I like how you can place these shifters where ever its most comfortable/convenient. In my case, I placed them on my aerobars on my road bike. This enabled me to keep my hands on the aerobars while shifting, greatly reducing the number of times I have to reach for the hood shifters. This enables quicker shifting and a smoother ride. It was easy to pair these with my AXS system.
Two things could be improved.
(1) The battery. I'd like to see a replaceable or rechargeable battery. This would extend the like of the blips.
(2) Providing more (or better) options for mounting these securely. My aerobars are round and pretty thin. The mounting stickers and cheap plastic mounting covers don't appear to provide long-term protection from falling off. Time will tell though. The plastic covers don't fit well around thin, round bars. I realize you can try to wrap some bar tape around them to help with this, but they are so small it makes it difficult to get them wrapped without having to cut the bar tape to avoid the blip contact points.
?I upgraded to the 165mm SRAM RED E1 DUB arms, and the difference is incredible. These are absurdly light, you can instantly feel the weight savings over the old generation. The carbon stiffness is phenomenal; every watt goes straight to the wheels.
?Switching to 165mm has been a game-changer for my fit, boosting my cadence and reducing hip fatigue on long climbs. Installation was easy thanks to the DUB spindle standard. My only complaint is the price, but if you want the absolute best and lightest crank arms for your build, these are it. A truly premium, five-star upgrade.
With more Gravel riding under my belt this year, I realized that having an alternative location for shifting would be helpful, for comfort and for aero riding on the tarmac or smoother trails. Adding them to the crossbar, fairly close to the stem, was a great solution. After 5 days of gravel riding in Kansas, I realized just how wonderful they were. The only hard part was wrapping the handlebar tape around them to hold them in place and keep the wrap relatively smooth. The neighborhood bike store was very helpful in doing that as they wrap handlebars frequently.
Caught a sale, and I'm about to move some levers over to another bike, so got some new lines. No issues, work perfectly.
Sram - if you read this, can you stop sending your brake/caliper kits FILLED with fluid? We have to cut them anyway, it makes a mess, and we have to bleed, just send empty lines with a bottle of fluid if you want to be helpful. I don't see the point, I mean we have to at the least shorten them, not counting the internal routing factor.
