Got my new Red FD and cassette on the bike tonight. Pretty excited about both. The weight on the Yaw FD is a little disappointing. In braze-on, with none of the extra hardware (fixing bolt or chaincatcher) it comes in at 72g. With my new MFCK 34.9 clamp and bolt, it came in at 82g. Pretty much equal to the D/A 7800 34.9 CLAMP derailleur it replaced..so its heavier than the D/A 7800 derailleur if you were going to use a regular metal clamp. With the chain catcher and supplied hardware, it comes in at 92g with the MFCK clamp. I opted to not use the chain catcher on the first go to see if its really necessary.The cassette came in at a very nice 153g for the 11-28, which I was not expecting.. thought it would be more with the 28 tooth.

In the stand, the FD is working flawlessly - better than expected. I'm using 2011 shifters and cranks. After some fine-tuning of clamp placement, it shifts perfectly from little to big, and throughout all the 11-28 gears in both rings with no trimming necessary. I thought I would have to use the trim feature of the 2011 shifter to use the upper rear cog when in the big ring, but again, plenty of room. Clearly, out on the road it might be a bit different, but I have no reason to expect it to be. This leaves me wondering why SRAM ever said that the 2012 crank was necessary.

How loud is the cassette?

Well, its louder than my D/A cassette.. that's all I have to compare it to. Never used 2011 Red. I do have a Rival cassette for my backup wheels that I haven't put on yet. Once I do, I guess i'll have a comparison to make.

Only necessary for their bottom line

Glad to hear it is working with the previous group.

I just built a Venge with the new Red and SI SLs + FSA rings...the shifting in the stand was most definitely better...spot on just about every time. While testing it outside, though, it wasn't as precise. Good, but not great. Better than the prior stuff.

At the same time, a coworker was building a Wilier Cento Uno SL with the new Red and the new crank. That was better while riding. Not leaps and bounds, but definitely better than the SI SL + FSA setup.

my si sl srm + 2012 sram shifters and sram FD work great. no issues with big/big or lil/lil.

the noise from the cassette is silent. sounds quiter than shimano or 1070 cassettes. its very nice.

as for sram saying the crankset is necessary....sales is the reason.

what rings and chain?

I have ridden the SRAM Red 2012 this week with my SRAM SRM with normal rings without any issues.

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Technical editor at Cykelmagasinet Denmark

My Simplon Pavo II

Interesting I was wondering how mechanically you had to run the new crank if the shifter pull ratio was the same.

Sent from my ME860 using Tapatalk

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N+1 It Never Stops

how does it compare to the 7800 FD you were running?

Quite a bit better. Took first ride on rollers with it - and the upshift to the big ring is super smooth and quick. Downshift seems to lag for a second, but not badly - I may need to fine tune it a bit more. I won't be able to really test out the downshift until I am actually on the road. Again, the best part for me so far is the fact that I don't need to trim to avoid chainrub. As long as I don't have any significant downshift issues, I would say this is a very worthwhile upgrade over the 7800 FD.

And what's the tooth count on this new 11-28? I wonder if has the same huge step in the middle as the old RED.

That's true; i don't understand why sram doesn't makes a 12-27 or similar including 16T cog.

Actually I was thinking about a 19-22 jump. For some reason tooth count is not listed on SRAM website for new cassettes.

The BTI Web Site has the following for the XG-1090 cassettes. Last Yes/No column is current availability.

11-23t 11,12,13,14,15,16,17,19,21,23 135g silver YES
11-25t 11,12,13,14,15,17,19,21,23,25 145g silver YES
11-26t 11,12,13,14,15,17,19,21,23,26 150g silver NO
11-28t 11,12,13,14,15,17,19,22,25,28 160g silver NO