The Force derailleurs use heavier, more affordable cage materials. SRAM unveils its new Force eTap AXS component group. What’s the same? The Red and Force groups share the exact same two-piece rounded-edge Centerline rotors, the same shift paddle, rubber hood, X-Sync 2 1x chainrings and DUB bottom bracket options. The Force eTap AXS FlatTop chain does not have hollow pins.The biggest upside is that if you need to replace your dual chain rings on your power meter crank, it won’t cost you $800 as it does with Red. The optional $599 power meter for the SRAM Force eTAP AXS crankset is a spider upgrade, not built into the chainrings as with Red.The 33/46 and 35/48 are available, but the 37/50 chainring combination is a Red-only item. Rings are available individually but are still designed to be used in 13t jumps (a 33/48 pairing is possible but with poor shifting). The Force eTap AXS crankset does not have a machined one-piece two-ring configuration.The Red version exits the caliper parallel to the rotor, creating a small bend in hose routing as it heads back to the frame or fork. The banjo of the Force disc brake calipers is now fixed, and angled for better brake hose routing to the frame or fork.
The Force calipers only come in flat-mount. The caliper is manufactured using a two-piece construction, compared to the one-piece Red eTap AXS HRD caliper. The Force eTap AXS hydraulic disc brake caliper is all new (the Red AXS eTap caliper is carried over from the previous Red eTap group).Each lever only accepts one Blip, not two as with Red. Force eTap AXS levers feature a composite brake lever instead of a carbon fiber version.The Force AXS cassette eschews Red’s steel X-Dome construction for stamped and pinned cogs paired to a one-piece machined group of the four smallest cogs.The Force AXS rear derailleur pulleys spin on steel ball bearings, not ceramic, and skips the carbon cage of Red.The Force AXS front derailleur uses a steel cage instead of a titanium/alloy version.What has changed from Red? Here’s our summary: Most of those racers used the 10-33t cassette, which has similar range to a 11-36t cassette but doesn’t quite offer the wide range of a 10-42t or 11-42t many of us use for gravel. The 1x setup was cyclocross race proven by Jeremy Powers, and at the 2019 UCI Cyclocross World Championships in Bogense by Wout van Aert, Marianne Vos, Inge van der Heijden and Tom Pidcock. The 10-33 cassette offers similar range to an 11-36 but could allow for a smaller chainring up front. SRAM unveils its new Force eTap AXS component group, with all the same 1x gearing options as SRAM Red eTap AXS.
The 23-speed, two chain ring setups in the Red group have 13-tooth jumps and are offered in a 46/33, 48/35 and 50/37t. To refresh your memory, SRAM’s AXS groupset brings wide-range gearing, chain management, 12-speed XD-R cassettes, mobile app configuration and Eagle AXS compatibility to road, cyclocross and gravel bikes in single and double chain ring configurations. SRAM maintains these differences are immaterial in function, but help keep costs down even if the grams bump up. There are shared components, and shared technologies, but some differences in materials. SRAM’s electronic family of components, called AXS (pronounced “access”), is more accessible to more cyclists with the introduction of the Force AXS eTap group. That’s three times the number of SRAM Red eTap AXS bikes. Today, along with the announcement of the new components, bike companies are starting to unveil the first of 150 bike models that come equipped with SRAM Force eTap AXS. Of course, the Force group is more affordable and a bit heavier than its Red sibling, but SRAM maintains that a blindfolded rider won’t be able to tell the difference between the two groups in operation. The group offers 33/46 and 35/48 chainrings but not the 37/50 option. SRAM unveils its new Force eTap AXS component group, in a dual chainring, 23-speed option.