- Over the last year, we've seen
some really cool technical developments from SRAM,
on the bikes of some of
the worlds fastest and best riders.
In particular,
that elusive black box wireless transmission set up.
Now black box is a technical development program,
used by SRAM and RockShox ultimately
to refine and bring to market very specific products.
Now, I've been waiting with bated breath because today,
is a really cool day for Matwood Tech.
SRAM AXS is finally here.
Luckily for us,
we've been able to work with SRAM in order
to get the full technical low down
on the worlds first wireless electronic transmission
for mountain bikes.
(upbeat techno music)
Like all technical kit,
products like SRAM AXS take many years
of development and testing.
Now, we've seen several incarnations
of this SRAW AXS system over the last year alone.
Including the set up that we seen on Nino Schurter's bike,
we seen several different options throughout the year.
But there's also been setups spotted
on Emily Batty's bike.
Mitch Ropelato was running a reverb post,
trying to get operated Crank Works, earlier in the year.
And we've even found out now that Jaroslav Kulhavy
was actually racing and riding electronic stuff years ago.
So we've got a lot of secretive development.
But enough of that stuff,
let's take a look at the production SRAM AXS set up.
So let's start at the cockpit of the bike
with the Eagle AXS Controller.
Now sitting underneath the bar is much like
a traditional gear shift lever.
The AXS controller is very neat and very ergonomic.
Now you might note that I'm referring
to it as a controller and not a shifter.
I think it'll be strange to refer to it as a shifter,
given the fact it is a fly by wireless top device.
There's no cables,
there's no mechanics involved in this.
But there are 6 notable points with the AXS controller.
It's wireless.
Well, this is pretty obvious but look how cool it is.
Look how minimal and neat it is.
It's very quiet too.
Now you don't realize how much noise
your gear and transmission cables make
when they're just rubbing and knocking against each other.
Until you suddenly remove them.
So, the main paddle itself.
Now although very different to your regular shifter,
this position and shape is actually
very logical and very intuitive to use.
There's two touch points,
up and down.
The Sprint Paddle or as SRAM liked to call it,
the Secretive Sprint Paddle.
This you can nudge with the knuckle
of your index finger without removing
or releasing your grip on the bars.
This is an absolutely amazing feature
for those downshifts when you're
really sprinting under power.
Think you run into and actually woke up finish line
or maybe the end of Enduro stage
when you're absolutely gun spacing.
Doosh, doosh, doosh, doosh, doosh.
That's the way.
Fully customizable.
Now,the beauty of a controller system
is that you can assign any of those touch points
to do exactly what you want them to do.
You don't have to stick to it,
in the default settings.
It's kind of like shortcut keys
on your camera or your keyboard.
Or even just customizing the face
on your smartphone.
So you got all the apps and stuff exactly
where you want them.
Really, really, cool.
Power.
Well, it barely uses any power
because it's just the controller.
It's powered by a small CR2032 battery,
the type that you see in a lot of watches.
It powers down when it's not needed
and it's going to last 2 years.
And lastly on the AXS controller system,
is the pairing button.
Simply this is so you can pair up
with other components within the AXS ecosystem.
And it also means that you do
have the ability to adjust trim.
In a very similar way that you would do
the barrel adjust on a traditional cable set up.
Next up is the Eagle AXS derailleur.
Although the controller is very cool,
the derailleur is actually where the brains are.
Despite how much tech is crammed into this unit,
it's actually very simple to set up
and even more simple to use.
Visually the Eagle AXS derailleur,
shares a lot of similarities with
the conventional Eagle make.
But there's actually quite a lot of details
they're quite significantly different.
The cage itself is 10 millimeters shorter
and the actual position of the upper guide rail,
notice the chains have increased wrap around
on that cassette.
And of course the battery unit itself
is mounted on the back of the derailleur.
It's out of harms way there.
The battery lasts for 20 hours,
it takes 1 hour to charge,
and it's compatible with all the other batteries.
They're all the same within the AXS ecosystem.
You can hot swap these batteries too.
So there's no messing around or having to repair anything.
You can literally take the battery off
and plug another one straight in.
If you are unlucky enough for it
to run out when you are out on the trail,
the derailleur will stay in the last used gear.
Of course you can just swap in a battery
from your reverb and continue riding.
And yes, of course it is completely water proof too.
So there's not issues at all with riding
and racing in foul conditions
and jet washing your bike afterwards.
