Road AXS chain has larger rollers, so it needs the road specific chainring and cassette with wider valleys between the teeth. The Eagle AXS chain will fit in the road chainring since the smaller rollers can sit in the larger valleys just fine. But not recommended to use Eagle chain with road cassette due to skipping issues in the small cogs.
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After many years of 1x on my gravel bike, I picked up a new SuperX with 2x AXS eTap last summer. The bike has 46/33 chainrings and a 10-33 cassette. This combo has been perfect for me, I’ve used the bike for everything from group road rides to singletrack. Coming from a 1x with 10-44, the jumps are so much nicer and the eTap has made the reintroduction of a front derailleur much easier to accept.
The current gearing is fine for pretty much any of my rides/events in the eastern Canada/US, but for some steep/long stuff out west, I’d like to have to option of running the 10-36 cassette.
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Good point, never tried 2x eTap but that would be nice. Never having to think about when to shift the front or worry about cross chaining would be a game changer.
Di2 has had that feature for quite some time…
Can I just throw in here that during my first season of cyclocross I wrecked 3 rear derailleurs.
You’ll often see savvy old racers using nice shifters with a cheap derailleur.
Is that possible with AXS?
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There is no ‘cheap’ AXS derailleur. I think the Force derailleur is almost $500.
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I have it from a reliable source that all 2022 SRAM stuff will be wireless, down to Rival. No mechanical option.
So there will be a cheaper option available soon (emphasis on the “er”, I didn’t say “cheap” 
)
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So they’re dropping Apex then? And what about the MTB side? No more GX, NX?
And no rim brakes either - I heard that shortly before Xmas. But at least for road, SRAM have abandoned mechanical groupsets (no development work on them since end of 2018, I had heard). Don’t bank on spares beyond 2021, either, is the word at the LBS.
Kind of ironic as Campag appears to have phased out their lower end EPS (unless there are going to be roll outs in due course…?)
With great timing, I was listening to the cyclingtips podcast in the car earlier; they seemed to think that mechanical shifting is in its last couple of years on higher end bikes. Shame if so.
Sorry…let me clarify. No mechanical option for Rival and above. Below there will be mechanical.
I didn’t hear anything about the MTB side.
I just built up a new trainer bike using old-school Campag 9 spd Chorus shifters. They are still glorious.
Amen. I hope to have Record or Chorus on a new build by the start of summer.
Much as I love electronic shifting, for the road at least part of me still thinks it’s like having an automatic on a Porsche. Yes, the modern tech is ‘better’ than you are, but it doesn’t quite feel the same…
I just got a long cage force 1 and 11-46 sunrace cassette paired to 42 up front, should be all i need for gravel! Had I seen this before ordering parts I would have done it…
Also would add to above, CX breaks stuff!
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What I am wondering here is, how are they going to differentiate it much from the existing line up? The Force AXS is already mega close to the Red AXS when it comes to weight, since you can use a Red chain and Red Cassette with the Force, which are the biggest difference weight wise.
The Apex or Rival AXS or such would probably have to have fewer gears to actually be different. Otherwise everyone could just buy the Rival AXS, Red Chain and Red Cassette, and probably only have a 200g heavier bike for thousands of dollars less…
You’ve probably just swayed Shimano away from 105 Di2 
But keeping them 11 speed would differentiate them, just like when the new DA comes out, it will be the only 12 speed Shimano road option (for at least a year, anyway).
We also know people aren’t completely logical when it comes to bike purchases, either; it’s very hard, strictly speaking, for anyone who isn’t racing to justify Ultegra over 105, Record over Chorus, yet most people who can afford it do just that, in my experience.
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I don’t know for sure, but I think it is indeed reasonable to suspect that a Rival AXS grouppo will be 11 spd vs. 12. And if it is indeed 11 spd, they may make it a 2x system only. (This is all supposition on my part…I did not get into these details when I was told the info about Rival).
But this is definitely one of the inherent problems with electronic shifting…there is not a lot of difference between groups as it pertains to the primary function (i.e. shifting). A push of a button feels like a push of a button.
The laws of consumer products also tells us that electronic goods become infinitely cheaper over time as production and demand ramps up. But there is no doubt that Shimano and SRAM will resist that market trend…will be fascinating to watch over the next couple of years.
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At least for the Eagle AXS RD it has a built in clutch that will disengage on impact and protect the derailleur. I fell drive side down and heard a little zip zip in the back. Hanger was bent, derailleur was perfect. In fact I’ve seen images of some absolutely gnarly looking AXS derailleurs said to be functioning properly, though some have broken theirs it seems very robust
There was one far worse I’ll post when I can find it
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That sounds like a nice addition to the mechanism. Good for them for designing it in. Should save the mech from the dreaded ‘mud suck’ demolition. (I know the hanger should do this but in my experience by the time thats snapped the mech is bent and the chain is twisted.
I’ve never raced cross, so take that into consideration here.
I ran a 1x gravel bike for 2 years and just never got used to the big jumps on the cassette that had me choosing between 75 and 105 cadence on long flat sections. I recently bought a new gravel bike and went with Force AXS 2x and I absolutely love the tight shifts. 1x is great on my mtb, but for road/gravel, I’ll stick with 2x.
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For me, Gravel (and all-road for that matter) means a very wide array of distances and terrains. Ranging from 100 % tarmac to 50 % single trai and 50 % forest trails (double track with gradients up to 20 % but mostly 6 to 16 %). So there is a wide variety of things I want to be able to tackle and tackle well with good efficiency. So while I can see the merits in 1x eagle (or Shimano) MTB systems and ride one myself, that is not what would satisfy me on gravel.
Coming from the former Sram red etap HRD for my All-Road bike I specced the AXS red etap 46/33 by 10-33 for my gravel bike. Already then wished/hoped that Sram would stand by its word and introduce some more variety in the rear for the 2x cassettes. Well, they sort-of did that but half-heartedly and not without prompting existing customers to buy a new RD. Which is no small or cheap thing since that part is the brain and most expensive part of an AXS system.
And… no red wide RD in sight…
But if I would spec a newly AXS equipped Gravel bike I would go red 2x front and force wide RD back wit the 10-36 cassette.
For cross it depends… pure cross could do with a 1x system. Cross AND gravel 2x as I laid out.
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