Sram Red eTap Groupset prototype was first spotted in May 2014 during the Tour of California. Sram took 15 months of pro race testing to finally unveil it in August 2015. Why should we as a consumer take note of this new groupset? Well, your about to get all the important details about this new groupset.
Shimano and Campagnolo electronic groupsets have been out for a while, so its no surprise to see Sram make their own now. Although whats different to Shimano and Campy is that this is the first wireless groupset. Obviously, it means that there is no wires in this system so it uses 128 Bit AES encryption, (its called AIREA) whatever that means. All I know is that I cant hack into my friend's bike. If your familiar with sram's current mechanical shifting where they have a double tap system, well they changed it for electronic version. They were inspired by F1 style shifting, so that one shifter changes up the cassette and the other changes down. Also, you hit both shifters simultaneously to change the front chainrings. It makes shifting a very simple system. Also, this means that each component on the bike needs a battery. The derailluers should last about 1000km's before they need to be charged. The shifters should last about a 2 years of consistent use before they need to be changed. They run on CR2032 batteries. The derailluers have little LED lights that signal green when battery still has charge and when the battery flashes red, it means it has 15hrs of charge left. When recharging the system, it takes about 45 minutes for each battery pack to fully charge.
So Sram have completely changed they way we shift and how they differ to Campy and Shimano. However, there will be a few customers that won't be catered to for this new system. If your currently using a cassette bigger than a 28 tooth, then you can't use it. Also, there is no hydraulic system and Sram 1X systems for it yet either but, what ponders me is how this technology is going to trickle down to Force and Rival over the years to come. So the price at the moment if your just buying the shifters, derailluers, battery, and charger is going to be $1,660. It definetely up there with the other premium groupsets. We won't see the components on bikes until early 2016. What things could we see in the future from Sram? Only time will tell.