SRAM’S Force component group had just stopped smoking from its grand-slam entry into the pro
peloton when the Chicago-based parts maker announced it was going to turn the burners back on and one-up itself with a lighter weight, ultra-elite-level ensemble for 2008. The name is simply “SRAM Red” and, while some of the parts are still in the final stages of development, the word from SRAM is that Red will be the first road-racing group to weigh in under the 2000-gram barrier. Heady stuff indeed, although it must be noted that augmenting Campagnolo, Shimano or SRAM with readily obtainable and immodestly lightweight stuff from cottage-industry guys like FRM and Extralite can accomplish the same goal. If you want the cuffs and the collars to match, however, your color is red—SRAM Red.
SRAM met its sub-2000g weight goal by improving most of the existing Force components, but there are a few absolute redesigns as well. SRAM also played upon the Red theme by giving bold graphic treatments to real estate that has been traditionally ignored—like the inside faces of its carbon fiber crank arms and on the brake levers, shift paddles, and the rear derailleur’s pulley cage. While the graphics are definitely bold, they stop tastefully short of baroque.
RED CRANKSET
Start with carbon fiber crankarms (the spider is carbon-wrapped forged aluminum) and add dramatically-machined aluminum chainrings—sans cutouts—that mirror present-day Shimano
Dura-Ace items. Add an aluminum bottom bracket axle (Force uses a chromoly axle) and top it off with ultra-smooth running ceramic bearings. The flip side of the “PowerGlide” chainrings, which are claimed to be more rigid than their predecessors, has been thoroughly hollowed wherever aluminum was deemed unnecessary. Pins and ramps are profiled into the sprockets to assist gear changes (that’s the PowerGlide part). The prototypes use alloy chainring hardware with standard Allen hexes, instead of the fancy Torx-drive screws that are in vogue. Red cranks are available in 170-, 172.5- and 175-millimeter lengths and with standard-diameter 53- and 39-tooth chainrings. Weight figures are not given for individual items—SRAM puts the crankset and bottom bracket assembly weight at 760 grams.
RED HANDLEBAR CONTROLS
Red brake lever hoods conceal two housing channels molded into the lever perch that facilitate routing the housing in front or behind the handlebar. This welcome change means that SRAM Red will adapt to any handlebar of choice. While the Force lever perch was molded from fiberglass-reinforced nylon, Red is made with a lighter-weight (and reportedly far more expensive) carbon-reinforced nylon matrix. The left shifter has been redesigned to move the front derailleur faster with less lever travel and a lighter action, and the half-step adjustment function has been changed from two clicks toward the small chainring and one adjustment click for the large ring, to two for the big ring and one for the small. This is a nice touch because it allows cross-chain shifting without announcing it to the peloton. Last and best—and also a first for road racing brake levers—reach adjustments for both the shift paddle and the brake lever blades. Say what? Yes, now riders with small hands can turn a couple of Allen screws and move the carbon fiber controls within reach. You have to wonder why this ubiquitous off-road feature took so long to fall into the hands of road cyclists. SRAM’s weight for the pair of control levers is 280 grams.
RED FRONT DERAILLEUR
The fact that the front derailleur’s cage is a complex arrangement of bends and bulges and that, compared with steel, the most simple stamping can be a nightmare in titanium, may be the reason that SRAM Red is the first titanium-cage front changer to be produced for the masses. Perhaps nobody told SRAM and they just blindly proceeded. Either way, SRAM Red’s front derailleur is runway-model slender and, with its titanium cage, weighs a scant 58 grams in the braze-on style and 72 grams in the clamp-on version. Clamps are made to fit most popular seat tube diameters.
RED REAR DERAILLEUR
Beautifully polished and sporting a carbon fiber pulley cage, SRAM’s elite rear derailleur is an eyeful—even for dyed-in-the-wool Campy lovers. The hidden secret is its ceramic-bearing pulleys, which (yes, RBA has been using them for a couple of months already) are a measurable advantage over the high-quality ball bearings that everyone else uses. If you were only going to use ceramic bearings in one place, the fast-spinning rear-derailleur pulleys are it. SRAM’s weight is 153 grams.
RED CASSETTE
SRAM’s freehub cassettes have been less than lightweight, so we expected a titanium version to grace the Red group. Not so. SRAM machines the largest eight cogs of the Red cassette from a single piece of alloy steel. The last two cogs slide on so SRAM can alter the initial gearing to match three cassette options. Instead of the typical aluminum spider that supports the larger cogs of a conventional cassette, SRAM Red uses a single, splined plate on the rear of the thin, conical shell beneath the eight-cog monoblock. The weight of the 11 X 23-tooth cassette is a shockingly-light 155 grams of heat-treated, long-lasting alloy steel.
RED CALIPER BRAKE
Last, and not least are the Red brake calipers. These are relatively unchanged from the Force items, with the exception that their cold-forged, triangulated arms are relieved in key places to reduce weight. Titanium hardware and lightened brake-pad holders also help to reduce the weight of the Red brakes to 265 grams per pair.
WHAT DO WE THINK?
Production versions of SRAM Red will be trickling into the market as early as October 2007, so we are excited to get a test bike together with the new group for a test. The timing is right for SRAM—both for a more exclusive, higher-performance component launch, and for addressing the very few issues that long-term testing has brought to light. Pricing on Red is not released, but expect a significant bump up from Force. The buzz is that Specialized will headline SRAM Red on its prestigious ’08 models. SRAM Red makes the elite pro peloton a three-horse race.
Click here for the Updated Review on the 5000 miles on SRAM Red
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