Unbound Gravel is simply wrapping up with one other spherical of spirited racing proper to the road. The occasion has additionally acted once more as a launchpad for a brand new gravel drivetrain seemingly in growth. This 12 months, it appears that evidently a brand new SRAM group has damaged cowl after being noticed on a number of bikes.
Regardless of SRAM remaining coy on the brand new parts, it appears that evidently by the point the race rolled round, not one of the riders had been actually making an attempt to cover something. Within the case above, Keegen Senson posted pictures of his Santa Cruz Stigmata on social media, with the brand new rear derailleur on full show.
The important thing takeaway right here is that the derailleur is visually totally different than any of the present MTB-focused SRAM Transmission choices, and it seems to have a battery mounted to the highest of the physique like the present (and most up-to-date) GX Eagle Transmission. Phrase on the road is that this derailleur is paired to a 13-speed cassette, which supplies it yet one more than the lately up to date SRAM RED street group.
Judging by the graphics on the shifters, it appears that evidently the group nonetheless runs the most recent SRAM RED shifters with up to date ergonomics. Since digital AXS shifters are simply buttons primarily, it must be no drawback to alter the shifter to a 13-speed with a firmware replace.
Keegan opted for a inflexible submit for the race, however the lack of a entrance derailleur signifies that the now-unused double shift perform could possibly be used to activate a RockShox Reverb AXS dropper submit like current XPLR 1x teams.
For Keegan, he wasn’t in a position to repeat his 2023 Unbound win, ending with a decent 14th for the 200-mile Elite race after Lachlan Morton blazed to the end with a time of 9:11:47 — the quickest time so far.
