There’s a new electronic groupset from SRAM, and it would be simple to chalk this up as yet another – and welcome – downstreaming, making electronic shifting more affordable. But the new APEX group isn’t precisely that. Yes, it’s more affordable. But it’s not like RED, Force and RIVAL, which are all analogous and share very similar features and gearing.
APEX is a 1x-only group, for starters, while the others are 2x at birth and only become 1x through a kind of reassignment. This will take some explaining. I ride on my gravel bike a Force AXS Mullet and I don’t remember why they call it a Mullet but the point is that it’s a hybrid group. You begin with Force AXS Road (SRAM’s second-from-top electronic groupset, just below RED) at the shifters. It’s a road crank as well, though this is a Force 1x crank (and chain ring, and that chain ring is necessary). Behind the crank it’s all MTB with an Eagle derailleur, cassette and chain.
There is, now, a native SRAM 1x electronic groupset, and that’s called XPLR. It differs from its Mullet configs in that it’s not a use-case fluid groupset, blending MTB and road. It’s a purpose-built groupset that certainly can be road or gravel, but uses mostly road parts (e.g., SRAM’s Flat Top road-specific chain). The main difference – for me – is the gearing range. With XPLR you can choose for your 12sp cassette either a 10-36 or 10-44. The Mullet allows you to go big, and I ride a 10-50 on mine.
The new APEX groupset is made to work with both XPLR and Mullet platforms but here’s one curious and interesting development: the APEX Mullet configs are available with 11-tooth as the first position cog. I have an a APEX Mullet groupset arriving imminently (with that 11t first-position cog) and I intend to place this on my bikepacking rig, which currently enjoys less-than-stellar mechanical shifting. I suspect this new groupset is exactly (on paper) what I’ve wanted, without knowing it was in the works.
But this versatile collection is a possible solution for road, gravel or tri. Here’s one thing that’s befuddled me. Who are Canyon’s most visible triathletes? I would argue Jan Frodeno and Lionel Sanders. I confess I haven’t looked at what they’re riding in 2023 but for most of the past several years they each have ridden 1x. One reason this is possible is that the Canyon Speedmax has a superlong 425mm chain stay length (superlong for tri, about average for gravel), which minimizes crosschain inefficiency. Wouldn’t an XPLR groupset be desirable as a way to mimic what Canyon’s best triathletes have already chosen, while bringing the cost of electronic shifting down? APEX XPLR seems to me a natural option for a Speedmax. If Canyon went entry-level on the rest of the bike (thanks, but I want to choose my own race wheels) I could buy an electronically-shifted Speedmax with this APEX AXS XPLR groupset for $3,999 or less.
To get the nomenclature straight, the APEX XPLR AXS collection is road-leaning and what you’d use on a tri bike. This groupset has 3 cassette options: 11-44, 10-44, and 10-36 tooth. If you opt for the 11t option it is my understanding that you’d use a standard splined driver body and – to put it crassly in a SRAM writeup – that means a Shimano-style driver. I think the 11-44 would not offer enough range for a tri bike would be fine for a bikepacker as long as the hills aren’t oversteep. There’s a spring clutch in the RD which keeps your chain on, even if you use this on gravel. I do have a gravel bike with an XPLR group and the chain absolutely won’t derail. But I don’t ride that bike because the hills are very steep where I ride and the 44t is not enough, even with the 38t front ring on that bike. But it would be a great group for most folks (who’re either stronger than I am or ride less-steep hills) and I suspect the most use this APEX groupset will get is on gravel bikes.
When is the Mullet config indicated? The gears are the driver. If you want a 50t (or up to 52t) cog on the back, that means an Eagle RD, which is SRAM’s MTB derailleur. SRAM is launching an APEX Eagle RD to mate with the APEX shifters, cranks, etc., and because it’s part of the AXS collection it mates seamlessly with any AXS products. Really, the only things that aren’t entirely cross-compatible, road or MTB, across the AXS product line are: the chains, where SRAM’s Flat Top works with road derailleurs and the Eagle chain works with Eagle offroad derailleurs; and then each rear derailleur has its own gearing capacity. Some (RED, Force, RIVAL road derailleurs) will handle 10t up to 33t; some 10t to 36t (the Max versions of road RDs); some will handle up to 44t (XPLR derailleurs) and then the MTB collections handle up to 52t. So, you decide on your gearing and then all the other equipment decisions follow.
