Up next in 10
Alex from SRAM talks us through the new 'AXS' integrated wireless electronic system. It's not just a derailleur with the cables taken off - find out more about the development of this top end technology here.
Full story here: https://singletrackworld.com/2019/02/sram-axs-ditch-the-cables-and-go-wireless/
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the first thing you notice is whoa it's
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an entirely different system just o
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Voodoo or something it stands alone in
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terms of technology and performance you
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know there's nothing out there right now
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that that is
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comparable hi I'm Hannah from single
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track and I'm here with Alex from Shram
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to talk about the new axis range of
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products which are being launched today
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so axis is a
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XS isn't it you see it written down um
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and so what is it what's in the axis
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range it's a good question so uh yeah
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access Shram access and rock shock
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access is our new wireless electronic
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components for for the mountain bike so
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you might have seen you know for for a
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few years actually we've had red EAP
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which has been our electronic Road
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system you know fully Wireless so we're
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now introducing that finally to to the
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mountain bike so in terms of what we've
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got here you have Eagle access and
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Reverb access and they are our main two
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two product groups of the MTB side um so
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Eagle access building on what people are
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familiar with now Isam Eagle drivetrain
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um one by drivetrain system but truly
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putting a fully Wireless integrated
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system with a controller and a derailer
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no kind of connected cables or all that
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kind of good stuff so yeah there's
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nothing between here and over there is
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there it's just just o Voodoo or
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something that go most mostly yeah so
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you're right there's no you know there's
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no cables there's no kind of wrapping
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there's nothing going through the bike
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or anything it is purely a a derailer
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system and a controller up here and they
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communicate with each other via
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Bluetooth and plus EAP signals three
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combinations and you know access in
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itself is the the name the the umbrella
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that all of these products live under in
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terms of how they communicate with each
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other from electronic product and uh
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software integration so you can you know
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get them to to do what they need to do
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uh and Reverb as well Falls underneath
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that so you know Reverb access you have
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a controller on this side of the bike
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and the Reverb itself so again no no
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hoses no cables no wires it literally
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just communicates from that controller
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with this uh you know motor gearbox and
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Battery system up here to control Reverb
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electronically okay so it's quite nice
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to imagine all the other things that
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might might appear in the future which
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you're definitely not going to tell me
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about the aim here with Wireless
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shifting and wireless Reverb is
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basically to to build a better bike is
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to build a system that is more um you
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know it's more intuitive it's easier to
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use it's more user friendly you stick it
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on the bike and you and you get the
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perfect shift every time don't you well
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that's the aim of it yeah you know like
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shifting shifting a mechanical part on a
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bike a mechanical drivetrain isn't
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overly difficult and it doesn't take a
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huge amount of force but it does require
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human input You' got to pull a cable the
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right amount you got to throw the lever
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just enough that it changes up on a Gear
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you do it kind of at the right time with
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the right sort of pace in your legs now
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we all do that as mountain bikers and
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it's not not trying to pretend it's
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rocket science here and we've you know
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built an arc to sail everyone away on
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it's very much like it's just it's an
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improved system it's the next level of
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what bicycle components can be to make a
3:20
a better bike ultimately so so so really
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this going to appeal to the racers isn't
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it because they're going to they're
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going to be able to focus on racing and
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getting the perfect shift every time
3:29
taking the perfect line and they're not
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having to spend any time thinking about
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how much their thumb is moving but
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there's going to be a whole bunch of
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people who are going to want the best
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best technology that a bike can have and
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that they will be the ones that will
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also buy this is it for just a type of
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person yes we've been racing this Nino
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sh has been racing this for nearly a
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year now and he won the World Cup on it
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he's won the world Champs on it this
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year again you know which is which is
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phenomenal but is it just for races so
