I remember when I first adorned a frame with a SRAM Force 1x groupset. I hung that group on a road bike, and while it was okay it just didn’t… quite... do it for me. To hit the high and low gears the spacing between each gear was too big.

That was before 12-speed, before 10-tooth cogs, and before gravel hit it big. That first run at mechanical 1x fell just a little short.

Shimano and SRAM have hit on surprisingly similar solutions to the 1x gravel drivetrain, where larger spacing between gears is not only tolerated but often desired (depending on terrain). To be clear, SRAM hit on this motif first, and I’ve been riding a 1x, 12sp, 10-50 drivetrain for quite a few years though, in my case, it’s been a Force AXS electronic front half of the bike, and a SRAM Eagle AXS back half (what SRAM calls its mullet config).

Kudos thusly delivered to SRAM for being first to market on the kind of drivetrain I'm writing about today, yet these two companies were almost simultaneous in the launch of what amounts to the same functionality in a mechanically-shifted 12sp groupset. This platform works really well when: a really tall gear is not necessary; a suitably low gear is necessary; jumps from gear to gear can be a bit larger; there are at least 12 cogs in the rear; and cost is an issue (when isn’t cost an issue?).

Remember, 1x gravel is not 1x MTB, and it’s not road. A rear derailleur could serve double duty in road and gravel, but the gravel crankset is spaced the same (or nearly the same) as road (a road Q factor is roughly 145mm to 150mm; MTB's Q is more like 170mm to 175mm). Let’s get into what each of these component makers has just launched.

Shimano GRX RX820

There’s a pair of cassette options, 10-45 and 10-51. The groupset comes with either a 40t or 42t chain ring and you pair that with the RX822-SGS Rear Derailleur. This has a replaceable or interchangeable derailleur cage and on offer are medium and long cages. Ideally you use the medium with the 10-45 and the long with the 10-51, but the long solves it if you want the freedom to use both cassettes without changing the cage.

Yes, that’s right. 10-tooth 1st position cog. This has not been a hallmark of Shimano. You’ll read a lot of whining on the Slowtwitch Reader Forum about SRAM’s decision to move to 10 teeth with that 12th gear, rather than Shimano’s decision to add that gear somewhere else as Shimano did with its 12sp road groups. But in gravel Shimano chose 10 teeth and I guess one way you can explain that is that the larger steps between gears is more palatable in gravel. Nevertheless I find it interesting and, I guess, comforting when I see companies I admire converge in their approach to solving a problem. These mechanical 1x groupsets display a remarkable convergence, and the groupsets are – specwise – so similar and, of course, their launch dates were so close to each other (SRAM beat Shimano to market by about 2 months).

SRAM Apex Mechanical

So… here’s the weird thing. For Apex, both electronic and mechanical, SRAM has chosen to go to 11t for its 1st position cog. It’s had an 11-50 for a while now, and it keeps to that with Apex. Nevertheless, can you blame a guy for getting whiplash here?! After all the hubbub about SRAM’s 10t mistake and Shimano’s 11t wisdom, we now have a pair of mechanical gravel 1x groupsets where Shimano was a shirt and now it’s a skin and SRAM vice versa. Anyway…

Just as Shimano offers a moderately and really low-geared option (10-45 and 10-51) SRAM offers an 11-44 or 11-50 option but it doesn’t exactly use the same derailleur (with an interchangeable cage). SRAM’s got its road/gravel 1x motif which it calls XPLR (pronounced Explore) and that derailleur, with its (road specific) Flat Top chain, is what you use for that more narrow-ratio gearbox.

If you want the 11-50 then you go move to the MTB-specific Eagle derailleur. Kind of. And this is new. It’s (for the first time) not an Eagle derailleur per se, it’s an “Apex derailleur with Eagle technology.” Me? I’m a big fan of Eagle. And, I’m a big fan of 50 teeth (or more) on that huge pie plate cassette because if there’s one thing my (almost) 50 years of pedaling have taught me about (low) gearing it’s this: If you have it, you’ll use it. If you use it an it’s taken away, you’ll miss it.

Eagle technology means, in my mind's eye, it’s comfortably overbuilt for gravel because it’s built for the harshest MTB conditions and the chain, RD and cassette all go together as a unit. You can use a road shifter to shift an Eagle derailleur, but you must use an Eagle chain and an Eagle cassette. This thing of “road” from the crank forward and “MTB” behind the crank, that’s a SRAM idea and the 11-50 version of the Apex is just that, except SRAM has tied everything together into a single groupset by labeling it all Apex. But It's not just an Eagle MTB derailleur labeled Apex. With this launch of Apex 1x Mechanical earlier this summer the Apex XPLR RD, and the Apex "powered by" Eagle RD, are really the same RD (see above) with, I suspect, a change in the pulley wheels to match the pitch of either the Flat Top or Eagle chain (remember, the Flat Top is SRAM's road chain, for all road and XPLR cassettes; and the Eagle chain is required for the Eagle cassettes like those mambo 10-50 and 11-50 monsters).

Does it seem like I’m advocating for the 10-50 over the 11-44? Yes I guess I am, for a number of reasons. I like the Eagle stuff (the chain, the cassette, the gearing) more than I like the XPLR stuff for gravel. That 11-44 is a pretty narrow gearing range. Better to just get the 11-50 and get a larger front chain ring. If I was running a 10-50 cassette (available with Force or Rival AXS mullet configs, which is what I ride) I would choose a 40t chain ring. If I was riding a n 11-50 I might get the 42t chain ring so that my high gear didn’t feel like I was spinning out at an unacceptably low speed.

Comparisons

We have two platforms then, from Shimano and SRAM, offering functionality and gearing and ease of use, that can now flow down to great price points. How do they compare pricewise? Here are some examples:

Derailleurs
Shimano GRX mechanical RD: $127
SRAM Apex XPLR: $125
SRAM Apex p/b Eagle: $125

Cassettes
Shimano 10-51 cassette (RX880): $127
Shimano 10-51 cassette (RX610): $97
SRAM Apex 11-50 cassette: $108

Cranksets
Shimano RX880 Crank: $250
Shimano RX610: $160
SRAM Apex Crank: $110

Shift Levers + brake calipers
Shimano GRX: $830 or $665 depending on level
SRAM Apex: $450

Pretty close in price except for the crankset and the shifters. Claimed weights account for some of the difference, as Shimano’s Hollowtech 2 crankset weighs 655g to SRAM’s 703g. This is at the RX880 level. The RX610 level crank is closer in price to the Apex crankset.

Shifters? Shimano’s pricing seems a little dear for this level. Nevertheless, as a groupset, if we consider Shimano at the RX610 level, the GRX groupset has an MSRP of $1,165 and the SRAM Apex Eagle (my preferred version of this groupset) at $929. This would be if you’re looking at a 12sp 1x groupset with a cogset that goes up to 50t. I’m not capable or informed or sufficiently qualified, perhaps, to tell you part-by-part which is the better groupset. I’m just glad they’re here because I could imagine complete bikes in the $2,000 to $2,500 range.

In closing, I think these are really great groupsets for gravel, and ideal groupsets for bikepacking. If you’re a bikepacking electrophobe, having nightmares about running out of battery (in the rear derailleur or one of the shifters) while out in the wild, here you go. My bikepacking rig set up is absolutely a 1x with a 50t rear cog. Only way to go.