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First Ride: Testing SRAM Force eTap AXS on Girona’s best roads and gravel

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Rolling into the Road Bike Connection event in Spain, small talk about the event quickly turned to product.

“What do you think SRAM will be showing?”

“It can’t be Force eTap AXS, right? They just launched RED eTap AXS!

But no. That was exactly what SRAM had on tap for us, in spite of the recent arrival of the newest RED group. And lucky for us, we were about to experience it first hand on some of the best roads Girona, Spain has to offer.

As a first timer to Girona, I was in for a treat. While the bustling city center has all the trappings of an ancient European city that has since been thoroughly modernized, as soon as you pedal past the city’s core, you’re rewarded with stellar riding conditions. It’s no wonder that many pros and ex-pros alike have taken to calling Girona home.

First Ride: Testing SRAM Force eTap AXS on Girona's best roads and gravel
All Photos c. Road Bike Connection – Tristan Cardew

Serving as our base camp for the week, the AC Hotel Palu de Bellavista is positioned at the top of a steep hill offering panoramic views of the city. The payment for those views however was a punishing climb back to the top at the end of every ride. Like the now defunct Press Camp in the U.S., Road Bike Connection is a unique event that brings together a number of brands to pitch new products to a large group of editors simultaneously. That meant a brand like SRAM could host meetings in the morning to discuss the finer points of the new Force eTap AXS group, and then hop on bikes to ride those parts all afternoon. This provided a few different chances for us to ride the group – both on gravel and on the road.

First Ride: Testing SRAM Force eTap AXS on Girona's best roads and gravel

First Ride: Testing SRAM Force eTap AXS on Girona's best roads and gravelFirst Ride: Testing SRAM Force eTap AXS on Girona's best roads and gravel

Up the road to Els Àngels

While most of the rides were smaller groups doing their own thing following tracks laid out by Komoot, the big ride of the week was a massive group ride up to the 15th century hilltop outpost of Els Àngels. My ride? That would be the Canyon Ultimate CF SLX Disc 9.0 Team CSR, obviously with a different build to include SRAM Force eTap AXS. Yes, technically this is the women’s model, but riders of both genders agreed it’s a good looking bike and there are only very slight tweaks to the geometry between it and the men’s version.

Thanks to Christian Meier of The Service Course for leading the ride, and for the rental bike the next day so I could climb Rocacorba. If you’re in Girona and need a bike, guiding, coffee, or anything else, stop by the shop.

First Ride: Testing SRAM Force eTap AXS on Girona's best roads and gravel First Ride: Testing SRAM Force eTap AXS on Girona's best roads and gravel

First Ride: Testing SRAM Force eTap AXS on Girona's best roads and gravel

At just over 10km in length with an average gradient of 3%, the Els Àngels climb out of Girona is a fantastic way to start a ride, and provided a chance to familiarize ourselves with our bikes and the eTap AXS group.

First Ride: Testing SRAM Force eTap AXS on Girona's best roads and gravel

On my very first ride of the new group, two things were immediately apparent. First, I love the shape of the new hoods. I’ve always found the older SRAM Hydro hoods to be a bit boxy with hard edges where you wrap your fingers around the hood. These are much more sculpted with a great shape and a great texture to the hood cover itself. Second, I was surprised how quickly I took to the Blips mounted to the top of the bar. On long climbs, I noticed how much more I would shift to stay in the perfect gear. Without the ability to shift from the bar top, I normally wouldn’t shift as much since it would require a position change just to hit the button. 

First Ride: Testing SRAM Force eTap AXS on Girona's best roads and gravel
I just can’t help myself. First Ride: Testing SRAM Force eTap AXS on Girona's best roads and gravel

Admittedly, it took some time to get comfortable on the bike with a very bumpy, very fast descent down the backside of Els Àngels, but this was more a reflection of the fact that I’ve been riding a lot more gravel and MTB lately than pure road. But by the second descent, it was all coming back. And fast. Once you learn to trust the tires and the brakes, the Force group offers impressive control in terms of slowing you down. 