If you look at the pair of photos showing the drivetrains that accompany these words, the one highest above is a Mullet. See that huge pie plate cassette and the Eagle chain. That's a 50t inside cog. The other is the more roadish option, with the 44t cog and the flat top chain.
While this new APEX AXS groupset is 1x only, it’s built in a road motif and there are 2 ways you know this: First, of course, are the shifters, which use the new (as of RIVAL AXS) ergonomic shape. The shape of both RIVAL and APEX (road) shifters is one area where the downstreamed product may be better than the higher-priced versions. The other area where the APEX group is obviously road is in pedal stance width. Do you realize your gravel, road and tri bikes share the same Q factor? This is the distance from the left to right pedal shoulder. Now, image putting a 1-centimeter spacer between your crankarm and your pedal. Your pedal stance on your mountain bike is even wider than that.
That established, there’s a kind of a tweener standard now for gravel bikes that feature a lot of clearance for wide (up to, say, 57mm) tires. While Q factors for road bikes are generally between 145mm and 150mm and for MTB in the 172mm to 175mm range; a Q in the neighborhood of 155mm has been around for a while now for wide-tire bikes and for 2x bikes that are very low-geared (e.g., that use a 30t small chain ring). APEX in this collection is made in wide crank option but wide with SRAM isn't really wide. The Q on this is 150mm and it's "wide" compared to standard SRAM road, which is quite (Campy-like) narrow at 145mm. (Shimano Dura Ace is 148mm.)
The APEX is then a road groupset by class, which means road and gravel. Part of this collection is the crankarm which – per the paragraph above – is spaced just like a road crankset. It mounts to SRAM’s DUB bottom brackets and it does have an available power meter. Like RIVAL, that PM is embedded in the BB spindle (attached to the drive side crankarm). The PM adds only 40g to the weight of the crankarm. As opposed to typical Quark PMs that go into my Force AXS cranks, and use 2032 coin cell batteries, these spindle-based PMs are powered by AAA batteries.
What is the cost savings here? How downstreamed did the pricing go? Here are some examples of prices. The meat of an AXS groupset is the shifter/brake system, and a set of APEX AXS left and right electronic shifters with front and rear disc brake calipers, and housing, will cost you US$440. A corresponding RIVAL shift/brake system will cost $520. RIVAL chain is $40, and APEX chain is $30. A RIVAL 1x crank will cost around $140 and an APEX $110. So, somewhere between 15 and 25 percent off the cost of RIVAL.
On the Eagle side of things – for those Mullet-minded among us – the crank remains $110 but, remember, that’s an MTB crank, spaced too wide for a road motif. The only Eagle parts we need for a Mullet are the RD – and a GX AXS RD for this collection is a $390 item – and a $28 chain to go with it. And, of course, the cassette, and what I see for that item is $108 and that's for an 11-50t 12sp? That’s downright cheap.
SRAM has also made mechanical versions of all of this and I’ve been wondering why – over the past 5 years – the unique utility of a 12sp cassette, with a 50t or larger cog, hasn’t been available in gravel bikes that should cost between $1,200 and $2,000. That seems now a possibility.
What’s nice about this is the cross-compatibility. If I’m a bike maker I’m already thinking about driving down the cost of electronic 2x groupsets by subbing in an APEX-level chains. What else is cross-compatible? Pro tip for road product managers specing their bikes: this a 1x groupset, full stop, but the APEX AXS shifters carry the same logic as the RIVAL shifters, which means they can be spec'd on a 2x road bike.
SRAM makes is pretty easy to mix road, gravel, MTB, 1x and 2x systems as long as you pay attention to the very few incompatibilities (use the right chain for the RD you choose!). I’ll report back once I’ve mounted the APEX Mullet on my bikepacking rig and beat it and myself up a bit. You might wonder why I'd choose electronic for a bikepacker. SRAM is the one groupset I would choose for this, as it's light and compact to stow an extra charged RD battery just in case, along with a couple of coin cell batteries.
SRAM goes into more detail on the new APEX groupset.
