SRAM Etap. Six months in, how you getting on?

[poppiholla]

@Morta: I have the same issue with Etap. I have some drivetrain noise on the big ring in combination with the 4 biggest sprockets on my cassette. The setup of the etap system is good and there is zero rubbing on the front derailleur. I can't figure out what causes the drivetrain noise. When I used Sram Red 22 I did not have drivetrain noise. It all worked fine. Now I have Etap on the same bike and some drivetrain noise. Very annoying. The only difference is that my LBS pressed in C-Bear OSBB61 Fact-R cups for my Sram BB30 crankset. when I was using Sram Red 22 some delrin cups were used. We contacted C-Bear and we did not make anny mistake when pressing in the cups. So there is nothing wrong with that or the chain line.
I recently swapped the Sram Red cassette and chain for an Shimano Ultegra chain and cassette to check out the drivetrain noise. It helped limiting ythe drivetrain noise but it is not completely gone away. Maybe my chain lenght is too short and causing the drivetrain noise but I need to check this.
The function of etap is very very good. I like the way it works. The setup was straight forward but not as easy as Sram stated in the Youtube setup instructions.
Overall I am pleased with Etap. I is not love at first sight but it is growing on me. I like the battery life and the way it looks.

[jeffy]

Of course I scratched my brand new matching RED crank because of the freaking lower limit screw . But after some more micro adjustments it works perfectly now.

wait, so the FD limit screw / crank issue - also affect people using a SRAM red crank?!!

that is ridiculous.

[drhex]

If anyone has ridden both etap and mechanical SR please could you give me your preference (obviously they're completely different) but they're both in my budget for my next build and I can't make a decision.

FWIW i currently use dura ace di2.

My frame will be Italian.

I am. There's a few things I like about SR more: ergo body shape (especially how it curves in at the top, not a fan of hood transition though), FD shifting is awe inspiringly good (Chorus MY2011 to 2014) and there's something oddly satisfying about the shifting action.

On the eTap side, I like that I can swap wheels and fix trim on the fly while riding. Hood transition is perfect and body shape is slender and feels good in the hand in various positions. FD shifting is a step up from Red mechanical. Brake levers with spring return and wide blade feel very good. When I am tired or on the rivet, I much prefer eTap. I can be bent over the bars with my hands hooked in, arms bent 90 degrees going full bore and shift up or down with a flick of the pinky.

I suppose my fondness of SR is akin to having a nice sports car with paddle shifting and then getting back into a car with a good manual transmission, clutch and all (or maybe more appropriately, a sequential shifting gear box on a race car). When you got the car with paddle shifting, it was the best thing since sliced bread. Then, one day, you find yourself in a manual transmission car again and appreciate some of the things you took for granted (then you get stuck in traffic and hate life).

Amazing response and makes total sense.

The groupset is going on a Scappa il-corriero frame. http://scappa.it/en/gamma/il-corriero

This is going to be my dream build and so want to take my time deciding how to dress it up

I am running SR mech and EPS as well as ETAP. SR looks better.
Nuff said.
Florian

[2old4this]

Over this weekend I did four rides (each is between 1k to 2k feet) with eTap, DI2 9070, and SR EPS v2. Here is what I think about eTap after a few months of usage...

I know a good number of people do like eTap, and I am really trying to like it as well but...
- the front shifting is not as good as neither the EPS nor the DI2 (my benchmark...)
- the rear shifting is a tad slower than the other two
- and finally, it's price is very very high (compared to reduced cost of DA DI2).

I can see two valid reasons preferring it against the others
- if your frame does not have internal wiring (bunch of guys I hang out with still like their steel/titanium frames and want to use electronic shifting...)
- you are a pro installer and hate going through internal wiring hustle, especially on TT bikes.

I have had two of my last mechanical frames converted to internal, and I do not mind spending a few hours to do internal wiring. So eTap is, well, not my choice...

[Morta]

Of course I scratched my brand new matching RED crank because of the freaking lower limit screw . But after some more micro adjustments it works perfectly now.

wait, so the FD limit screw / crank issue - also affect people using a SRAM red crank?!!

that is ridiculous.

Yeah, it is affecting me. I have a 50/34 Sram Red crank. The crank arm runs very close to the f.r. The lower limit screw left several scratches when I adjusted the f.r. and did some tests with the setup. Maybe my bad since I did not really watched/checked the gap between the screw and the crank. Maybe it is because of my frame shape or what ever. I plan to ask the SRAM guys when I will be going to EURO Bike beginning of September.

[Morta]

@Morta: I have the same issue with Etap. I have some drivetrain noise on the big ring in combination with the 4 biggest sprockets on my cassette. The setup of the etap system is good and there is zero rubbing on the front derailleur. I can't figure out what causes the drivetrain noise. When I used Sram Red 22 I did not have drivetrain noise. It all worked fine. Now I have Etap on the same bike and some drivetrain noise. Very annoying. The only difference is that my LBS pressed in C-Bear OSBB61 Fact-R cups for my Sram BB30 crankset. when I was using Sram Red 22 some delrin cups were used. We contacted C-Bear and we did not make anny mistake when pressing in the cups. So there is nothing wrong with that or the chain line.
I recently swapped the Sram Red cassette and chain for an Shimano Ultegra chain and cassette to check out the drivetrain noise. It helped limiting ythe drivetrain noise but it is not completely gone away. Maybe my chain lenght is too short and causing the drivetrain noise but I need to check this.
The function of etap is very very good. I like the way it works. The setup was straight forward but not as easy as Sram stated in the Youtube setup instructions.
Overall I am pleased with Etap. I is not love at first sight but it is growing on me. I like the battery life and the way it looks.

