SRAM goes electric....(almost official) Has Landed

[ras11]

Wouldn't it be nice if Campy and FSA takes license on SRAM wireless and becomes a standard! They can still have all their own designs, it's the communications protocol would be the same. That way I can upgrade, replace, or ride what's in the shop in a pinch.

[Fiery]

Maybe I missed it but no one has mentioned that the power source will be the little 3 volt 2032 coin battery - one in each mech. Apparently they won't draw power except to shift so life is said to be very good for such a small power source.

Source? My understanding is that the shifters will use the coin batteries, but that the derailleurs have removable, rechargeable, interchangeable batteries - the big black rectangular things that can be seen here for example.

[eliflap-scalpel]

yes ... RD and FD have rechargable batteries ...

[Ahillock]

I would bet ten bucks that the groups that now use wires, will all eventually be wireless, and the elec vs mechanical specific frame stuff will be history.

This is a certainty. If the Sram product is a good one, than the others will have to go wireless. Wireless is a substantial improvement in customer benefit - just too big a competitive advantage to ignore.

Just too expensive to do a specific mold and layups just for SRAM wireless.

Absolutely, but when all electronic is wireless it would make more sense. We'd be looking at some pretty clean frames - just something for the rear brake until it too becomes electronic and wireless

I don't see mechanical groups going away in my lifetime. Maybe I'll be wrong.

[eliflap-scalpel]

Yes, XTR di2 can be used with one shifter. If you're on your 11 and you shift up it goes to the big ring and shifts to a lower gear at the back.

Durace RD-9070 too

i have it on my mtb and i use a climbing shifter to command it on my 1x11 set up

[Mr.Gib]

Maybe I missed it but no one has mentioned that the power source will be the little 3 volt 2032 coin battery - one in each mech. Apparently they won't draw power except to shift so life is said to be very good for such a small power source.

Source? My understanding is that the shifters will use the coin batteries, but that the derailleurs have removable, rechargeable, interchangeable batteries - the big black rectangular things that can be seen here for example.

here is the article. Perhaps they have it wrong: http://www.cyclingweekly.co.uk/news/lat ... ect-167975

"The wireless setup means that SRAM Wireless will not be able to operate from a single central battery unit in the same way as Shimano and Campagnolo’s electronic systems. Instead, each individual component will contain an individual battery, hence the black casing on the back of the front and rear derailleurs. Photo caption: The black casing on the rear of the derailleur should contain a CR2032 coin-style battery.
Conveniently, the system will use CR2032 coin-style batteries, the sort you can pick up relatively cheaply on the high street. However, you shouldn’t find yourself searching out the nearest Tesco having run out of juice mid-ride, as battery life is expected to be anything up to a year.
The impressive battery life is down to the fact that the automatic mode for the shifters and derailleurs is “sleep”, with them only waking up once you press the shifting lever. This is a welcome difference from Campagnolo EPS, which has to be turned on and off manually."

In retrospect this doesn't seem to make sense. My various computers get about a year out of a coin battery and they have no moving parts. Is there a stack of those batteries under the black box cover?

[mashiehood]

I am waiting for SRAM to come up with the goods, not a big fan of Di2.

[Raineman]

Cycling weekly have it wrong there I'm afraid

As we had guessed, each derailleur's Li-ion rechargeable battery pack is indeed both removable and interchangeable, meaning you could not only easily limp home on a single battery if one is depleted but pack spares if you're worried about running out of juice on a multi-day trip off the grid.

In contrast, sources have told BikeRadar that the levers will be powered by conventional, non-rechargeable CR2032 coin-type batteries since the power requirements are much lower. While some will undoubtedly be disappointed with the idea of repeatedly buying batteries (not to mention environmental impacts), we've heard that the batteries "will last ages", suggesting that run times as long as a year or more might not be out of the question

Note the same black box on the back of each of the derailleurs with a latch on the top

[Grill]

I am waiting for SRAM to come up with the goods, not a big fan of Di2.

What don't you like about Di2?

[plpete]

Wonder if those batteries would be interchangeable between the derailleurs. It would be quite great to just swap the batteries when your rear der. dies.

[spartan]

yes. the front/rear battery is identical. the advantage of the sram system if a battery dies during a race..the rider just go the team car for a new battery.. voila. no bike change required...

if sram is smart they will sell the group with a spare third battery and extra coin cells for the shifters..

if the execute launch correctly sram can go from current status as ZERO to HERO...


biggest losers are FSA/CAMPAGNOLO..

[ergott]

...
..

if the execute launch correctly sram can go from current status as ZERO to HERO...


..

That's a huge if right there.

[Fluoro7]

I guess I haven't been back in the cycling scene long enough, but where does some of the SRAM negativity come from? I love my SRAM mechanical, feel is awesome, would never have gone Shimano myself (YMMV). Sure Campy would be nice, but not at my budget

[ergott]

Most mechanics I talk to have a dedicated bin for broken Sram stuff. Their sample size is much larger than individual users on forums.

[Mr.Gib]

I guess I haven't been back in the cycling scene long enough, but where does some of the SRAM negativity come from? I love my SRAM mechanical, feel is awesome, would never have gone Shimano myself (YMMV). Sure Campy would be nice, but not at my budget

Even as a rider who prefers Sram over all others, IMO there is a fair basis for some of the criticism. With regard to top of the line product (Red, some Force) problems with first generation shifters, front derailleur cages that were not sturdy enough, front chainrings/shifting that was not as good as the competition, noisy cassettes, recalled hydraulic disc brakes, etc. However, I wonder if any of this criticism still applies. IMO the Yaw FD is the best in the business, as is their Red cassette. Shifting is now comparable to any of the competition, and we don't seem to hear about failures or durability issues as much as in the past. Perhaps like many similar cases the mood on the street lags behind the current state of things. And when things have gone badly warranty support has been industry leading. Remember, all of this while maintaining status as the lightest of the groupsets at nearly every level. It always strikes me as odd when we bring up races that are lost due to a Sram mechanical failure and we fail to mention the guy the goes on to win as a result is also riding Sram.

Bottom line is we all should be praying that Sram wireless electronic is an absolute home run. We should also be cheering on all of Sram's mechanical groups as well. Could you imagine what we would be paying for groupsets if Sram wasn't there to compete with Shimano (and to a lesser extent Campy) or even was unfairly thought of as inferior?