Eurobike: SRAM today officially launched its new X5 groupset, which is good news for those on a budget – and it’s also good news if you run one of it’s swankier X9 or X0 groupsets and wince every time you have to take your bike out in the mud, because you’ll be able to get X5 cassettes for a fraction of the cost and use them all winter long without fear of financial ruin…
Anyway, back to the main story: SRAM’s X5 group now comes in 2×10 and includes ‘all the ratios’ that the other, higher up groups have: namely, 26×39, 28×42 and the newly introduced 24×38 and 22×36, all with an 11-36T cassette out back.
There will be the usual bike-mechanic-confusing range of front mechs (something like 47 different versions last time we looked) and some good-feeling, solid shifters.
Expect to see X5 coming out late this autumn, so October/November time. No prices as yet, but we can confidently say ‘a lot less than XX’
Oohh… gawld… it’s like a sad-sad thing that’s had all the life and joy completely sucked out of it. Biking like a chore, made miserable. Liking the look of what looks like an alloy spider on the cassette though! Shame it’s 10spd only..
Alloy spider cassette looks good for hope hubs and the 2×10 chainset could be very tempting if it’s cheap.
10 speed, no gear window on the shifter, alloy carrier with 11-36T. i’m actually tempted by this stuff.
Looks like i seriously good groupset.. for people grounded in reality with mud and stuff it’s ideal.
SRAM has some serious catching up to do in this sector of the market, Deore is extremely good these days. Moreover, SRAM is falling behind on cost too.
Here are some X5 prices for you:
Rear mech £49.99
Chainset £112.99
10spd Shifter £33.99
Cassette £64.99
whoops that Shifter was the Euro price. It’s actually £29.99
Bargain.
will the shifters and rear mech be X9 or Shimano compatible I wonder…
Not Shimano compatible due to the different amount of cable pull used. X5 will be compatible with the other SRAM 2×10 groupsets though.
ive always preferred shimano products
11/36 cassette retails for £49.99.
Will be really happy if that X5 11-36 cassette is a decent weight. The SLX one I have weighs a flipping ton but there’s no way I’m paying £150 – £200 for an XX / XTR Cassette that’s going to need replacing every six months.
Yr right jimification, you won’t be paying £150 to £200 for XX cassettes, £220 plus more like. Surprised to see that XTR 10 can be had for less than £200 by quite a bit in places. IMHO SRAM really need to have a look at their pricing for aftermarket. XO and XX are both more expensive than XTR and even X9 seems to sit between XT and XTR in cost terms.