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First Ride: SRAM Red eTap wireless groupset

Find out how the brand new system performs ahead of its 2016 release

SRAM’s new eTap shifting system removes the need for gear cables on your bike and, after an initial getting-to know-it phase, is super-easy to use.

This article is about using SRAM Red eTap. For all the tech and background details go to our news story.

SRAM took us out to its German HQ last week to show us the new eTap components, talk us through them, and go out riding.

I got in a 2:45hrs ride on Thursday and a similar amount of time on Friday – so about 5:30hrs all in – over varying terrain.

You have to say that the SRAM system is really straightforward to use. You move up gears with your right hand. You move down gears with your left hand. You change chainrings by pushing both shift paddles at the same time.

That’s it.

“eTap is the antidote to complexity,” SRAM’s David Zimberoff told us. “Cycling is supposed to be simple. You’ll find yourself spending more time in the right gear and have a more efficient ride.”

There was about an hour at the start of the first ride when I had to think about which hand did what, then it became automatic. That’s about the same amount of time as it takes when I swap from a bike equipped with Shimano gearing to one with Campagnolo gearing.

Speaking of those other brands, if you’ve ever used Shimano’s Di2 system you’ll know that the upshift and downshift buttons are positioned very close to one another. I’ve very occasionally hit the wrong one by mistake, especially when wearing big winter gloves, but that’s simply not possible with SRAM’s system because one hand performs the upshifts and the other performs the downshifts. It’s not possible with Campagnolo EPS either, by the way, because your thumb moves the mech in one direction and your forefinger moves it the other way.

All of the eTap’s rear derailleur shifts felt very precise, not surprisingly because you can fine-tune the rear derailleur’s indexing in 0.2mm increments. If you ever do find the chain chattering and not quite sitting perfectly as you ride, you can adjust it easily on the fly via the lever.

The front shifting was equally precise. When you’re moving from the small chainring to the big chainring, the cage overshifts slightly to help the chain make the jump. Then a fraction of a second later, once the chain is up there, the cage moves back slightly inboard to its standard position.

When you’re shifting from the big chainring to the small chainring, the cage moves inboard to move the chain down, as usual, but it does this in two stages. First, it shifts just enough to move the chain down. Then, a fraction of a second later, once the chain is down on the inner ring, it moves a little further across to prevent chainrub. Doing things this way avoids the possibility of the chain coming off the inside of the small chainring as you shift.

The extent to which these two things happen depends on the sprocket that you’re in at the time. The rear derailleur and the front derailleur don’t just communicate with the shift levers, they also communicate with one another. Say you have the chain on the small chainring and one of the larger sprockets, for example, and you want to change to the large chainring. The rear mech lets the front mech know that it needs to overshift more than it would if the chain was more outboard (positioned on one of the smaller sprockets). Make sense?

Once the eTap front mech is in that position, it doesn’t move according to the sprocket you’re using. In other words, there’s no front mech trim. With Shimano’s Di2, you’ll sometimes hear the front mech move when you make a shift at the rear. It does this to avoid the chain rubbing against the front mech cage when you alter the chainline by changing gear. SRAM says this isn’t necessary with eTap because there’s no danger of chainrub no matter which chainring/sprocket combo you’re using – the same as with its Yaw mechanical front mech.

I certainly didn’t experience any chainrub while riding, no matter what gear I was using. I purposely used every gear combination available and the system coped with it all just fine.

I also tried shifting under load, both at the front and at the rear, and eTap was fine with that too.

The one thing I would say is that shifting from the small chainring to the big chainring, although always accurate, didn’t seem to be as fast as with Shimano Di2. I’d like to spend more time on eTap to see if that’s certainly the case or whether it was just the way my bike was setup.

One feature of eTap that I really do appreciate is the ease of braking and changing gear at the same time.

If you have your hands on the drops, you can brake with your middle fingers and use your index fingers to change gear.

If you have your hands on the hoods, you can do the opposite: brake with your index fingers and change gear with your middle fingers.

If you’re riding in a tuck position with your hands on the hoods and your forearms parallel to the ground you can change gear with your ring fingers or even your little fingers.

All that sounds more complicated than it actually is. When you’re on the bike you just work it out for yourself in minutes and start doing it, as with any other shift system.

What more is there to tell? The lever feel is very positive and you can perform multiple shifts by holding the paddle in the shift position. That’s about all there is to it. The system is easy to operate, it feels good, and initial use says that it works really well.

