Two years ago, SRAM made waves with the release of their X01 and
XX1 AXS wireless electronic drivetrains. The concept of instant shifting, and the extra-clean look that results from ditching cables and housing was intriguing to many riders, but the $800 - $1000 price of admission was a substantial stumbling block. The height of that financial hurdle has now been lowered with the introduction of GX Eagle AXS, and it's likely that AXS drivetrains will become a much more common sight out in the wild.
$600 will get you a derailleur, shifter, battery, and a charger, everything that's needed to make the switch to the world of wireless shifting. Granted, that doesn't exactly qualify as a value-oriented option, since the price is still three times that of a regular GX derailleur and shifter, but it's a step in the right direction. The derailleur alone is priced at $370, without the $55 battery, and the shifter is $150 USD.
GX Eagle AXS Details • Compatible with all Eagle drivetrains, 10-52 tooth cassette compatible
• Overload clutch system
• IPX7 waterproof
• Derailleur weight: 454 grams (w/ battery)
• Shifter weight: 68 grams
• Price: $600 USD (shifter, derailleur, battery, charger)
•
sram.com What differentiates the GX group from the X01 and XX1 AXS groups? In one word, weight. The GX AXS derailleur weighs in at 454 grams with the battery, compared to 390 grams for the X01 derailleur and battery. The main reason for that 64-gram difference is the material used for the pulley wheel cage – it's aluminum on X01, and steel on GX.
Otherwise the features of the two derailleurs are identical. They'll both accommodate up to a 10-52-tooth cassette, and they have SRAM's Overload Clutch mechanism that disengages the motor gearbox in the event of an impact, which allows the derailleur to swing inboard and then move back into place. It's a handy feature, and one that can help extend the lifespan of your shiny new robot derailleur.
The shifter paddle shape is identical to what's used on the X01 and XX1 groups, and SRAM also offer a different paddle shape that's closer to a traditional shifter for $20. It's possible to change the shifter paddle assignments via SRAM's AXS app in a matter of seconds. I prefer to have the derailleur move the chain up the cassette when I push upwards, and down the cassette when I push downwards, while I know some riders prefer the opposite orientation.
One final feature of the GX AXS derailleur that's worth mentioning is the new battery cover that's designed to ensure the battery doesn't get knocked off mid-ride, or to prevent sneaky riding buddies from stealing and hiding it when you're not looking. The cover is available separately for $20, and will also work with X01 and XX1 AXS derailleurs.
Stay tuned for a long term review later this year once I put a whole bunch of miles in on these parts.
These electric drivetrains are equivalent to putting an electric throttle on a carburetor. It's tech, but it's not addressing the underlying problem that needs to be fixed.
I love all the haters here who have not even tried it saying it sucks.
It's acceptable compared to the cost of existing AXS parts, but then they're not reasonably priced....
Now if shimano had a electronic 12spd XT, I'd say that would be a more fair comparison.
Also that may not be true it the US. In Germany anyways, there's several online retailers that regularly carry full XT group sets for about 380-400€. Not even any special deals going on. I take it you know how to use google, so you can see for yourself.
first ride on AXS two days after ‘never going back!!’ havent found a single disadvantage yet.. except my wife cannot EVER find how much did I pay for it
The tradeoffs? Have to monitor two batteries, significantly more expensive, and the potential for new/complex electronic/RF failure modes down the line (mechanical was incredibly reliable for me).
In my view, a group that basically accomplishes the same thing with massively more engineering complexity is not a clear win. I think a lot of AXS owners are suffering from a little bit of confirmation bias.
Now...you want me to have 2 bluetooth battery operated devices on the only thing I use to get away from all the batteries and motors and glitches and screens and outlets and "is 60% charge actually 60% or will I go 10 feet and it drop to 20% out of the blue?"
Will this phone or that phone pair with it? Will it be in that one random place where something or someone else's glitchy overpriced tech will interrupt?
Try throwing your change jar at it next.
It's one reason I'll never put AXS on any bike my wife rides, she never remembers to charge anything pre-emptively...doesn't mater if the batteries last a year, they won't get charged until after they have gone flat mid-ride.
Talk to me about reliability when that drivetrain has been in the field for 5 years.
And "thoughtless" ain't gonna work when you have to charge a battery every month or so for your bike to perform basic functions.
See, that sentence right there is what you and I "think" would be logical. But bikes aren't logical. They've become one more Ultimate Compulsion Item. No one that buys that group will keep it more than maybe a year.
Anyone who does will just dump it in the garbage when it glitches and buy the next one.
