got snobbish about 105 as those lines got blurred. My little prediction is that for endurance riders we might see hub gears and pinion gear boxes take off.

Frame, Fit, Wheels, Gears. But I like adding the mechanic in there. 🥰

Thought the same about the pulley for cable routing. But there has to be an adjustment screw on the derailleur because all new road bikes will have 100% internal cable routing.

@@Nico-jt8ll I am not sure what you mean. Extra adjustment is great, but I don't know what internal routing has to do with it.

Cool. I don’t know why you would bother switching though. If anything just swap out a chainring if you really feel the need.

@@twillyspanksyourcakes Not at all. Even though I longer race I'm still fit enough to use 1x11 with a range of cassette options from 11/32 for road to 11/42 for gravel. I'm no ride like a pro with 50/34x11/34 to ride on the road. Don't get the need for mountain bike gear ratios on race road bikes. Same as not no Eagle 52 for me on my mountain bikes. The reason I decided to try 1x one of my road bikes is because for general riding most people only use the middle of the cassette on 2x. Gearing depends on how and where you ride. Still only on 11 of my other bikes, 14/27 is fine for me. Did 120 miles hilly ride on it recently including 15% inclines, just stayed sat down.

@@Mapdec Excuse me. Don't you ride on 1x11. Just saying new mechanical Apex is cheap enough to use in winter.

That CUES name is still beyond lame. Deore is literally right there 😂

I wonder if Road cues will appear this year. We only just saw our MTB / urban stuff arrive.

I don't see the same excitement for CUES as I'm seeing for the new SRAM set

​@Jason Wu that's because CUES was never intended for performance bikes and this is, despite the cost

@@jasonwu9287 I agree with veganpotter, cues was never meant to evoke "excitement" its just a get down and dirty functional group

Brexit tax. 😖

​@@Mapdec rubbish

As far as I can see the Eagle branding has consistent compatibility . So if it is a GX eagle 12s I think the answer is yes.

Venn wheels do a good selection of rim brake wheels

Maybe. I guess part of doing a lot of custom build work is that we have customers with unusual needs. Maybe very low ratio for mountain bike touring, or position adjustments, etc. SRAM usually gives us more options for customisation. It shortcomings are fairly easy for us to overcome. I like that fact we can get spares of almost every seal, and smart part. I don’t think sram make great cranksets, but they do make the most reliable power meters. Shimano still wins hands down for almost every thing with a Bowden cable, but electric shifting has sram easily as market leaders now.

I think he misspoke. If you go to 3:15, the page states "less than 40g heavier than standard crankset". No not less weight, but "less than 40g heavier"

I read it as "the power meter version is 40g (or less) heavier than the non power meter version. Poor choice of words on their part.

Everyone's groupos have gotten heavier. It's not a SRAM thing. That's just what happens when the market moved to disc brakes. That said, I don't like how ANYONE'S hydraulic hoods feel. So I'm running 11sp mechanical shifters converted to 12sp. Ratio claims that they should at least be able to get 13 and maybe 14sp ratchets in there. AXS still shifts better though and I'd certainly be using it if I liked the hood shape

This is also nowhere near the price of 105. No idea what you're saying😅

I can’t see why not. The AXS app will still program the buttons. I will check this though.

Yes. Absolutely

Yes. They have 12speed cassettes for a HG

Have to upgrade to Rival or Force cassette to get the lighter XDR`s

@@Nico-jt8ll Not clear for me why... the derailleur should match the shifters, and the cassette - the hub's drive. Among them, only the number of speeds and the distance between sprockets in the cassette has to remain constant. Is there a difference between 12 speed HG cassettes and 12 speed XDR cassettes in this regard? In MTB, as a counterpart, the SRAM GX shifter+derailleur works equally well with an 11-50 cassette (HG drive) and a 10-50 (XD drive).

It’s it mad that electronics are now cheaper than mechanical cogs and springs. I think it all about the labour costs of assembly.

@@Mapdec exactly I have been saying for years electronic shifting is by far cheaper to build. Buttons and an electric motor are cheap compared to assembling all the moving parts and Bunch cheaper than making all those tiny parts in a shifter.

Maybe. It does leave Shimano with a big answer to find with new GRX, and Road Cues.

Maybe. The trend is looking better for compatibility

Cues is e-bike compatible. Not sure if sram has a direct competitor for e-bikes.

