New SRAM Red Has Landed

Waking up to SRAM news is always a good way to start the day in my book.  As of today, February 1st, SRAM has announced details for their new Red group.  Along with redesigned function comes new aesthetics and a number of new features which promise to make the 2012 incarnation of Red one of the best mechanical groups on the market.

The new group's shifters have been wholly redesigned, but only from an ergonomic and style standpoint.  The same great Zero Loss and Doubletap functions remain, so the action will be very familiar to current users.  But the lever body has been throughly redesigned for better ergonomics.  The transition from bar to shifter appears much flatter than previously and the shifter body seems much more rounded off than it used to be.  The “pistol grip” type hand placement that most SRAM users have come to love appears to be augmented with a slightly smaller lever body.

Along with the body redesign comes a weight reduction of 58 grams (claimed.)  SRAM achieved this by heavily milling out all the unnecessary material on the shifter body and covering it with a contoured hood that is rumored to have user customizable padding.  Add to these features a longer lever blade with a more prominent hook and you've got what appears to be a very welcome redesign of an already great shifter system.

 The front derailleur is confirmed to be the biggest change of the group, with a steel cage, non-parallell parallelogram plates and (much to my delight) a built in chain catcher mount.  What does this mean?  It means there is no trim function necessary on the front shifter, no more fiddling around with aftermarket chain catchers that are fiddly to install and prone to moving if the force of the jam is great enough, and more positive shifting from the front derailleur.  All in all, this is good.

The cranks have received a full on makeover.  Gone is the foam core construction in favor of a completely hollow design which drops some weight.  The standard BCD remains 130mm, but one of the 5 chainring bolts is mounted to the crank arm (a hidden bolt configuration) to increase the stiffness of the chainring/crank combination overall.  Chainrings have been redesigned to work optimally with the revamped front derailleur and have increased in stiffness.

One of the things that was rumored to be on the horizon was a Red level Quarq power meter.  The reveal today has confirmed this as the case, with a restyled Cinqo spider mated to a “Red” crankset.  In reality, the “Red” crankset is a foam core model much like the previous generation of Red, and very similar to the S900 series crankset.  In this case though, the graphics, spider and chainrings are all redesigned, which is a very nice touch for people who absolutely must match all their equipment together.

Perhaps the second biggest redesign of the group is the brake set.  Gone are dual pivots (which is completely counterintuitive to conventional wisdom.)  The brakes are now single pivot with a cam operated action.  The entire brake caliper pivots on a large central bearing, and each arm is individually adjustable via set screws.  Pad holders have been highly milled to reduce weight as well.  Unfortunately, it is reported that there are limits of how wide a rim the new brakes will accept, with the Zipp Firecrest being one of the main victims.

Overall it looks like the improvements have been very well thought out and will noticeably increase the functionality of the group out on the road.  According to rumors, you'll be able to purchase the group in limited quantities come March, and it will set you back about $2600.

Also confirmed by SRAM was the existence of hydraulic rim and disc brake offerings.  Both are supposedly going to be based upon a standard drop bar lever and will be released in the fall (likely to coincide with cyclocross season.)

Thanks to slowtwitch.com and bikeradar.com for photos.