The Radavist

At the time of publishing this, the ink is still drying on our first-impressions of SRAM‘s debut boat-rocking direct-mount, electronic-shifting drivetrain concept, dubbed “Transmission.” Ever since, it’s been hard to get into a conversation with a bike nerd without Transmission coming up. Travis Engel is one of those nerds who can’t stop talking about it, so he was the perfect person to cover the surprise addition of a lower-priced GX group, which launched today. Read on to see what changed, what didn’t, and why this is such good news.

If you are like me in assuming that SRAM has moved on to more technologically advanced projects and left those of us wanting native mechanical dropbar 12-speed functionality in Transmisson’s dust, then today’s news oughta be pretty exciting. SRAM has just announced that they will be releasing an Apex-level AXS XPLR and Eagle wireless electronic shifting groupset alongside Apex XPLR and Eagle mechanical 12-speed drivetrains. Below, Josh Weinberg offers a detailed look at the new components after testing them for a couple of days in the Driftless region of northwest Illinois…

After months of leaks, spottings, and speculation, SRAM unveiled their newest wireless mountain groupset, Eagle Transmission, along with a collection of Stealth Brakes. This hefty product launch encompasses derailleurs, cranksets, cassettes, shift controllers, and more across XX SL Eagle, XX Eagle, and XO Eagle levels along with power meter and e-bike-specific components. SRAM also released an all-new Stealth lever body for their Level and Code brake lineup. As such there’s a lot to unpack here, which we expect to dive deeper into during the next few months of Transmission-equipped bike reviews. Today, however, let’s take a look at product highlights and some initial thoughts about these new components after a few rides on a Santa Cruz Megatower test bike that SRAM sent us a couple of weeks ago.