SRAM has just dropped the most comprehensive component system for gravel riders yet, and I’ll get to the granular in a second. First, the head fake. SRAM calls the new system, XPLR, but they want don’t want you to pronounce that, “EX PEE EL ARE.” Their press release literally spells out at the top: “Say ‘Explore.’” Maybe there’s a good reason they didn’t just call it that? Is it too close to Explorer, which Ford kinda has the corner on?
Sorry, I’m not buying.
Drivetrains that begin with the letter X are the domain of their only competitor in the space, so pardon me if I think this is a sharp stick in the eye of Shimano.
Shimano launched GRX a few years back as a “dedicated” gravel group, and SRAM’s counter here is more comprehensive in several ways. Here’s that granular part you probably jumped directly to, anyway:
More Gears, and a Wider Spread
The macro message of the “Explore” group is choice. Lots of it.
That begins with being able to make some budget decisions, for instance, choosing Rival, Force, or Red level cranks, or mixing and matching per your wants from the parts bin. Translation: Rival is cheaper than Red in SRAM’s ecosystem, and you can mix Red and Rival, parts, so you don’t have to splurge on every part.
Another BIG deal is that XPLR allows a broader gear spread for gravel. As SRAM first did on the mountain side with Eagle cassettes that introduced single front chainrings mated to massive, 1-52 (520%) gear ranges, now they’re offering a 10-44-tooth, 12-speed cassette for XPLR mated to cranks in a huge range as well: 36, 38, 40, 42, 44, and 46-tooth.
If your brain already hurts at what’s going on here, a 1:1 ratio of front to rear is a good way to think about where gravel was before. GRX is offered as 1×11 with an 11-42 cassette and 42-tooth cranks, or 11-40 and and 40-tooth cranks: 40:40 or 42:42. A 1:1 ratio was a sort of golden mean on front-rear tooth setup for climbing on mountain bikes for years, but Eagle went way beyond and mountain bikers who rodeo up crazy steep climbs were thrilled. It allowed completely dumping the front derailleur, and XPLR is going that direction, hard.
While GRX still leaned heavily on 2x setups to get to that beyond 1:1 ratio, and a lot of “gravel” bikes came out of the box with 2x, riders who churn anything grimier than an even mix of dirt and pavement have long since switched over to 1x.
Enter an XPLR setup that’s well past 1:1, running a top cog of 44 and a smallest cog of 36 teeth. That may not be a SRAM Eagle combo of 52 teeth mated to a tiny 30-tooth granny, but you’ll find that kind of gearing on a trail or enduro rig that weighs (probably) a good ten pounds more than you svelte gravel machine.
The Twitter version: XPLR is giving you way more climbing mojo. But because you can also cook with, oh, a 44, or even a 46 front chainring, if you find yourself spun out on the flats, that 44 out back is going to allow a better balance between ascending churn and commuter mashing. Also: SRAM pushed the window on crank lengths, so short or tall riders can find their happier leverage ratio:
165mm, 167.5mm, 170mm, 172.5mm, 175mm, 177.5mm
Bonus: The whole shebang works with SRAM eTap, the Chicago brand’s wireless shifting system. I’ve dug eTap whenever I’ve tested it, in part because riders can program the levers themselves; Shimano’s wired Di2 not only requires routing those wires, but can only be programmed by a dealer.
Suspension, Front and Rear
Yeah, maybe you feel like you’re getting enough cush from your 50c tires, and a lot of gravel riders would prefer to shave weight than to add a fork to their dirt rigs. The Rockshox Rudy Ultimate fork, SRAM argues, gives gravel riders the chance for a short-travel fork that will also stiffen steering and throws riders of really long grinders a fatigue-fighting tool that could balance out the roughly one-pound penalty—give or take depending on the stock fork you’re running.
Fork still looks gravel svelte, even with suspension.
We’re talking about 40mm, or 1.5-inches of travel, which sounds like zilch, but hammer through a long descent of braking bumps with your triceps on fire and that could be enough to quell the meanness of your home turf and make the Rudy a game changer. This is definitely something I want to test, too, since in the endless search for the “one-bike-quiver” blurring the lines between the rigidity of a gravel bike (but the happiness of really light weight) and a very svelte, but expensive XC mountain bike makes me want to know if perhaps this helps get me closer to Goldilocks perfection.
The Reverb dropper with just a bit of chatter-eating squish on board.
That “rear” suspension part of the equation is actually…. the new Reverb Axis XPLR dropper seatpost. Not only does this activate via eTap, but SRAM built in a small amount of shock absorption here as well. Cleverly, that too, is rider adjustable. The minimum recommended pressure in the post is 200psi. Go lower, and you’ll get a softer ride. Amp the volume and you’ll sit on a firmer mattress. It’s not clear, and we won’t know before testing, if you can entirely eliminate all the motion, and also, how it rides if you want to go super-squish.