We think in terms of 3 basic premises for use: reliability, cost effectiveness, durability. But the Ultimate Compulsion Item people reading about this drivetrain consider 1 year of "beep boop beep boop" battery pushing glee to meet all 3 premises cause they're so wet in the crotch over NO WIRES they can justify all the rest of the obsoleteness, inconvenience and disposable aspects of it.
The only other thing I'll say is that I think most people, even rich people, hold on to their bikes longer than you'd think. I'd conjecture that the median time of original ownership is 3 years or more, with a long right skew. I don't want to hear people talk about "reliability" of a product that's been in the field less than three years in any form.
I have had XX1 AXS for 2 years and it was closer to $1000. At $600 the GX upgrade kit is well worth the experience.
Your statements about mechanical shifting are completely at odds with my experience. I rode SRAM mechanical 1x systems for the better part of a decade before switching to AXS, and my bikes required pretty much no maintenance that was specific to the shift mechanism. Perfect shifts every time. I think I replaced a cable twice in 6 years? Took a lot less time in total than all the charging.
I'm making shit up here...I just really think it would be fantastic if there was a tidy solution.
I was figuring on just pulling the post out of the bike to charge/swap the battery.
Good point about the receiver getting a signal through carbon vs. metal, although most (all?) metal frames do have cable ports at the bottom of the seat tube where an antennae could exit, although I'm not sure how to deal with the distance variable between the bottom of the post and where that port may be.
Of course, all of these challenges is probably why this hasn't been done yet.
m.pinkbike.com/news/first-ride-2021-pivot-trail-429.html
How are people actually wrecking this stuff? Ive not broken either. I prefer sram shifting but thats the only difference for me
should i send you my shipping information?
i dont even know how they can improve eagle mechanica significantly. its just really good.
id get axs on the roadbike though, where shifting needs regular adjustements with cables.
"I bought the AXS group because that was the only build option for the bike I wanted. It's... fine. Best thing ever? Nah. It basically works exactly like mechanical, with one small added feature, which is that you can reverse the shifter buttons. Both groups shift fine, but to me, the AXS group seems to suffer from slightly more slow shifts in gritty conditions, regardless of how I fine tune the indexing. But if there's a difference, it's small.
The tradeoffs? Have to monitor two batteries, significantly more expensive, and the potential for new/complex electronic/RF failure modes down the line (mechanical was incredibly reliable for me).
In my view, a group that basically accomplishes the same thing with massively more engineering complexity is not a clear win. I think a lot of AXS owners are suffering from a little bit of confirmation bias."
Having my derailleur die because I forgot to charge it would just be too much ahha.
I also am not convinced the performance benefits are worth it... since eagle came out I haven't had a single issue with any of my GX and above drivetrains.
Not only is it clearly maintenance, it has one of the most frequent service intervals of any component on a bike. And if you fail to do it, you get a total functional loss, potentially stranding you.
The prices of bikes have drastically outpaced inflation. When I started racing in 2008, flagship bikes were $5000-$6000. Now we're past double that.
I do ride about 12000 miles a year though.
Road bikes, on the other hand, not so much. High-end road bikes have also doubled in price, but for all of the incremental changes, my 2011 Tarmac could still be raced in the Tour de France with little to no disadvantage. After all, last year's tour was won on a round-tube/rim brake bike.
When I'm over on CyclingTips reading reviews of new road bikes, I'm often left wondering "is this really a better experience than the CAAD10 you could have bought a decade ago for half the price?"
I've run both SRAM and Shimano over the last 15 or so years, but I generally favor Shimano... this is the first time my eyes are lighting up and I'm thinking about a SRAM upgrade in a long time.
What would REALLY push me over the side is the integration opportunities. I love the idea of a wireless dropper... even if I've had bad luck with Reverbs. The often rumored electronic suspension controls are the game changer. Being able to use a few simple cockpit buttons to manage your suspension is really appealing - I think I'd get a hell of a lot more miles out of climb switches if they were easier to use. Imagine if you automatically when to climb mode if you hit your last cog? that'd be cool, but the opportunity to program that in or out would be great. Or a single click to toggle both ends from climb to open, or to cycle through climb, trail, open or whatever your suspension options are... nerdy fun that could actually be pretty useful on the trail.
$600 USD
$904 AUD
€620 EUR
£554 GBP
Add to that salestaxes in the US.
You could just buy a new cage and jockey wheels for 30€, bolt it onto your gx axs derailieur and you have whats essentially an XO1 Axs derailieur.
