SRAM GX Eagle AXS Rear Derailleur [Rider Review]

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SRAM continues to push the limits in the industry. One of the most notable bar raising releases was the GX AXS upgrade kit which made electronic shifting more affordable. Our friend, Steve has been running the GX AXS derailleur, see what they think!

Overview

Anyone who’s been riding for a couple of years knows that when you change gear with a cable, you don’t just click and the gears change. It’s not that automatic, there’s a lot of subtle feely things happening there. You know you need to make certain shifts with a little care, so you push the lever slowly, gently, easing the chain up the block. You know that in certain gears, you need to push just a little past the click, to give the chain that little more incentive to find the ramps and go. There’s more skill to those thumb movements than we give credit for.

But the AXS paddle is effectively just two buttons. With no wheels, springs and ratchets inside the shifter and no cable to pull, the action of the paddle is incredibly light compared with cable shifting. This means that all that muscle memory in your thumb has been superseded. Simply push the lever a couple of millimeters in either direction and you’ll feel a positive “click” followed almost instantaneously by the “chirrup” of the derailleur and you’ve changed gear.
I can’t say that it’s smoother than any other SRAM kit that I’ve used, but it’s certainly on par with a well set up, top-end group and I‘ve got no complaints whatsoever about its performance. Tune-ups are a now a thing of the past. The only thing that will stop the machine is a bent derailleur hanger or a flat battery.

Speaking of which, I found SRAM’s estimate of 20 hours of riding time from each battery charge to be approximately what I experienced in practice. The battery is easy to remove and the charging unit supplied has a USB cable so you can plug it in to just about any power source you might need to. Charging the battery takes about an hour and you can check whether it’s charged using the coloured LED on the derailleur or via the smartphone app. There’s a power saving mode that automatically engages when the bike is stationary, but moving the bike or clicking the shifter wakes everything back up again.
Is this the future? Having started the test period feeling as though wireless shifting might be a bit of a gimmick, I have to say I’m pretty impressed. This has been the most reliable gear changing experience I’ve had to-date. Not once have I had to adjust anything. It simply keeps on working. Consequently, the answer is a firm “yes”. Sure, it’s a better mousetrap, but it’s a more reliable mousetrap that’s a pleasure to use.

Final Thoughts

Should you go out and buy one? At over $1,000 it’s certainly not inexpensive, but if you’re building a new bike, your current 12 speed SRAM derailleur is showing signs of wear, or is in pieces at the side of the trail then go for it. I’d even recommend “downgrading” from XX1. Unless you’re counting all the grams, you’ll appreciate the robotic efficiency of GX Eagle AXS and you’re unlikely to notice any drop in performance. Plus you’ll never have to touch a cable barrel adjuster again.