Compared to the SRAM HRD 1x goups I’ve been riding for a few years now, the new brakes are in another league in terms of smoothness, sound, and even modulation. The power comes on very consistently as you squeeze the lever which allows you to easily make small adjustments in speed, but if you need large amounts of power it’s there for you. Maybe just as importantly, the brakes were quiet – both when you were coasting and when you were braking hard. Hopefully this will continue as the brakes wear, but initial impressions were good.

First Ride: Testing SRAM Force eTap AXS on Girona's best roads and gravel

As the ride wrapped up, we wound our way through the idyllic country roads and back towards the city of Girona. All of the Force bikes tested were set up so that pushing the right shifter button moved the rear derailleur one way, and pushing the left shifter button made the derailleur move the opposite way. To shift the front derailleur, you push both shifter buttons at the same time to execute the shift. It’s the same default setting that SRAM eTap has always used, but it always requires a few shifts to reacclimate yourself to it, especially if you’re new to the group. Once you get it down though, it’s second nature. It also means that only one button is needed per shifter, which allows the individual buttons to be larger – which should men they’ll work better with bulky gloves in the winter or just riders with larger digits.

First Ride: Testing SRAM Force eTap AXS on Girona's best roads and gravel

Same group, different gravel

Even though the majority of my time on the group was spent on the road, a good portion of it was also spent on Girona’s amazing gravel roads and paths. Seriously, this stuff is everywhere and with a bike like the Open U.P., you can explore to your heart’s content.

First Ride: Testing SRAM Force eTap AXS on Girona's best roads and gravel

Set up again with a 2×12 drivetrain, the Open was equipped with 650b wheels and WTB Byway 47mm tubeless tires (and obviously a smaller size for me than pictured above).

First Ride: Testing SRAM Force eTap AXS on Girona's best roads and gravel

That decision to equip the gravel bikes with 2×12 drivetrains is an interesting one – that might have been done on purpose. On many gravel bikes recently, I’ve been happy to run a 1x drivetrain for no other reason than the fact that they’re usually quieter and offer better chain retention.

But something struck me while riding the eTap Open. The silence. This is definitely one of the quietest 2x drivetrains I’ve ridden off road, which seems to confirm SRAM’s claims of improvements. Between the Orbit fluid damper and the new chain, there was zero detectable chainslap or rattling, which made me very happy.

First Ride: Testing SRAM Force eTap AXS on Girona's best roads and gravel

I do think that for it to be a true contender for a gravel group lower gearing may be desired, but SRAM is coyly hinting at more mix and match “Beyond Road” options later this summer.

First Ride: Testing SRAM Force eTap AXS on Girona's best roads and gravel

Like the road, I found myself really liking the addition of the Blips to the bar tops which keeps you from having to move your hands from the bar to shift in bumpy situations. These were all mounted underneath the bar tape which looked clean and keeps the Blips protected, but it did make them a little harder to push. Really, you can mount them however or wherever you like though, so you can customize your set up. As mentioned in the first post, Force only has one Blip port per lever where as Red has two.

First Ride: Testing SRAM Force eTap AXS on Girona's best roads and gravel First Ride: Testing SRAM Force eTap AXS on Girona's best roads and gravel

As expected, the brakes performed just as well off road as they do on, offering quiet, powerful stopping with plenty of modulation to keep it from locking up.

First Ride: Testing SRAM Force eTap AXS on Girona's best roads and gravel

Even with a solid few days of riding on the new group, this can still just be described as ‘first impressions’, but those first impressions were very positive. It’s hard to imagine that a road group could be that much better than what was already out there, or that it could be as versatile as the new Force eTap AXS group, but that seems to be exactly the case. Other than a 300g weight penalty that you can’t really feel on the bike, the group seems to truly offer RED level performance, just with a smaller price tag.

sram.com

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Dave
Dave
4 years ago

Is it true that the power meter is part of the chain-rings so when it is time to replace your chain-rings you have to replace the power-meter? If so that makes some very expensive chain-rings.

