It’s a poorly kept secret at this point, but today, SRAM officially unveiled the next generation of its Red AXS road groupset. Direct-mount rear derailleurs, 13-speed, a new battery, and mineral oil brakes – the new SRAM Red AXS has none of that.
Instead, this new flagship road groupset keeps each piece entirely backward compatible with pre-existing SRAM AXS 12-speed road groupsets. Want to fit the new Red shifters to your Rival AXS bike or get the new front derailleur for your first-gen Force AXS? Yep, you can do that. And while the new parts won’t revolutionise road cycling, they offer an ergonomic improvement, set what I’d argue is a new benchmark in drop-bar braking, and shave some weight.
With nearly two months of riding on the new components, we have a full breakdown of what’s new, what isn’t, and how it all performs. If you currently own an SRAM AXS bike or are in the market for something new and premium, this review is for you.
In addition to this review, we recorded a podcast with some key people of the SRAM team to discuss the finer details and design choices behind the new groupset. That podcast also includes a separate interview with the design and engineering team of Hammerhead (now an SRAM-owned company) to discuss the new Karoo computer that too has launched today. Along with the new Karoo, we have a separate article covering the accompanying new handlebar from Zipp, and a new partnership tyre with Goodyear.
Good stuff: The brakes are vastly improved and set a new benchmark for dropbar bikes, wider gearing and shorter crank options, more premium aesthetic, lightest electronic groupset option (in stock configuration), familiar and now even easier setup, power numbers remain trustworthy, no changes for the sake of.
Bad stuff: Powermeter is still integrated with chainrings, new levers lengthen your reach, shifting is not noticeably quicker than before, front derailleur is still fussy to setup (although better than before), small dead spot in brake lever travel, as expensive as before (but no more).
Jump to a section:
- The big updates
- The iterative updates
- What's old
- Weights and pricing
- Installation
- Riding the new Red AXS
- Red AXS versus Dura-Ace R9200
- What's next?
The big updates
The new SRAM Red AXS offers a number of big changes, some more subtle ones, and a few things that are largely the same. In some cases, these iterative updates are related to SRAM's desire to keep every single piece of the new Red AXS groupset cross-compatible with pre-existing 12-speed AXS road components.
Another big theme to the new Red AXS is that it’s now disc-brake only. It’s another loss for #savetherimbrake, however, backward compatibility with previous-generation rim brakes and shifters does keep the options on life support.
Branding-wise, SRAM has ditched the “eTap” from the name. The previous generation is known as Red eTap AXS (D1 in product codes), whereas this new range is simply Red AXS (E1 in product codes). Similarly, you’ll no longer find Quarq’s branding on the powermeter.
Ok, time to discuss what received the biggest overhaul: the shifters and brakes. A quick glance at the shifters reveals a new approach to ergonomics with a hood shape that is now lower in profile, slimmer in the hand to allow more finger wrap, and a smidge elongated for improved palm support.
This new hood shape is facilitated by a complete restructure of the hydraulic brake master cylinder. The previous vertically oriented pull piston is now replaced by a master cylinder piston of the same size that runs horizontally through the lever and works in a more efficient push direction.
Combined with a higher-placed lever pivot point and a few tweaks to the caliper, SRAM has truly transformed the effectiveness and feel of its brakes, with much attention given to braking from the hoods. How much better can it be? Compared to the previous generation, the American company claims the new system requires just 1/5th of the effort when braking from the hoods, and 1/3rd of the effort when in the drops. Equally both the lever throw and power are more linear than before. You can bet that I’ll return to this later in the review.
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