Sea Otter: SRAM Goes 2×10 Again.

Press Launch

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X9 in red. Possibly a little garish. There are three colours available.

It’s almost as if SRAM and Shimano are in an intense rivalry to outdo each other. But they wouldn’t be that petty, would they? Would they?

Yep, as we told you back in March, SRAM’s X7 groupset is going ten speed for 2011. It didn’t take a huge leap of faith to work out that X9 and X0 were likely to fill the gap between X7 and top end XX in going 2×10.

Chipps is just back from SRAM’s evening launch of their new ten speed gruppos and reports: It was a strange mix of bike trade show, Formula One party and art gallery opening, with umbrella girls, Peaty, international journos, a band and many of the SRAM folks. Lots of bikes were on display from assorted manufacturers, showing some of the different X7, X9 and XO combinations and colour schemes.

SRAM's launch was part Formula One, part party at a bike shop.
That'll be Peaty's bike again. He's back on XO brakes for his downhill bikes.
A short cage XO rear mech (in one of the four colour schemes) and a carbon Edge rim in the distance. Nice.

New XO front brake
XO rear.
XO - not quite as hollowed out as the XX cassette, but pretty nice looking still

Chipps Chippendale

Singletrackworld's Editor At Large

With 23 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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