In the News: SRAM single-ring road drivetrain coming soon?
Triathlete spotted using CX1 with larger SRAM front chainring, which suggests that SRAM is close to releasing a single-chainring road kit
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It was only a matter of time. SRAM’s immensely successful XX1 mountain bike kit was turned into a cyclocross drivetrain one year ago, and since then, hints have been dropped about a similar road group. Then, on Thursday, Slowtwitch’s Herbert Krabel captured some photos of Jordan Rapp’s Dimond triathlon bike with a 54-tooth SRAM X-Sync single chainring.
Two weeks ago, Zipp launched new 202 and 303 wheelsets, which were conspicuously compatible with an XD Driver Body — the key component in SRAM’s one-by drivetrains running a 10-tooth small cog. We later heard from an anonymous source close to SRAM that some SRAM triathletes had been using an XD Driver and a prototype 10-26 cassette. However, Krabel reports that Rapp’s bike is equipped with a standard SRAM 11-26 cassette on his Zipp 808 wheelset.
Rapp is using a SRAM Force CX1 rear derailleur, a derailleur that was designed to work with any SRAM 11-speed road shifters, so it should function seamlessly with Rapp’s SRAM R2C shifters.
SRAM’s trail of single-ring road drivetrain breadcrumbs has been somewhat public as Specialized introduced a single-ring road bike to its line-up late last year, the Venge Lunch Race (pictured), which has a 52-tooth X-Sync chainring.
Like we said after the Zipp launch, we expect to learn more about a SRAM single-ring road drivetrain in a couple of weeks at SRAM’s product launch.