SRAM 22

SRAM 22

SRAM 22 signals the American company’s move to 11-speed but in order to bring something new to the party, SRAM give you 22 usable gears and also take a gamble that hydraulic brakes are the future of road bikes – in one form or another…

In a relatively short space of time SRAM have won the Tour de France, various Classics, the cyclocross World Championships and Olympic Gold Medals, and in so doing placed themselves on level pegging with the previously dominant old rivals – Shimano and Campagnolo.
 

Some might think SRAM caught on the hop recently when Shimano joined Campag with an 11-speed top end groupset, but perhaps SRAM have just been canny. With wheel manufacturers now manufacturing to the Shimano-11, rear hub spacing it makes sense for SRAM to join the 11-speed party and it would seem that they have been thinking that they’d have to go that way for sometime, as we discussed in our SRAM Red DIY feature.

 

Obviously, you can’t be late for a party and then not enter in style; so SRAM’s party piece is hydraulic brakes, offering both rim and disc brake versions. Whereas going 11-speed is not such a big deal, as there’s no risk, going hydraulic, well that is another thing. Will roadies see the point of hydraulic rim brakes? And perhaps more importantly for SRAM, will the UCI ever permit the use of disc brakes in races?… Read More >