The fall of Kona Bikes :(

[benb]

SRAM hadn’t even moved to ten speed 20 years ago, the claim 9 speed mountain was 30 years ago seems off.

I could have sworn I got X.0 in 2006 and IIRC it was current at that time and was 9-speed.

I didn’t think they had any 10 speed at all until 2007 when Rival and Force launched for road.

Bottom line is SRAM has really led everything to march forward much much faster the last ten years. It feels like 11 speed was here and gone so fast it was easy to miss!

[.RJ]

Originally Posted by benb

Bottom line is SRAM has really led everything to march forward much much faster the last ten years. It feels like 11 speed was here and gone so fast it was easy to miss!

They were first to go to 12 speed and a different freehub driver for mountain bike and then the same for road parts, yep.

Would shimano have moved as quickly without sram pushing them, probably not. The new groupsets are pretty amazing stuff though.

[Mark McM]

Originally Posted by benb

Bottom line is SRAM has really led everything to march forward much much faster the last ten years. It feels like 11 speed was here and gone so fast it was easy to miss!

Although SRAM is now electronic only for their road groups, they were actually the last to go electronic (after Shimano and Campagnolo). When they were the last to be mechanical only, they took out full page ads in the magazines explaining why mechanical shifting was better.

SRAM may have been first to go with disc brakes on road bikes, but they were also the first to have every road disc brake system they had ever made recalled.

Originally Posted by .RJ

They were first to go to 12 speed and a different freehub driver for mountain bike and then the same for road parts, yep.

SRAM may have been first to 12spd in MTN drivetrains, they were only second to 12spd in road groups (Campagnolo was first).

Originally Posted by .RJ

Would shimano have moved as quickly without sram pushing them, probably not. The new groupsets are pretty amazing stuff though.

This might be true. In the higher end, SRAM is Shimano's only competition.

[.RJ]

Originally Posted by Mark McM

SRAM may have been first to go with disc brakes on road bikes, but they were also the first to have every road disc brake system they had ever made recalled.

I laughed, its true.

I still hold out hope that Sram comes out with a really nice cable shifted 12 speed grouppo, even if its red only - and thats likely the only level that makes sense anyways since it would be a niche product.