SRAM have dropped their latest 12-speed creation and it is quite something. GX Eagle brings 12-speed to the masses where the golden XX1 could not.
Far from the dizzying price sheet of XX1, SRAM’s GX Eagle brings super wide 1 x drive train to more affordable levels.
If you’re one of the many that have looked to the dinner plate-sized cassettes SRAM offer as part of their ‘Eagle’ setup to help winch you into the wilderness then you’re in luck. 50t comes to the GX groupset that means getting a monstrous range of gears from a single ring setup is now in reach.
Once you’ve waded through all the marketing chatter around this groupset you can see what SRAM have built is a solid, affordable, 12-speed groupset for people who don’t want gold cassettes to go with their Enve wheels. Affordability doesn’t mean there’s been corners cut and you’ll be using old tech though…
The all-alloy cranks come with the Eagle direct mount rings in an array of sizes to suit, those rings are unsurprisingly, narrow-wide in their profile. Prices start from £107 and climb to £148 depending on what setup you’re after.
Rear mechs have had to bear the brunt of the new enormous cassettes but the new GX is effectively tweaked to work better with this range while still offering a solid roller bearing clutch to keep the chain under control across the cogs and run smoother in the process. £93 for the mech itself.
Shifters come in at £30 and feature trickle-down technology from its more expensive counterparts including better adjustability and tweaked ergonomics, while being able to direct mount to the brake and Reverb levers to keep things neat.
For those that still do, Gripshift is an option on GX. It’s no surprise that SRAM’s founding product continues to be fettled for the modern mountain bike. New internals that make the shifting more accurate and durable should see any reliability issues stamped out. £30 again for the throttle jockeys out there.
Stamped steel might not be the fanciest material out there but it keep the cost down and that’s where the GX Eagle wins. Full Pin Technology keeps the cogs together with stainless pins. While it’s certainly not as fancy as a gold XX1 cassette, £170 brings it in at just under half the price.
GX Eagle certainly shows plenty of promise and is less eye-watering than the top spec offerings in terms of price.
Check out the entire new SRAM GX Eagle groupset here.