Gary
4 years ago
Reply to  Dave

Power Meter for the new Force is a spider with separate chain rings.

https://launch.sram.com/en/axs/products/sram-axs-power-meter-spider

Bret Miedema
Bret Miedema
4 years ago
Reply to  Dave

I believe that has changed with Force as there are more options.

Markus Ponson
Markus Ponson
4 years ago
Reply to  Dave

Looking at part numbers from a distributor it appears so!

Seraph
Seraph
4 years ago
Reply to  Dave

So far there is no Force AXS power meter option. The only way to run a Quarq power meter with AXS is on the Red level components. And in that case the chain rings and power meter are integrated so that yes, when you wear out your rings you have to buy a new power meter. But SRAM claims a 5-year lifespan of their new chain ring setups, assuming you keep up with your chain replacement schedule.

Alex
Alex
4 years ago
Reply to  Seraph

Same power meter, integrated with spider. Rings separate.

James
James
4 years ago
Reply to  Dave

It is priced so it will be very similar pricing to a similar set of high end chainrings, plus they are supposed to wear 3 to 4 times as long as previous rings.

mudrock
mudrock
4 years ago
Reply to  Dave

No. With Force the power meter in integrated in the spider, so you can swap rings as long as they’re compatible with the spider. (The biggest difference with Force and Red is that Force has traditional spider-and-chainring setup, whereas Red has a very expensive direct mount ring assembly)

Colin M
Colin M
4 years ago

These are the bikes of the future. Want want want

Amazing weather and location for the media group. Super jealous.

ocean soul
ocean soul
4 years ago

RD is not big enough

Ettore
Ettore
4 years ago
Reply to  ocean soul

The’ve made it interchangeable with Eagle, so you’re good on the RD.

twelvestocks
twelvestocks
4 years ago
Reply to  Ettore

Except as yet you can’t buy the eagle derailleur without a mountain bike shifter and you can’t buy road shifters on their own with or without brakes. I’m sure these options will come, but not for a little while.

barael
barael
4 years ago
Reply to  Ettore

But Eagle cassettes aren’t compatible with the new chain, so the chain and chainrings all have to change as well. And from what I can see, Eagle doesn’t have any gravel-ish options at but instead you’re stuck with 10-50ish cassettes and <<40t chainrings.

That said, 10-33 cassette with 36t chainring isn't terribly different from a current 11-42/40 setups (very similar top gear, slightly harder low end) except of course you get an extra gear somewhere in the middle. I'm personally stuck with a 11-32 / 40 so for me it'd be a pretty nice upgrade even.

Doug D
Doug D
4 years ago

The chainrings are designed to last four times longer than previous rings. This allows power to be on more bikes for a lower price.

Bazz
Bazz
4 years ago

107BCD, why not 104 or 110 just like the standards already out there?

VeloFreak
VeloFreak
4 years ago

It’s great that SRAM aluminium chainrings last 4 times more than previous. That forged unicorn blood makes wonders.

Not only the cycling market and press are dumb, now companies take advantage of it, with no shame anymore, at all. Well over 200€ cassettes, electronic wirless rear shifters when there is no need for it… An aluminium chainrings that last 4 times more… LOL

ChuckA
ChuckA
4 years ago
Reply to  VeloFreak

How long did it take for you to wear your AXS chainrings out?

Efrain Aguiluz
Efrain Aguiluz
4 years ago

Is the force as also compatible with the eagle RD? Also if the hydro disc calipers are only flat mount how do I install them on IS and post mounts? Adapters or separate calipers?

Nick Burton
Nick Burton
4 years ago

A 33t cassette is the largest this RD works with. This group set came with the top end Cervelo Aspero build. The option of spending another $1k on switching to an Eagle set-up is not very appealing. The Shimano GRX 1x group gets you a lighter, cheaper and better gear ratio (40/42 =0.95) for climbing set-up. In my opinion, if you want to use this SRAM Force eTap AXS group on hilly gravel rides you need 2x chainring (and that may not even be enough!).

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