You know how this goes. When a big company like SRAM introduces a new drivetrain, smaller companies are quick to introduce compatible parts for their own products to allow them to play nice. Chris King announced today via social media that they are adding XDR freehubs for their R45 and R45D Centerlock road hubs.
While the XDR freehub design was created for SRAM’s RED eTap AXS cassettes, it also opens up the ability to run Eagle cassettes – provided you use the correct spacer. Even though the XDR freehub body is 1.85mm wider to allow for the proper clearance between the smaller cassettes and the spokes, SRAM tells us that it is possible to run an Eagle cassette (including those for the new AXS group) on an XDR freehub body with a spacer.
Because of that, XDR driveshells like those from Chris King, are compatible with both XDR and XD cassettes. However, XD driveshells are only compatible with XD cassettes. That makes us wonder a bit if XDR will eventually replace all of the XD options out there, or if we’ll just end up with another freehub standard to keep track of.
Back to the CK XDR driveshells, Chris King says that they will start taking orders on March 1st. After that, the first parts will begin shipping on March 18th.