SRAM answer to soon to be launched Shimano GRX 12s mechanical

no big deal. wear gloves, be a pro.

@@Mapdec In the bike shop I'd do it for clients if I had to but I wouldn't wanna have it on any of my own bikes. There's the additional money and time cost and environmental impact. But so far I never ran across a bike with SRAM brakes anyway and if so only the DB8's with mineral oil. I think the people who decide which bikes to get don't really want the hassle in the workshop either.

@@Mapdec And from what I've heard SRAM road brakes are a little weaker than Shimano ones but I can't confirm or deny that myself since I never had the chance to test fully bedded in SRAM road brakes. I actually never even saw a SRAM equipped road or Gravel bike in my area. As for the braking power - on my Shimano equipped Trek Checkpoint SL it's just barely enough as it is - I actually had to switch to third party semi metallic brake pads to get the power I need out of them.

Agreed!

They don't care because the majority of the groupsets will be bought in bulk at huge discount by the bike manufacturing giants. Individuals buying groupsets at rrp is not their main driver

I was just thinking about this out on my ride. With a 46 front and 10-45 rear there isn’t a single gear I would miss.

That's a great range. Not quite as fast as a proper road bike.. But the stepping becomes a big (climbing) issue imho. And having to shuffle so many gears rather than just flick the front on big dips.

13sp. I just don’t see why anymore. Even 1x12 now gives you every gear you need. I would rather they put time into other features like auto shift, auto trim, or worked on drive train efficiency, maybe even regenerative charging

@Mapdec Cycle Works with 1x13, I'd get rid of all but 1 front derailleurs I own. Not a fan of the huge gear gaps with 1x12. I have 4500' gain climbs right outside of my door. 1x12 is fine for that. But if I'm doing those climbs mixed with riding in a group on the flats, I don't want a 20rpm cadence difference on the flats. A 13sp 10-44 with a 44t chainring wouldn't have much bigger gaps than the 12sp 10-36(48/32 chainrings)I ride with on my main climbing bike. I've ridden my gravel bike on group rides with a 12sp e*thirteen 9-46 and 42t chainring and the gaps between gears is intolerable. Also, if you have a specific cadence range and power to hold for a workout a coach gives you, those gear gaps can make certain intervals impossible to do properly. *Also, nearly anywhere else I've lived, a 13sp with a 10-36 and a 48t chainring would have great gear gaps and would be plenty of gearing for any of the rollers I used to frequent but that doesn't cut it here in Utah.

@@Mapdec improving drivetrain efficiency and regenerative charging are pretty contrary concepts😉

Maybe. It never happened when MTB went all in on disc though.

@@Mapdec Switching from v-break to disc brakes on MTB was a big leap in braking quality. In the transition period, it was easy to find frames and forks that were compatible with both types of brakes. I had a Trek with wheels for both types. In MTB, the brakes and derailleurs are separate from each other. On the road, if you don't have the right shifters, you can't do anything. Rim brakes on the road were good enough in 90% of cases. So people don't understand why their 4 year old often very expensive bikes suddenly have to become obsolete.

Just buy Force Axs rim brake shifters and pair with any Axs rear derailleur you want 👍The china stuff will probably have lots of faults.

Quite the opposite. We live in the Lake District. Steep hills surround us. 1x gives you a very low gear for the hills. We miss a bit of top end speed but by then I’m coasting down hills as fast as my skills and bravery allow. We don’t really have flat ground anywhere. 1x works great here.

@@Mapdec 100%. Not surprising all the 1x naysayers are roadie traditionalists for tradition sake (ride what you want but odd this portion of 2x riders are so evangelical about it...). The podium on Unbound from this year and years prior is skewed towards 1x12 mullet setups yet people can't conceive how 1x is a legitimate drivetrain for offroad use. I'm in the same scenario as you - lots of hills around where I like and lots of undulating terrain and enjoy a good bit of singletrack wherever I can find some. On a 2x system it's be shifting way more often than I'd like.

@@Mapdec but wouldn't a beginner profit from a 2x12 setup with better ratio ???

Better ratio for what?

42t x 11-44t is damn newbie friendly. It´s less complicated to shift and gears are easier than a 2x setup which could be 48/34t x 11-34t.

Yes. Rival and Force had big price increases recently. All dealers were being encouraged to buy in before the price hike. Makes sense now.

Aye. It’s good they kept a mechanical option in there.