We will, of course, try to get SRAM Red eTap in for a full review on road.cc as soon as possible.

Mat has been in cycling media since 1996, on titles including BikeRadar, Total Bike, Total Mountain Bike, What Mountain Bike and Mountain Biking UK, and he has been editor of 220 Triathlon and Cycling Plus. Mat has been road.cc technical editor for over a decade, testing bikes, fettling the latest kit, and trying out the most up-to-the-minute clothing. We send him off around the world to get all the news from launches and shows too. He has won his category in Ironman UK 70.3 and finished on the podium in both marathons he has run. Mat is a Cambridge graduate who did a post-grad in magazine journalism, and he is a winner of the Cycling Media Award for Specialist Online Writer. Now over 50, he's riding road and gravel bikes most days for fun and fitness rather than training for competitions.

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29 comments

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steviemarco | 8 years ago
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I now have eTap and it's very user friendly and looks great, my opinion, especially the black chainset. The only downside is that you need a few frame plugs but I can live with that.

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macrophotofly | 8 years ago
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No mention if the brake hoods feel the same as mechanical? One of the reasons I made the Di2 jump was the hoods were a more comfortable fit for my hands - interestred to know if the removal of the mechanical parts has done the same for SRAM?

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steviemarco | 8 years ago
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I just got Di2 but this makes it look so bulky in comparison.

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rix | 8 years ago
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More I read about it, more I like it!  41

It reminds me of wireless keyboards and mice... It was not immediate success, but now a favorite choice. I'd be glad to get rid of gear cables on my bike!

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kil0ran | 8 years ago
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Odd that it doesn't support WiFLi, surely that's a mechanical rather than electronic restriction? Given that SRAM pioneered wide range Road cassettes and that Di2 is perfectly happy with 11-32 if you have the right rear mech for it. Did they give a reason? Wonder if it's a marketing thing so they have an upgrade ready to hit the market in a couple of years.

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sizbut | 8 years ago
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What's that memory I'm trying to recall. Oh yes, trying to get my Garmin to connect with my cadence sensor at the start of a sportive. There amongst all those other bikes, if I remember correctly the message that kept appear was "Too many sensors". It wasn't til many miles later when I got space between me and others that they finally agreed to talk.

I'm sure they have thought it out but look forward to the first racer stuck on the start line as their kit won't talk and can't because of the 100 plus other wireless users around them.

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stefv | 8 years ago
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Drooling

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JonMack | 8 years ago
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From CyclingTips

eTAP Road Groupet: $2,758 USD, € 2,691, £2,059 No word on Australian pricing yet.

eTAP Aero Groupset: $2,835 USD, € 2,785, £2,140 No word on Australian pricing yet.

eTAP will be available for purchase in spring of 2016.

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londoncommute | 8 years ago
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Also, are there any new-fangled frames being announced purely for wireless red with no internal cable routing?

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londoncommute | 8 years ago
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Maybe a bit off topic but what's the future for mechanical Red now this is finally out? Will they keep improving it like Shimano do with DA and, if so, when is the next version likely?

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Mat Brett replied to londoncommute | 8 years ago
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londoncommute wrote:

Maybe a bit off topic but what's the future for mechanical Red now this is finally out? Will they keep improving it like Shimano do with DA and, if so, when is the next version likely?

Good questions.

SRAM says that Red mechanical remains in its plans a long way into the future.

We asked whether riders should wait for version two for any issues to be sorted. Predictably, SRAM said that this version will remained unchanged for a while. The brand seems really happy with what it has produced.

I imagine (don't know) that the next steps will be to add a hydro brake option and increase the size of the maximum sprocket you can use, and follow that with trickling the technology down to the next level.

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Paul J | 8 years ago
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adam9700: I was concerned about multi-shifting too before, however since having a go I'm not concerned.

You can achieve pretty much the same thing by pressing both levers to initiate the big ring change, then letting go of one of the levers - leaving the lever you want for the rear change pressed. The net effect is you get the big ring change immediately followed by the rear change. On a shortish test ride, this seemed easy to do and worked well. Havn't tried on longer.

The general convenience of not having buttons close together, and so fat-fingered mis-changes being impossible, seems like it should be good.

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adam900710 replied to Paul J | 8 years ago
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Pretty nice!

If button function can be customized, that would be perfect.

BTW, what about press-and-hold function? Will it be like Di2 and ESP to do quick multile cogs jump?

And for the double hand chainring change, how long is the window time?
Will it cause a mis-shift like up a cog and down back instead of changing the chainring?

