£1,800 • sram.com
In all the years of mountain bike development – from triple chainsets and five-speed blocks all the way through to single-rings, wide-range cassettes and wireless shifters, the weakest link in the whole system has remained the mech hanger. Designed to be a sacrificial part in the event of a crash, it is also the root cause of most poor shifting problems.
SRAM’s new Eagle transmission aims to transform this Achilles’s heel into something more like Zeus’s bicep, with a robust mount that uses the rear axle and UDH frame interface to give it unprecedented strength. And with the axle acting as a consistent reference point between mech and cassette, SRAM has been able to do away with all of the adjustment screws, making installation a doddle.
Furthermore, every element of the complete drivetrain system has gone through a comprehensive redesign. And while that means it’s not backwards compatible – making the upgrade to the new transmission a significant investment – put all the pieces of the puzzle together and it’s clear why SRAM has taken this holistic approach.
XX REAR MECH
◼ £695 w/out battery
◼ Weight: 441g w/out battery
The new ‘Full