The units are designed to withstand up
to IP 69k standards.
That's the sort of stuff that construction gear,
we're talking drills and stuff you see
on building sites has to adhere to in order
to be used outdoors in demanding conditions.
The only thing you have to make sure of,
is the battery is either on or you have one
of the blanks in place when washing your bike.
Now as far as adjustment goes,
there's 3 main points of adjustment on a derailleur.
There's the B screw or the B tension screw.
They're the same as any other derailleur,
for setting the height of the upper guide rail
in relation to the larger sprocket on the cassette.
There's also upper and lower limit screws.
Now, although it's a good idea to have these properly set,
the controller will only enable the derailleur
to move within specific limits.
That actually is not that much of a problem.
The only other adjustment of course,
is the pairing button which is used in order
to pair with the controller and other components
within the AXS ecosystem.
It's also used in conjunction with the controller
if you need to adjust the trim at all
while you're on the trail or any other time.
Shifting is absolutely instant,
it's so fast and so punchy,
it doesn't matter how much load
is going through that system.
Bang, bang. Through the gears.
Much faster, much punchier
and much more predictable than a conventional system.
As far as noise goes,
the mech make's some sort of
really cool electronic zippy noises.
But really the whole system doesn't make any noise at all.
Just think when the clutch derailleur first came out,
it was a game changer.
Now it's like that all over again.
Now probably the coolest feature
as far as I'm concerned on the AXS re-derailleur
is actually a protection system.
So it's called the over load clutch.
So there is already a clutch unit on
the lower sprung cage in order to help
with chain retention and keeping things quiet.
The overload clutch is specifically there
to protect the motor.
So if you were to strike the cage on say
a rock or in a crash, something like that.
You could damage the motor if the clutch wasn't there.
Now the clutch simply disengages everything
and allows the case to move out of harms way.
And a few seconds later,
it will return back to the position you were in
before that impact.
That's smart.
And of course there's the reverb AXS as well.
So this is a brand new seat post from RockShox.
It's the RockShox Reverb AXS and it's wireless as well.
It has it's own dedicated controller up
on the bars on the left hand side there.
Which like everything else is customizable,
we'll get to that in a minute.
The seat post itself has a brand new IFP design,
it's a low friction design.
It's far lower friction than
previous seat posts by RockShox.
It's also got a couple of other really cool features
and some slight differences.
One of those features is vent valve technology.
At some point you or one of your riding buddies
will probably be unlucky enough to have
the dreaded bounce in a seat post.
What happens there is effectively against
the wrong side of the IFP and it results
in having to have a service to get your post sorted out.
Not any more with the vent valve technology.
You simply remove the post.
using that vent valve
you can effectively bleed that air out.
You compress the post, pull it back in, good to go.
There's no adjustable return speed now.
So one of the features that RockShox Reverb Seatpost
has been known for
is having that, effectively a barrel adjuster
to adjust the rebound speed of the seat post as it extends.
Now of course,
most people would run the seatpost out at full speed
because you want it to be reactive in the way you wanna ride
so RockShox have done away with this.
It's not needed and it's set at the factory
on the fastest setting now.
I can tell you, it feels faster than before,
more predictable than before,
and the action is phenomenal.
Now as well as being an electronic operation
and being wireless and all the other stuff,
the thing that's so outstanding about it
is how instant
you can drop that seatpost.
Now whether you're using a hydraulic RockShox Reverb
or you're using a cable operated post,
there is a delay when you engage the lever
or the drop lever
in order to actuate the seatpost.
On this, there is no delay at all.
You literally tap that button with the tiniest bit of effort
and it's infinitely adjustable within it's travel as well.
Well of course, it's wireless.
So this is a true plug and place seatpost.
Not all that internal routing fluff that really does
give you rage in the workshop.
You can plug and play, you can put this on any of your bikes
nice and easy.
Of course the controller, supper easy to unplug
using a matchmaker system
and bash it on another bike.
Now as far as battery goes,
it's the same battery as you see on the rest
of the AXS system,
which means you can swap them around,
it's hot-swappable like the rest of the system,
taking an hour to recharge.
And they last between 40 and 60 hours of use,
depending on how trigger happy you are.
Now the clamp design at the top of the post
is very different,
so in order to house the motor and the battery system
at the top,
the previous twin bolt system
could no longer be used,
so I had to go for a single bolt system.