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Paul J replied to adam900710 | 8 years ago
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adam900710 wrote:

Pretty nice!

If button function can be customized, that would be perfect.

BTW, what about press-and-hold function? Will it be like Di2 and ESP to do quick multile cogs jump?

And for the double hand chainring change, how long is the window time?
Will it cause a mis-shift like up a cog and down back instead of changing the chainring?

If I remember right, the system generally actuates shifts only as the button/lever is released. So you press one side, and as long as you keep it pressed it you've got as long as you want to press the other if you want to do a front-shift. Nothing will happen till you release one of the levers/buttons - the system will shift only if there's an overlap on the buttons.

It's pretty easy to make sure you've pressed both before you release either, if you want to get a front-shift.

If I remember right, you need to press and release for each shift, but I don't remember for sure.

Update: Right, I think I remember - and I've found another report from today that confirms my memory. If you hold 1 button alone for long enough, past a certain time-out value, the rear shifter will just shift repeatedly.

So, you can get fairly close to double-shifting, if you (roughly):

1. Press and hold one lever
2. Press and release the other lever

If 2 isn't too long after 1, the front will shift. If 1 continues to be held, the rear will start to shift shortly after in the direction indicated by the lever in 1.

So to do a double-shift, say big to little ring, and go down the rear cassette, you press and hold the right lever, press and release the left, and you'll effectively get you want. Front will shift and then the rear will multi-shift very soon after. When the rear is where you want it, let go of the right lever.

It's quite intuitive actually. After using it for ordinary shifting I just "realised" I could combine the shifts that way, and it worked exactly as expected.

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adam900710 | 8 years ago
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When change from small chainring to big one, is it hard to shift to big cogs for rear?

And will it be possible to pre-program the system to automatically change both front and rear at the same time?
Just like Synchro shift for XTR.

The idea of one hand to shift up and one hand to shift down is great, but for me the chainring change thing is quite awful, as I normally shift rear and front at the same time to maintain the cadence.

For Di2, the e-tube software can re-program it to bahavior much like SRAM.
So I'd like SRAM also upgrade its firmware to support Synchro Shift and remove the double hand shift.

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rix replied to adam900710 | 8 years ago
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adam900710 wrote:

...I normally shift rear and front at the same time to maintain the cadence.

Actually I do the same...  39

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fukawitribe | 8 years ago
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For the folk asking about price, features etc there is a lot of information in the other article which came out about the same time here

http://road.cc/content/news/161555-sram-launches-red-etap-wireless-groupset

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mikroos | 8 years ago
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@KiwiMike - yes, according to BikeRumor hydro is in development.

@Iamnot - MSRP is more or less 2 GBP for the whole grouppo. Street prices will be much lower for sure, as is always the case with SRAM.

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Iamnot Wiggins replied to mikroos | 8 years ago
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mikroos wrote:

@KiwiMike - yes, according to BikeRumor hydro is in development.

@Iamnot - MSRP is more or less 2 GBP for the whole grouppo. Street prices will be much lower for sure, as is always the case with SRAM.

TWO QUID!!! Bargain!  3

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iUpham | 8 years ago
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Do you know what kind of wireless signal it is? Would also like to know battery life. This looks very interesting.  39

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iUpham | 8 years ago
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Do you know what kind of wireless signal it is? Would also like to know battery life. This looks very interesting.  39

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Paul J replied to iUpham | 8 years ago
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iUpham wrote:

Do you know what kind of wireless signal it is?

As per the article and other info around, it's their own proprietary protocol, over 2.4 GHz.

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bikebot | 8 years ago
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How about compatibility with their 1x parts? Would need a wireless rear derailleur that can handle the wide range cassette (10-42).

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BSausage replied to bikebot | 8 years ago
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Not currently, only up to 28T

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cat1commuter | 8 years ago
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Quote:

If you ever do find the chain chattering and not quite sitting perfectly as you ride, you can adjust it easily on the fly via the lever.

How?

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BSausage replied to cat1commuter | 8 years ago
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There is a little trim button on the levers..

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Lumen | 8 years ago
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I like the idea that when I rip off a rear derailleur doing cyclocross, it'll lie there in the mud twitching away like an amputated lizard's tail.

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Iamnot Wiggins | 8 years ago
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What more is there to tell?

How much will it cost?! One of the better looking newer groupsets on the market, in my opinion.

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KiwiMike | 8 years ago
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Very nice. Innovation that solves problems. Like it.

Will there be a hydro brake option?

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