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no it's for it's for everyone that
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really wants to the best possible bike
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you can build and in terms of bike
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building and bike design because you
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haven't got any cables in there there's
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some potential for for kind of
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interesting new bike builds as well new
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frame builds potentially isn't there cuz
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you haven't got to get a cable line
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through the suspension through the swing
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arm but yeah you're right getting a
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getting a a shifter cable through a
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frame or along side of a frame and into
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the rear triangle of a bike and through
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this part can have or does have an
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impact on how you build a bike and where
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that cable goes and actually does have
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an impact as well on the suspension
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performance of the bike if you take away
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that complexity and need to rout a cable
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and go through here and go around there
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and you had two components to the bike
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that ultimately deliver that function of
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you know Flawless shifting um but
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without having the added complexity yeah
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it make it's a it's a it's another step
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forward I think in what bikes are one by
4:53
really open that envelope this and
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created better bikes this again is is
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another step in that direction in terms
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of the the of the functionality of of
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this with the app I believe you can
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alter um what a button does in terms of
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like whether you get one one step or
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three steps and that kind of thing is
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that right now I guess it's the first
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key thing it's got to be worth saying is
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actually you can you can run access on a
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bike and just bolt it on press a button
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there press a button there link them
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together and they are communicating with
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each other um via ant plus um EAP and
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Bluetooth and it's a secure kind of it's
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a secure communication and it's just
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going to work you know you don't need to
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pull out an app if you don't want um but
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if you choose to and you want to get
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involved in that you're absolutely right
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you've we've got two component groups
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here we've got Drive training we've got
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a seat post and as you mentioned Hannah
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there's there's three buttons you've got
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inboard shift outboard shift and the
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Reverb itself so think of it as just
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three buttons and you can assign those
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three buttons to do whichever one you
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want to do right so as it comes from the
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factory and how we would Speck it you
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know you would have both your shifting
6:02
done on your derailer controller like up
6:05
and down shifting and then your Reverb
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control done on your reever controller
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but you if you wanted this for example
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button if this button you wanted to be
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your inboard shift and this button then
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on this side to be your outboard shift
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that's totally fine and then you could
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assign the top button on there to be
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your dropper post yeah yeah and you can
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also as you mentioned you can change how
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many gears it shifts if I'm just
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pedaling along and you press and hold
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one of the buttons on the derailer
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that'll shift the derailer all the way
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along yeah or you could just have it
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shift two gears or three gears again
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like it's totally up to you you can
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change settings on there for sure cool
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and then there are two clutches in here
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yes the derailer itself is you know
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inside of this derailer we've got you
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you got the battery you can see at the
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back here so it's all self-contained
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there's a motor and there's a gearbox
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it's going to actuate that movement in
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order to protect it though we need to
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make sure that it's going to be durable
6:59
enough for mountain bike and so it's got
7:00
to it's going to take some knocks and
7:02
tumbles it's going to be you know it's
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going to work on the more stressful
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situations covered in mud and and all
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the rest of it and getting a few wax off
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rocks so there's two types of clutches
7:11
in there that are going to protect it
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one or one clutch that we're all should
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be familiar with which is your your
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derailer clutch which um keeps our our
7:19
chain retention so type three roller
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bearing clutch and then the second type
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of clutch you got in there is what we
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call the overload clutch now that is a
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clutch that when this derail or if this
7:30
derer was to take a knock and some a big
7:32
old rock was going to come in from the
7:33
side and strike it you know what the
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last thing we want is that derailer to
7:37
burst into pieces or to to bend your der
7:39
raail hanger over or to not be
7:40
functioning properly so we've built in
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an electronic clutch system where if
7:44
you're going to give that a knock it's
7:45
going to move over on a clutch and then
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it's going to come back into its
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original position
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again so it's a little bit of you've got
7:53
to build in a bit of protection there
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from M Bing the other thing that um