Wheels and Even Tires
Knowing that gravel riders like to roll on either 27.5 or 29er/700c wheels, SRAM, via Zipp, also crafted single-wall wheels for this category with a width designed to accommodate up to 50c tires. They’re claiming that their form of construction (single, rather than typical double wall rims for tubeless) enables a wheel that conforms better to the bumps and bruises of gravel riding, silly-puttying to the ground rather than forcing the tire to do all that work. That claimed compliance theoretically leads to fewer sealant burps, with both the rim and the tire rolling over sharper hits. Again, that’s a too-be-determined benefit.
SRAM, via Zipp, is also offering a gravel-specific tire. Here, I’m not sure what to think. It’s only offered in 40c, which is relatively narrow these days, and only in a 700c. Niche? Yep. The argument from SRAM is that they’re offering a tire with great durability, but there are plenty of tire choices for the segment, and tire choice is like saddle preference: Your personal “topography” should dictate what you roll.
As for the cost of all this kit, it varies from reasonable to…expensive…though you can also expect to see XPLR come as stock equipment across the gravel segment for new ’22 bikes. And we’ll have feedback on our own testing, soon.
Pricing includes controls (levers), chain, rear derailleur, cassette, rotors, bottom bracket, crankset, battery, and charger:
• SRAM RED eTap AXS Disc brake: $3,325
• Force eTap AXS Disc brake: $1,875
• Rival eTap AXS Disc brake: $1,237
• Zipp 101 XPLR wheelset: $1,800
• RockShox Rudy XPLR fork: $799
• RockShox Reverb XPLR seatpost: $600
Photos: SRAM
You need something to read? We have something to read!
Adventure Journal’s print stories are only available in print. They are deeper, longer, and more nuanced than what you find online. Find out why 99% of subscribers renew every single year.
Order a subscription and current issue you today and most U.S. address will have their copy in three days. West Coast addresses it’s 1-2 days.
Yawn. All this basically exists, or could, in MTB kits, except for the shifters, which they split the leverage ratios on, between MTB and Road, for no valid reason whatsoever, other than profiteering. Won’t be long before Gravel has it’s own leverage ratio too, because it’s soooo different.
What this really is, is more marketing, more SKU’s, more duplicity, and, more garbage creation where crossover component selection would MORE than take care of gearing range issues.
Oh, hardly a swipe at Shimano, seeing as they’ve had, XX1, XO, X9, X7, X5, X4, etc etc etc, for like, the last decade.
Can’t wait till folks figure out Gravel is just Cyclocross, and the marketeers can go back to trying to find other ways to convince us the bike we bought two years ago is no longer even functional due to age…
I was just telling someone the other day about a single speed bike I used to have, that was explicitly marketed as Cyclocross, and how I loved riding it through some trails on the way to campus at SF State, and I was thinking, oh, right, it was a “gravel” bike 10 years before that term really existed.
LOL tell us how you really feel. But Good points.
Although gravel is a bit wider gearing than cross and also the demographic and courses want for slacker angles in general. Also wider tires for most courses.
The burning question is – will Shimano launch their 12 speed Di2 Gravel group now?
Also, who will be first to sell this stuff online? Canyon? Bikesdirect? Wiggle?
Already available on the new Canyon GRIZL …
hmm- don’t see that any canyon with 2X12 speed Di2. Do you have a link? Turns out bikes direct has two twelve speed Shimano Di2 bikes
one road, one gravel
http://www.bikesdirect.com/products/motobecane/disc-brake-roadbikes/lechampioncf-2×12-di2-discbrake-road-bikes.htm
http://www.bikesdirect.com/products/motobecane/carbon-disc-brake-road-bikes/immortal-disc-team-di2-sl-discbrake-carbon-road-bikes.htm
If you think that a bike designed to excel at repeatedly slaloming through a mud / sand / grass circuit on 33mm tires handles the same as a bike designed for 50-100 mile cruises over rolling terrain on tires upwards of 50mm in width, well then I think you might not know as much about bikes as you think you do.
A strawman is when a person misrepresents someone’s argument to make it easier to attack.
By exaggerating, misrepresenting, or just completely fabricating someone’s argument, it’s much easier to present your own position as being reasonable, but this kind of dishonesty serves to undermine honest rational debate.
Remember that part where he said ”Gravel is just Cyclocross”…..yeah, me too… which is why I made the direct comparison between the use cases of both targeted Cross bikes and modern Gravel bikes.
No strawman conspiracies here matey!
Mmm, and yet I don’t remember him saying they “handle the same”
No conspiracy, just a poorly constructed strawman.
I hacked an Eagle drivetrain with Apex shifters. Couldn’t be happier. There are so many ways around it, but SRAM refuses to acknowledge it. More SKU’s is right.