A lot of those lost features are hilariously forced too. One of the differences in XT vs SLX derailleurs is the externally adjustable clutch. The only change is the XT clutch cover has a hole with a rubber grommet on it. Difference in cost literally has to be pennies for Shimano but it lets them sell more a more featured XT...
The introduce the reverb, hydraulically actuated (fine) but then they use a button. Years of bitching goes on about that stupid button until the rest of the industry is starting to catch them and then "we have this all new actuation paddle that is like a shifter paddle" available separate for $$$
Now years later they have done the same f*cking thing with axs - initially a completely different ergonomic that most people dislike, and now for only $20 extra we have a paddle (that we should have f*cking included at the beginning) it can be yours.
Trying to post link to his post: www.instagram.com/p/CHDsN1anfjM/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link
Me, "Oh man, I'd love to but I forgot to recharge my bike".
Just kidding, I don't have any friends.
I'd like to pick this thing apart more, but no one seems to have publish any technical details. e.g. I assume it's BLE between the shifter and the derailleur?
I will never buy one of these and I hope my riding friends don't either, but hats off to you SRAM engineers.
bikerumor.com/2019/02/06/sram-axs-wireless-control-system-is-the-all-access-pass-to-future-components
The latest 12 speed Shimano stuff has had mediocre reliability. I know a lot of people that have issues with the clutch on XTR/XT derailleurs. The wandering bite-point is also an issue. I've seen both of these issues occur on my teammate's bike (her bikes are well maintained, by team mechanics mind you!)
I don't know what's up with them, but they really dropped the ball lately.
When something comes out, all at once across all the feeds and tubes there's this double up of info in the scramble. Its getting too obviously orchestrated now?
The gx axs, the new levo, the maxxis shorty, the mega. On and on, in twenty different places simultaneously, athletes insta.
Is there another way?
Let's say the distance between the shifter and derailleur is 1.5 meters (It's most likely less IRL). Speed of light is approximately 299 792 458 meters per second. Are you telling me you can feel a delay of 0.000000005003 seconds? Even when adding the delays of processing, we're talking about hundreds/thousands of a second.
This is one of those electronic shifting talking points that just feels like rationalization/confirmation bias to me.
For AXS, thumb pushes button with minimal throw. System sends signal at speed of light. Derailler receives signal and moves to desired position.
I think AXS wins. Maybe not perceptibly, and I'd probably bet that the difference between the two is actually imperceptible to the human brain. So maybe moot?
I was rooting for eTap too, so I don't suspect confirmation bias on my part. We sponsored a 'cross team, and I was really tired of fishing busted cables out of brifters. The most common spot where road cables broke was where the cable bends at the bar or coming out of the shifter and into the housing. I haven't seen nearly as many mtb cables break, likely because they don't make as many thought radius bends as the roadie stuff.
Tl;dr: this is shite.
When the cable breaks you can still adjust the cable in variant positions and you can ride up or downhill.
At least with an analog version, you can usually diagnose and fix it or at the very least Macgyver it together to keep you moving.
I don't know the Milliamp hours these AXS batteries, but phones batteries have been growing very quickly recently. Gone are the days of the Nokia bricks lasting for a week on a few hundred mAh. Now a phone charge is 3-5 Ah, that would take almost a day of direct sunlight from a lot of the solar panels I've seen.
I'm open to be proved wrong, but from when I last researched, Solar panel charging is nice in theory, but the quality of the cells for Packable situations just doesn't make it viable. And again... you need intense direct sunlight for the optimal charging numbers they sell you. Which doesn't exist so much if you're riding in forest, or in camp at the beginning and end of day.
For MTBickepacking the OTT, all the riders pretty much gave up on Dynamos or any method of charging outside of battery packs, and charging when in town.
My frame has really shitty routing through the chainstay for cables and loose internal routing. Going to this makes me almost want to cut off my housings at the entry and exit points of the frame so if I destroy a $370 derailleur, I can just use the old housing to fish new into the frame and be back riding in a few minutes vs f*cking around with internal routing all night.
This is super super cool, but I'm trying to come up with all the reasons I can to say no. I've got one set of wheels with a shimano driver running NX and another set of wheels with the xd driver running GX. I just use GX chains so no gains from a chain and no point on moving up to an x01 or xx1 xassette since I'm straight for like the next 4000 miles.
I love living in a 3rd world country.
However. there is so much potential for electric devices on a high-end bike.
To name the few that immediately come to mind:
Propulsion
Servo Shifting
Power braking
Seatpost actuation
Adaptive Suspension
GPS tracker + navigation + auto rescue
Digital bike ID and service interval reminder
Anti-theft system (with GPS)
Now all of these could work in conjunction and use the same power source, comm protocol and display.