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Eagle Eagle has done here as well we
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done with xx1 and x01 Eagle deraa um
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drivetrain on access is we've we've
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moved the deraa slightly a little bit
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further round this position here so
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there's more chain wrap which gives a
8:11
more longevity uh of the drivetrain
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itself it's more teeth engaged with the
8:15
chain um and also the Dera cage itself
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is actually a little bit higher it's
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about 10 mm higher than our mechanical
8:21
Eagle offering so there's a little bit
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more clearance as well okay so if you're
8:26
you're you're an Enduro racer and you
8:28
hit a mive something here you're going
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to it's going to pop straight back into
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position and then you're going to carry
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on pedaling and it's going to be exactly
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indexed where it should be there's no
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stopping and faffing and fiddling around
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yeah that's the exact function it's not
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necessarily for everyone you don't need
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to replace your mechanical drivetrain
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with an eagle access drivetrain x01 or
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xx1 but you are getting a better
8:53
performing more intuitive more higher
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higher grade product because this is
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ultimately the you know the Pinnacle of
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what we can build well a lot of what we
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buy as bikes though we buy it because we
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want it we don't need it you know we buy
9:07
it because we want it well we talked
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quite a lot about the drive Trend let's
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get the bike down and have a little look
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at the dropper post the other cool thing
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about access and getting rid of all that
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cables and hoses and and kind of
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uh yeah you have two hoses now you've
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got a a brake hose and a brake hose and
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the rest of it's all done electronically
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wirelessly so
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um yeah Eagle controller on this side
9:31
and Reverb control on this side and yeah
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that button if you can just about
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hear is actuating the the um the motor
9:41
and the gearbox inside the seat post
9:43
here which is allowing you to drop it
9:44
now this is as it works on radio
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frequency Bluetooth and plus it is as
9:50
close to instantaneous as can possibly
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be yes I notic it was when I rode it
9:54
around the car par there's no delay on
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it at all you're not going to press a
9:56
button and go should I go yeah okay it's
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it's instantaneous you press that button
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and that post drops down Y and it's very
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Spanky on the way up go on yeah so you
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can sit on it and drop it a couple of
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centimeters a few centimeters wherever
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you want to do um you know if you if you
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tap that button really fast you can
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bring it up halfway you can bring it all
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the way to the top yeah yeah so I I'm
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one of those riders that actually does
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put my sadle down just an inch here and
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just an inch there quite a lot like a
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bit of tech climbing yeah yeah I use it
10:26
a lot for that and just riding around
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the car park here um I noticed that it
10:31
it's actually a lot easier to to get
10:33
that little adjustment than I found it
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with with other dropper posts so yes if
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you're a fan of that Reverb itself there
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are some key developments here this is
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this is a new and improved and better
10:44
Reverb all around um but the body of the
10:47
Reverb in in a lot of ways is similar to
10:49
current Reverb stealth pretty much from
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pretty much from the head down to about
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this point here the internals are very
10:56
similar they developed we've got new
10:57
seals we've got where where using a new
11:00
ifp that's quieter that's smoother um
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new oils and seals and build build um
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manufacturing process that's made it
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even more reliable um but the the new
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kind of bit on there as well is this
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part this head unit of it itself is the
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battery the gearbox and the motor that's
11:17
actuating that opening the opening the
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valve basically to allow the Reverb to
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move um and what's really neat about
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this as well is that there's a new
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technology in Reverb access called vent
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valve if you get air in a place where
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it's just meant to be oil you can get a
11:32
little bit of Squish squishy yeah and if
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you get a little bit of Squish to get
11:35
rid of that what we do what we now do is
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you take the post out you have a little
11:39
tool you plug it into the bottom you
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compress the post and it purges the air
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out and you get rid of that squish
11:43
straight away like a a bleed valve
11:45
effectively bu exact vent valve we call
11:47
it yeah you know we really believe that
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this this drivetrain it stands alone in
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terms of technology and performance you
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know there's nothing out there right now
11:54
that that is comparable even to fully
11:58
electronic Wireless Drive trains for
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mountain bikes somebody is going to want
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it probably quite a few people are going
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to want it we hope
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so cool so uh this is launch today it
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will be available soon as uh the Reverb
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and then also as a complete group set
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won't it you uh you can't buy just the
12:17
derailer yet that will come in in due
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course so if you want this now you have
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to go and buy the whole thing well yeah
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in all it in all its rainbow Glory yeah
12:27
right thanks very much for joining us
12:28
Alex and hop on over to single TRW
12:30
world.com if you want more information
12:33
on on this new access access yes Ram
12:38
access Ram Rock shocks access yeah cool
12:40
thanks for joining us
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