SRAM introduces Gripshift. Again!

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We brought you a sneak preview of Jaroslav Kulhavy’s World XC Champs-winning bike, complete with new ten speed Gripshift shifters, but now SRAM has officially released details of the new-old twisty shifters’ return.

Looking rather like the Grip Shift of old we reckon, though with a less tortuous cable exit

SRAM’s Grip Shift first appeared on mountain bikes back in 1990 when Herbold used it on his Downhill Worlds Bike. Back then, the barrels were approximately the same size as tennis balls and completely slick. With any cable contamination, they stopped working and if your hand was muddy, there was no way you could shift.

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Things rapidly improved though, with the introduction of the much smaller and lighter 500 shifter and then later the X-Ray shifter, which used a far simpler cable system and had optional sharkfin grips for wet weather. XC racers liked it for its simplicity and DH racers liked the fact you could crash it and not snap bits off with your knees. Gripshift faded in the face of trigger shifters that actually worked and, when 10-speed arrived, it disappeared completely.

However, it’s now back and will come in XX and XO flavours, and work with all of SRAM’s 2×10 groups. Interestingly if you’re on a triple, you don’t appear to be catered for. UPDATE! Looks like there’ll be 2×10 AND 3×10 flavours. We stand corrected!

Silver XO and matching grip. Interesting flared end to it... Click on pics for larger versions.

SRAM says of it “Designed for no-holds-barred, high-performance racing, Grip Shift handles any conditions with ease.” and it’ll be out in April.

Is the world ready for Grip Shift again? We’ll see… We’ll be testing it before it comes out and will let you know whether it rocks our coracles.

 

XX in racer-black

Here’s a peek at Jaroslav Kulhavy’s full Worlds-winning bike. Oh, and Danny Hart’s…
singletrackworld.com/2011/10/interbike-world-champions-bikes

Chipps Chippendale

Singletrackworld's Editor At Large

With 22 years as Editor of Singletrack World Magazine, Chipps is the longest-running mountain bike magazine editor in the world. He started in the bike trade in 1990 and became a full time mountain bike journalist at the start of 1994. Over the last 30 years as a bike writer and photographer, he has seen mountain bike culture flourish, strengthen and diversify and bike technology go from rigid steel frames to fully suspended carbon fibre (and sometimes back to rigid steel as well.)

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