Thanks. Let's keep in touch. Let me know when you find the issue in your setup.

For me it is really bad in 50/28. 50/25 is pretty loud and still annoying. 50/23 is fairly quiet and it is very close to 'okay'. Then it is all good. I hoped I could fix it with the micro adjustments but that does not fix it.

[poppiholla]

Ok. We keep things posted.
I checked my chain lenght yesterday. The lenght should be ok because I added 2 links (one inner en one outer plate) but then the chain was too long on the 34-13, 12 en 11 combination.
I removed the two links and the chain had the correct lenght in all gears. I noticed also a communication issue in the Sram installation video about the Front derailleur. The video sais that there should be two mm between the longest teeth of the big chain ring and the cage but when I do that, the height of the FD is not correct when I look at the setup line inside the cage. The longest teeth of the big chainring passes the setup line.
Yesterday I had also some issues with the chain dropping when shifting in the front from 34-50 when the chain is in the middle of the cassette. It goes fine but suddenly it drops because of the overshift of the FD. The FD limit screws are set ok, but I can't figure out why it happens. The drive train noise increases when the Cage is installed lower and is less when the cage is installed higher, but then the chain will drop of the big chain ring very easily and suddenly. Etap works flawless on the back, but i have issues with the Front derailleur. ;-(

[tl8nicol]

Of course I scratched my brand new matching RED crank because of the freaking lower limit screw . But after some more micro adjustments it works perfectly now.

wait, so the FD limit screw / crank issue - also affect people using a SRAM red crank?!!

that is ridiculous.

Yeah, it is affecting me. I have a 50/34 Sram Red crank. The crank arm runs very close to the f.r. The lower limit screw left several scratches when I adjusted the f.r. and did some tests with the setup. Maybe my bad since I did not really watched/checked the gap between the screw and the crank. Maybe it is because of my frame shape or what ever. I plan to ask the SRAM guys when I will be going to EURO Bike beginning of September.

Anyone know a supplier/source to which I can request those shorter screws?
I am from Brazil, so I'm not exactly optimistic about finding any solution here as eTap has not landed yet.

[wheelsONfire]

You can always grind the screws a bit with a dremel....

[cyclespeed]

You can always grind the screws a bit with a dremel....

Is that in the SRAM user manual?!

[sungod]

Anyone know a supplier/source to which I can request those shorter screws?
I am from Brazil, so I'm not exactly optimistic about finding any solution here as eTap has not landed yet.

for the lower limit screw, get an standard m4x0.7 grub screw, 10-12mm is ok, the original is 13.5mm, but i just ground a couple of mm off the end

btw the original is ti so a powered grinder is easier than trying it with a file

there're so many possible down tube sizes/shapes/angles it's not surprising sram didn't try them all, in the scheme of things a slightly long screw is not worth getting stressed about, it's not as if other groupsets are trouble free...

viewtopic.php?f=3&t=118879&start=495#p1255367

[poppiholla]

Sram should provide the internetshops ETAP low limit srews replacement in different lenght.

[tl8nicol]

Anyone know a supplier/source to which I can request those shorter screws?
I am from Brazil, so I'm not exactly optimistic about finding any solution here as eTap has not landed yet.

for the lower limit screw, get an standard m4x0.7 grub screw, 10-12mm is ok, the original is 13.5mm, but i just ground a couple of mm off the end

btw the original is ti so a powered grinder is easier than trying it with a file

there're so many possible down tube sizes/shapes/angles it's not surprising sram didn't try them all, in the scheme of things a slightly long screw is not worth getting stressed about, it's not as if other groupsets are trouble free...

viewtopic.php?f=3&t=118879&start=495#p1255367

So, low limit screw is a grub M4x0.7 (10mm). What about the high limit screw?
I will try to find them at ebay or some local shop....

Used the bike today - even with a clearance thinner than a hair, it worked flawlessly...

[ChiZ01]

the sram yaw FD setup will only work on yaw chainrings. With other chainrings, you have to rotate the FD tail abit inward for big big combo. even then it might not work all the time.

[sungod]

So, low limit screw is a grub M4x0.7 (10mm). What about the high limit screw?
I will try to find them at ebay or some local shop....

Used the bike today - even with a clearance thinner than a hair, it worked flawlessly...

high limit screw is reverse threaded, do you have a clearance problem with it?

at least on mine, the ll screw only just touched the crank arm at the point where the fd overshifts before dropping back, in static condition the clearance was ok

looking at mine i'd say you need about 2mm static clearance to have decent safety margin on the overshift, but perhaps that varies with adjustment

if you position the crank arm in line with the screws, look down at the gap, and then shift to small and back to big you'll be able to see the clearance at both stages of shifting