Friday, March 30, 2012

A fine whine on a Friday night...

Is it just me, or did SRAM get rid of everything that made gripshift great with their new 10 speed setup?

Consider:

-No more trimming your front derailleur. What? Why? That's one of the best things about gripshift! Yeah, I guess you can probably just run an old 9 speed one on the left side (or just bail to 1x like me) but still. Lame.

-Ball bearings, complicated cable ports, lots of engineering. I have several sets of X.5 gripshifters from >10 years ago that have been in probably 60 races, thousands of miles of rides, and through all kinds of horrible conditions. They are made of cheap plastic, with one tiny spring and a bolt or two to hold them on the bar. They still work great except that the rubber part is mostly gone. So, um, I don't want any stinkin' ball bearings, guys.

-$200+ (or $300 for the XX!) for a set of gripshifters? Even with inflation, that's highway robbery, unless you like paying for lots of extra (pointless) engineering and bearings.

-We waited how long? This should have been on the market like 2 weeks after 10 speed came out. Just remold the plastic barrels on the old 9 speed stuff for the correct cable pull and one extra click, and call it good.

I was intending to "upgrade" to 10 speed when my 9 speed drivetrains wore out, but maybe not anymore. I'll just keep digging 9 speed shifters (lighter! FD trim! basically free!) out of the junk bin for a while, I guess.

7 comments:

Mike said...

I commented with the exact same rant on the dirtrag site...grrrand sighhhh

Anonymous said...

Ditto on the 10spd gripshifts - SRAM really stepped in it with that. I'm running 2x9 with the 9spd GripShifts a XX Front Derailleur, X9 10 spd crankset, and Nino's 11-36 9spd cassette - PURR-fect!

Brad said...

SRAM's entire product line took a pretty solid 'jump' in price this year. At wholesale, their road parts are on par with Campy Record.

JKersting said...

I just put some 9-speed XO Gripshift on my WW and it is like crack. I was thinking about the 10-speed grip shift for my dualie, but I'm glad that you spoke up!

Anonymous said...

Man, the setup was just too good...

Willy: What the hell you need ball bearings for?
Fletch: Awww, come on guys, it's so simple. Maybe you need a refresher course.
[leans arm on hot engine part]
Fletch: Hey! It's all ball bearings nowadays. Now you prepare that Fetzer valve with some 3-in-1 oil and some gauze pads. And I'm gonna need 'bout ten quarts of anti-freeze, preferably Prestone. No, no make that Quaker State.

Osman said...

Hey Walt, do you have a head tube badge? They're so cool!

http://www.adventure-journal.com/2012/04/the-daily-bike-april-2-2012/

Anonymous said...

dont need trim on a 2x10 setup. no rasp in the big/big...