Eurobike: Sram, MRP, e*thirteen, Shimano & Pro Components

September 6th, 2012

If there were any criticisms with regards to Sram following in the wake of Shimano’s clutch derailleur design, they’ve hopefully been silenced with the dropping of the XX1 bombshell. Taking the 1x drive-train model many of us have been running for a while on our trail bikes and pushing it to the next level, XX1 looks like it could be a genuine game changer in what is now MTB’s largest growth sector. It looks amazing…

From top to bottom, each component in the XX1 groupset is pure awesome, it’s also also going to set you back a few pennies too as you’ll need the whole shebang to get this on your bike and doing what it needs to. The £1300ish price mark is the first hurdle followed by the fact you need a special freehub too to cope with an 11 speed block…

Sram XX1 is all about two things: Making the best trail/ Enduro specific groupset currently out there and raising the bar for specific component design for the actual job at hand. Just like with the XX groupset, 10 speed was greeted hesitantly, but within 2 years the 10 speed system was integrated through the line up and we’ve never looked back. Although this groupset has a specific market, it would be nice to see this trickle down to X9 by next year. So Sram, when will we get that 7 speed DH groupset?

MRP’s all singing and all dancing G3 Chainguide looks pretty rad – featuring their new ‘Swingset’ system, which allows the forward skid mount to act as a pivot, allowing easy access to the cranks, which when combined with the swinging upper guide means installation and fine tuning your guide that little less frustrating. It’s also worth saying that the new G3 is designed to be as frustration free as possible (chain guide installation, frustrating???) and in doing so have introduced 4mm hardware throughout – neat!

This little orange thing is pretty cool. It’s called the ‘G-Slide’ slider block and is designed to be installed when the weather gets shitty – simply replace the stock jockey style wheel and pop it in – no moving parts that can get clogged or wrecked in the grime and the urethane provides a low friction alternative that will be spot on for the UK. Weight for the new G3 is around the 200g mark.

MRP are now making direct mount chainrings – the ‘Bling’ rings are compatible with Sram X9, X0 and Truvativ AKA cranks, are crazy light at around the 53-94g mark (spider too!), USA made and look awesome! 32t too – get it compact!

We really like the e*thirteen cranks here at FJ and we are not alone on this one as they’ve got more cranks than you shake a stick at in 2013 with the launch of their TRS trail/enduro specific line – light as hell and ready to give it! These are the mighty fine looking TRSr single ring option and yeah, these want to be on my trail bike pretty bad…

TRS+ double option here and certain to be on a few enduro bikes next year…

The mighty SRS+ guide is unfortunately no longer in the line up! Due to the popularity of the stupidly good LG1+, e*thirteen have decided to focus on this design although the bashguards and hop up parts required to mod your LG1 are available should you wish – they are and available in colours too! e*thirteen have included and really nice shade of blue and red to their range for 2013.

Shimano packs? Yep, Shimano are expanding to riding luggage now and they look pretty good too… Not as pretty as Evoc though, but you know they’ll work really well.

Pro Components are stepping it up a gear with more Atherton and Vanderham series components. Neat features across the board and quality manufacturing as standard, but are they hitting the market? I’m not seeing much of it around on the trails, but with Shimano behind them, this could be everywhere very soon.