How I anticipate they go. They take place in an uncomfortably sterile steel and glass room.

“So, Helmut, how many moving parts does ze product actually need?”

“At ze absolute minimum eet needs three, Fritz”.

“Right zen, we multiply zis by three to get ze minimum number ve vill actually use.”

“Ja, remember ze motto ‘vorsprung durch over-engineering’.”

Much hearty thigh slapping laughter ensues as they recall designing a ‘convenient’ chain joining link that needs a specialist tool to undo.

Actually, I quite like Rockshox forks and I find that circlip pliers are good for undoing 11 speed powerlinks, but I find a lot of their products add 20% more complexity and fiddliness for about 1% marginal performance gain.

I have just spent longer than strictly necessary replacing a GX1 derailleur and fancied a rant. They’ve even unnecessarily recessed the mounting bolt. For the love of god, why?

You must mean one of these specialist tools?

More like “f#@! it….it’ll do.Lunch?”
Versus a Crank Bros meeting “f#@! it….it’ll do.Put it in a pretty box.Lunch?”

^^^^ Bang on!

You do know sram are american right?

Or are you just really bad at accents 😉

Stick tool into hole and undo the single bolt holding it to the bike, what went wrong ?

You do know sram are american right?

Sram bought Sachs to get the drivetrain knowledge. Sachs was German…

Sachs was German…

In fact, SRAMs drivetrain dev centre is still there.

Sachs was German…

RIP
Trivia: Apparently he wanted to play it as a German, but Cleese wouldn’t agree.

Stick tool into hole and undo the single bolt holding it to the bike, what went wrong ?

Yep it’s not exactly a tough job…

Much hearty thigh slapping laughter ensues as they recall designing a ‘convenient’ chain joining link that needs a specialist tool to undo.

I just googled Shimano Chain Joining Link…
http://www.wiggle.com.au/shimano-standard-spare-chain-pins
No tools required there.

Having run SRAM drivetrains and shimano for a while I’ll not be buying Shimano unless something changes.

Yep it’s not exactly a tough job…

….Until the derailleur seizes itself to the bolt, which is quite common where I live.

Or conversely the friction between the derailleur and the bolt constantly unwind the bloody bolt from the derailleur hanger. Fun times…..

I haven’t tried 11 speed Powerlinks, but I’ve never had any trouble undoing 9 speed ones with my fingers. Squeeze the plates together, then unclip them.

Yep, my 9speed one is easy once you get the knack. Made a lot easier if you make a loop in the chain with the chain hook that is on the side of your multitool chain splitter that you don’t use anymore.

So, what does SRAM actually stand for?

Sachs is great, though. I’ve just tested a S7 hub gear that was on a cargo quadricycle that had been sitting outdoors for 10 years. One half of the hub was covered in rust, the rest of the quadricycle had to be dismantled with an angle grinder.

The hub still works perfectly.

I’ve had that same multitool for almost ten years and never realised that was a chain hook – mind blown!

Thanks for pointing that out papamountain.

gofasterstripes – Member
So, what does SRAM actually stand for?

Scott, Ray and Sam. I’m serious.

One of those brand names that gets worse when you know where it came from. Like TreVoR

Is that the same Sachs who made engines? They made a nice portable rotary engine.

Google confirms it is, happy to learn something that links 2 of my hobbies…

Cheers, Steve

Scott, Ray and Sam

Aaaaaaah! That’s why it’s so easy to turn the stickers into “SAM” – which suits me as it’s my name too 😀

10 and 11 speed powerlinks are specifically mentioned as needing to have the tool to undo them (albeit pliers and a bit of skin protection is all that is really needed). The issue is just that the narrower chain means less ability to move the plates in by squeezing them.

The SRAM derailleur just shouts ‘over-engineering’ on a number of levels. The funny little wheel to smooth the cable run, the routing under another plate, and the convoluted cable mounting area and bolt. Yes, I know these are all ‘good’ ideas, but what they add is probably not worth the hassle. The other thing that pisses me off is the mud-collection recesses in the side of the jockey wheels. What these could possibly be for, other than to collect oily crap, is beyond me. SRAM aren’t alone in this, however.

Anyway it wasn’t a major thing, I just needed to fit the rear derailleur yesterday with about 20 minutes of daylight left and the added complexity made it more irritating than it needed to be. You can file this under ‘first world problems’, but at least it allowed me to vent a bit.

Lets not mention their brakes then. Hit and miss bleeding and I have bled thousands of the sodding things.

neilsonwheels – Member

Lets not mention their brakes then. Hit and miss bleeding and I have bled thousands of the sodding things.

I’ve never known if this is true, but legend says that the taperbore design was actually created by Formula, who realised it was shite and sold the idea to Avid 😆

Though tbh I’ve never found them troublesome to bleed. Often unreliable, sure, but that’s not the same.