Okay, I’ll bite here, as the author. I don’t fondly remember the “good old” days of triple chainrings, rim brakes, pogo-stick forks, and friction shift drivetrains. “When I was a kid!”… bikes sucked. So be honest. Of course a lot of this is about driving sales. But I also ride a motorcycle, where there’s ZERO investment in, oh, suspension technology, for one. So what do you get? The same meh stuff that existed 30 years ago—unless you’re willing to spend $30k. Back to bicycles and manufacturers DO innovate. The result is a lot wider rubber than the “massive” 32c CX tires that had no cornering grip and flatted if you looked at them funny. And disc brakes. And a gear range that lets you billygoat up trails where your scarily-steeply raked, bone-shaking CX bike with an eight-speed cassette and 52-tooth cranks simply couldn’t go. Yep, both now and then, we’re comparing bicycles, but the point is you cannot have it both ways. You can have innovation that someone with $10k can spend on to have the latest and greatest, and some of that trickles down to neat stuff like 27.5 MTB that rail on just about everything. Sure, it’s expensive; but it’s way more fun than the dark ages of bikes with terrible brakes, suspension, and frames that broke all too frequently.
Not to mention that stuff simply wears out. Like it or not, we DO have to replace bike parts. If in the years since we bought a bike, components have advanced — AWESOME!
If you used to try and push a 52 on your CX bike then you have bigger issues to worry about.
“the new Reverb Axis XPLR dropper seatpost. Not only does this activate via eTap, but SRAM built in a small amount of shock absorption here as well.”
Haha, all my Reverb’s have had that feature built in to one degree or another. I guess back then it was an “undocumented feature” 😀
You can already run AXS Road shifters with AXS Eagle MTB rear Derailleurs. So this just seems like something you could already do but with less range? I don’t get it.
Also all Reverbs have “suspension” after a few months.
Let me know when they launch a MECHANICAL road shifter that works with Eagle rear der/cassette
You can do just that with any SRAM road lever + XO1 / XX1 reach mech with Ratio technologies 12spd upgrade kit. I just did it and when you have a fully packed bike packing rig, you can still climb!
https://ratiotechnology.com/
Sure many will argue to just got 2x… my gravel bike only has a 1x option and frankly, I like the simplicity. Each to their own.
There’s a yawning void of time between friction shifting, and now. Much has happened, but much more, has been marketed as happening that really isn’t worth the ink in the first place.
Folks for decades have chosen gearing that worked for them, in their conditions. Just because Sram brought out a Gravel Group, does not mean “hooray, now everyones gearing is perfect for any and every condition always”.
Some folks still ran 11/32’s once 10 speed brought us a 36 option. Heck, some even went 11/30. =:)
Road folks sometimes opt for standard 130 instead of compact 110, and the gearing those each offer. Still other roadies, choose an 11/23, while others, 12/26, and still others, 11/32.
I knew CX racers who ran 11/34 out back with an MTB derailleur (when you still could) and also swapped out to chainrings that worked for the way they rode.
I’ve known endless riders who lived in “the hills”, back in the 9 speed era, and simply swapped in a long cage RD and 11/34 cassette, still worked great with their standard 130 bcd cranks gearing too.
How is this possible????!!!!! =:D
I chafe at the pigeon holing of bikes as only useful in one range of surface and that one gearing being sold as *correct* for that surface.
1X drivetrains are nice, I do use them, but have found limitations still, and when I throw my leg over a 2X set up, those limitations seem less notable.
50T cogs also thrash on freehub bodies, take you pick, I’ve seen every brand fail in the last several years from the extra torque they unleash on the systems. Still a nice thing, but not without detriment as well.
There’s a reason broad range cassettes still come in several ratios beyond 11/50. Choice has always existed, and implying one didn’t have it before is simply incorrect.
Tires, there’s been wider rubber out there than 32, for a good long time, and CX bikes didn’t run 130’s with a 52, they came with 110’s and generally something along the lines of a 36/42, not sure what bikes you’re referring to?
Nice article, not bagging on your authoryness, I’m just a 30+ year industry veteran who’s stepped away from the marketing band wagon, and started to tell straight facts, the industry has lied to us and taken our money for false promises, for way too long, and it’s only getting worse.
Plainly, you’re still drinking from the well, or getting paid to in which case, kudos to you for getting something out of them!
And yes, things wear out! It’s so nice to know once you do, you can choose, possibly, and even better set up for your ride.
Let me be very clear about something: Adventure Journal’s opinion is not for sale. It never has been and never will be. No amount of money is worth our credibility and ethics. You might not agree with our writer’s perspective, but it sure as hell wasn’t bought.
Thank you, Steve!
That statement is important and very appreciated.
That said, I can’t help but wonder if the author can say the same.
The marketing departments at these companies really should be winning advertising awards year in and year out. I admit some of the new “tech” is cool and yes, I might partly be a retro-grouch, but man, the industry really is eating itself. I would venture to guess if these companies would have really invested in advocacy programs and grass roots orgs from day one, not lightly invest but heavily invest, more dollars than they have in marketing hype, they wouldn’t have to resort to these gimmicks to try to retain market share. We need another doper like Lance to come along and make cycling popular again 🙂