Single bolt systems aren't always the best,
but RockShox has refined this.
Now, the single bolt on the side
is purely there to clamp the system down.
There's also another bolt at the front
which adjusts the pitch,
so there's no slipping with this system.
Now finally, the last thing is the control itself,
so there's a dedicated controller that sits
on the left hand side of the bars
with a single paddle.
Like the right hand unit designed for the derailleur,
it's incredibly active, it's supper easy to use,
it's really minimal,
and it's in the exact place you want it to be.
But,
the cool thing is,
like the rest of the AXS system,
you can have it your way.
You can assign it to different levers
and different functions,
something I'm going to show you about with the app.
If you use the app,
then that really unlocks the potential
of what you can do and what you can imagine
this system is going to be able to do in the future.
Now the app is a fairly simple thing to use.
You open it up, you pair it with the system,
you put in all your rider details,
like your name, your bikes, and all this sort of stuff.
And if you have various systems,
you can name them and assign different things to them.
Now using the app,
this is the supper cool thing,
you can assign any of the paddles and touch points
to do different things.
Now, for example,
the drop-a-post controller
sits on the left hand side if the bars,
but you don't have to use it for that feature.
You could have this set for down-shifts,
and have the right hand paddle set for up-shifts,
and the top part of the right hand paddle,
that could be operating your dropper post.
Just think of the opportunities for how you can customize
a setup to really suit
the way you wanna ride the bike.
Super cool.
Now, who's it for?
Well, immediately the thing that stands out to me,
that this has been designed for ultimate
shifting performance.
It's not just tech that's been developed
for the sake of making it wireless.
This is to make shifting better,
more positive,
and of course, ultimately customizable.
Okay, sure, it's not cheap by any means.
It's not trying to be cheap.
This is a premium product and it really does sit
in that super bike category.
So there's two models in the range.
There's XX1 and X01.
XX1 is aimed firmly at the cross country races out there,
and it has titanium hardware on there
and it has a carbon cage.
Now the X01 is aimed more at the Enduro rider
or someone that wants something that's a little bit
more robust.
It's got full stainless hardware and aluminum,
forged aluminum, jockey wheel cage on there.
Now the XX1 transmission is actually
about 70 to 80 grams lighter than the original 11 speed
SRAM XX1 transmission.
And its about 15 grams lighter than the Eagle XX1 setup,
whereas X01 is about five grams lighter.
So what does the system cost?
Well obviously there's various price points
for various products here.
So the Reverb post itself,
that retails for about 800 dollars.
The XX1 transmission retails for about 2100 dollars
and the X01 at 1900 dollars.
Now is it compatible with other AXS components,
like the road stuff.
The good news here is yes.
Anything is cross compatible within the whole range
or ecosystem of AXS components.
So, for example,
you could have the AXS Reverb Seatpost,
put it on a gravel bike,
and you could use those little blip-box,
little buttons you could get on the road,
equivalent with the AXS system in order to operate it.
Now that is super cool.
Now again, something else so exciting about this
is what the future holds for things like the wireless
AXS system.
You've only got to think that
how your smart devices, your phones,
your watches,
your devices on your bike,
how they're all gonna start interacting together
and learning and gathering data.
This is super cool and super interesting,
not only for being able to customize everything,
but for what sort of scope there is for future developments.
Now, I'd imagine that the data gathering
is gonna start analyzing
sort of things like your shifting patterns,
the gears you use most,
they might even be able to make recommendations
on the the best size chaining for your bike,
for your power, and what you use.
I think this is just incredible.
And this is only the start of something.
Of course the app is going to see
later firmware updates
and alterations as time goes on.
And there's surely going to be further products
that are compatible within the AXS system.
If this is what the future holds
for tech in mountain biking,
then I am all in.
I love the fact that it's adaptable,
I love the fact it's customizable,
I love the fact it learns things
as you're using it.
I think its really intuitive
and it's a very, very smart piece of kit.
But I'd love to know what you think of SRAM AXS.
Make no mistakes, this is a super high performance
product.
It's not designed to be there for everyone,
it's not designed to filter down to budget price points,
this is the ultimate, the premium thing.
Let us know what you think of SRAM AXS
in those comments below
and we can pickup that conversation.
Now if you want to see what Neil's got to say about it,
check out his video over on GMBN right here,
and if you love what SRAM are doing,
give us a huge thumbs up
and don't forget to click that subscribe button.