Of course wiring and battery would be neatly integrated in the frame.
Imagine one day someone makes a BB with small integrated dynamo that will keep the battery topped off during rides.
And if not, you can still charge it with your ebike or phone charger.
We are getting there. Just very, very slowly.
If he cut the biggest cog off, how does the cassette stay on? Or did he just grind the teeth off?
i think i'll wait for NX Eagle AXS
SRAM, take my money, please.
I don't yearn to charge my shifting and dropper too.
Or, it will be a bicycle cvt. No more shifting.
www.pinkbike.com/photo/20343164
In a year or 2 when I trash the rest of the drivetrain and decide it's time to splurge on this upgrade kit, it's good to know I can set it up correctly for 1 finger braking.
Ok, I get it, its pretty cool and Im all for R&D but this is not the right direction and we all know it.Sooner or later, derailleurs are going to be a thing of the past and this is clearly a last attempt to make more money.Its weakest link on a bike, enough with that bullshit...Bike industry, stop doing this dumb shit
If you’re hungry and thirsty, do you insist on finishing lunch before you get a glass of water?And while eating your sandwich, do you mock the drink machine as useless until the moment you get up to get a drink?
Tomorrow : Full review!
It's like knocking full suspension bikes while only having ridden hardtails.
If I only made purchases for my mountain bike using a carefully crafted value added excel spreadsheet, then what's the point of mountain biking. I might as well just start trail running and save thousands. The heart wants what the heart wants.
Not to mention bikes that have terrible internal cable routing, my Ripmo AF being one. That rear triangle setup is just garbage for the shifter cable housing. My other bike is a singlespeed, so yeah... not a fan of shifter cables lol
Just make sure to get a mountain cable set. The road version cable housing is too short for modern long-wheelbase bikes. The mountain set comes with two cables and two housing pieces so you can use the second for your dropper.
Now I got my X01 for a significant discount... and after using both heavily, do I think the price difference is justifiable? Absolutely not. If I'm paying full pop, it's GX all day. X01 should really only be a few hundred bucks more than GX in my opinion.
So they make money off XO1. We knew that. Now they make less money off GX. And this is somehow a bad thing?
With cables, they work and have worked well for years. But it is not pollution free. I usually go through 3-4 cables a season per bike. All coated with teflon or some other coating. And at least 1 set of housing. Which is steel wrapped with plastic and injected with grease. All of those goes to the landfill every single year. On 2 bikes (1MTB and 1 Road) in 3 seasons, I've saved about 27 cables and cable ends, and about 25ft. of housing (and the grease inside them) from going into the landfill (plus their environmental cost for production, the cable coating environmental impact, transportation around the world and packaging). One needs to consider all of these environmental impact before thinking a tiny rechargeable battery is bad for the environment (assuming that's what you meant by "don't pollute as much").
I agree that "we need new" is definitely an issue. We don't all need the latest and greatest. But until you've tried electronic shifting, you won't know how much better it is than cable shifting. Is it necessary? No. But neither are disc brakes. We were doing "fine" on Canti's, then V-Brakes for many years before Cable Disc came out...then Hydraulic Discs.
Not against these, btw, but I'm not into smashing and replacing $500! derailleurs.
- environmental impact is higher (production of electronics, battery, electricity)
- if I forget to charge it the ride is ruined. Having a second battery is an option but see argument one.
- price will always be higher.
- weight will always be higher at equivalent "level", even more at equivalent price.
arguments for:
- cleaner cockpit (gimmick)
- sharper shifting (was that ever a problem for the last 5 years aside that SX/NX maybe ?)
- readjustment after a crash (that would be good, now I have a hard time believing that a bent derailleur will shit any better once bent because it has a battery. Readjustment you can also do yourself with a simple multi-tool)
- easier frame design which will require less time of high pay employees (not usefull for the rider tho, those saving are never passed-on).
Feel free to add to the list.
The bar end batteries don't fit the typical mountain bike bar width, as they are also for road applications.
The underside of the stem mounts are too long for the average mountain bike stem.
Seat tube applications don't work with dropper posts or mtb internal routing
So you're pretty much left to something more custom or zip ties.
All this to say: modern mountain bikes aren't made for Di2 like road bikes are. Di2 in modern drivetrains does not exist in the wide range applications that we all use on our modern bikes today. This is the first 'affordable' electric drivetrain on the market and is a pretty big deal for people who want to try it. Also the wireless makes setup and storage of the batteries much less complex. I don't get what your deal is against it.