The first win has been notched up on SRAM’s brand new Force 1x groupset with 2012 Olympic Champion Alistair Brownlee winning the London round of the World Triathlon Series at the weekend on the US company’s new 1×11 drivetrain.
SRAM first introduced a cyclocross version of its hugely successful mountain bike 1×11 drivetrain last year, and has just recently introduced Rival 1 and Force 1, aimed at road, gravel, adventure and touring bikes. Mat even headed to Germany the other week to put the new drivetrain through its paces.
SRAM announces single-ring transmissions for the road
The new 1×11 drivetrain comprises a single ring chainset, an 11-speed cassette with a whopping 10-42t range, and a rear derailleur with a clutch mechanism that keeps the chain taut to prevent it flapping about and falling off the single ring. Instead of a chainguide, the X-Sync chainring features alternating wide and narrow teeth that provide better engagement with the chain.
SRAM isn’t trying to replace conventional drivetrains with this new offering, instead it reckons there are applications where the simplicity and lighter weight will be an attractive option. It cites gravel, criteriums, fitness, adventure and triathlon as being ideal for the 1×11 setup. Its suitability for triathlon was proved at the weekend, where on a flat course like the one in London, there was only ever a requirement for the faster gears anyway.
Alistair Brownlee has been using the new SRAM Force 1 for the past month and seemed sufficiently happy with it to race it , and it proved to be well suited to the pan flat course in London at the weekend. His Boardman bike demonstrates the versatility of the new Force 1 groupset, as it was fitted with a 52-tooth chainring and an 11-26t cassette. SRAM is offering a wide range of chainring options so you can tailor the drivetrain to the specific requirements of your riding needs, and you can use any regular 11-speed SRAM cassette of course.
The SRAM Force 1 groupset was fitted to a Boardman AiR 9.8 road bike specially painted in a Union Jack scheme with colour matched decals on the Zipp 404 Firecrest Tubular wheels. Even the bar tape and SRAM hoods were colour coded. Alistair Brownlee also uses a Zipp Service Course SL-88 handlebar that is 40cm wide and a rangy 14cm Service Course SL stem.
16 thoughts on “Alistair Brownlee wins World Triathlon Series race on SRAM’s Force 1x drivetrain”
Saw the title and wondered
Saw the title and wondered whether it was quite a flat course, proven right when I read the article.
Still, with the increased
Still, with the increased range on the rear cogs it should be useful on small hills too. It might be cool being able to chose ratios, like how guitar strings do skinny top/heavy bottom sets.
“Man wins race on bike
“Man wins race on bike without inner ring on course where inner ring not necessary”
Food for thought for my TT /
Food for thought for my TT / Tri set up, I’d want the electronic too though, which would save the need the front mech/battery.
Quote:”Man wins race on bike
Yep, tis a shocker alright.
But then to be fair, that is what this system is for. If you are not going to need the inner ring, then why carry it?
Cross-chain wear?
Cross-chain wear?
I always thought SRAM’s main
I always thought SRAM’s main selling point is the yaw mechanism that means no cross-chain wear?
Rich_O wrote:I always thought
It’s a point of their front road mechs, and a good one, but I wouldn’t have said it’s necessarily the main point of their groupsets.
Rich_O wrote:I always thought
The Yaw feature is about the FD not rubbing when you DO cross chain (without having to trim it). There are always going to be some lateral forces and wear on the chain when cross chaining.
Will it be available at
Will it be available at Halfords?
Its a perfect setup for Tri,
Its a perfect setup for Tri, where the rider runs with the bike, often bouncing it off the rack etc. Even on the 1 ameteur Tri ive seen i saw 2 or 3 riders having a failed ‘mount’ due to the chain falling off the front cogs.
Cross chain wear? Dont think thats really anything people worry about these days. If MTB 1×11 can survive it, a nice clean road bike can.
so 52 with a 10-42 would give
so 52 with a 10-42 would give you 135.9″ top and 32.4″ bottom gears !
my 52-36 12-27 set up would be 113.3″ and 34.9″.
With only one chainring you’d get a taller top gear and a shorter
bottom gear … win win in my books then 🙂
yep!
after running 1×10 on my
yep!
after running 1×10 on my mtb as soon as this is available im having it.
It’s not really
It’s not really cross-chaining, anymore than say using the middle of the block with either 50 or 34 chainring is. Assuming it’s centralised that is. With spacers it can be optimised to whatever gear you are going to spend the most time in.
I fitted the 11-40 xtr cass
I fitted the 11-40 xtr cass to my di2 Boardman road bike. I kept the twin chainrings to give a mighty easy gear for long alpine climbs. With the adaption of the derailleur hanger that is all was needed to get the huge cassette to work perfectly 🙂
I think the only perceived
I think the only perceived reason to stick with a 2 x setup is the close ratios in big/middling that you can then use to find an optimal cadence on flatter, windier drags, where you want to settle into a good 90-100RPM at around 30kph, and the jump from 15-17 or 17-19 is just too much. So you end up either going too slow or pushing unsustainably. For my 9-speed setup, anyway. Which I’m used to.
I came to this thinking that the steps in the SRAM cogset would be huge, in these critical middle ratios. I was wrong. To get the same top- and bottom-end speeds, my current Shimano 50-34×12-25 setup is matched by SRAM’s 48×11-36.
So assuming ability to fang it and grovel are equal, what happens mid-range, in the critical edge-of-lactic-threshold space?
SRAM 11-36 goes 11-12-13-*15-17-19*-22-25-28-32-36
That means the same 2-step mid-cog spacing as a Shimano HG-50, 12-13 -14-*15-17-19*-21-23-25
So at 90RPM, speed looks like this:
Shimano 50×12-25, for 4,5,6th cog: 38.3 / 33.8 / 30.3km/hr
SRAM 48×11-36, for 4,5,6th cog: 36.8 / 32.4 / 29.1
For me, hunting between 4th and 5th is the bugbear. What this tells me is that I could swap to 1x and suffer much the same, but with a lighter, less-complicated bike.
Rah.