It usually is just as compromised for tire clearance.
The long battery limits tire clearance to 43-44mm max.
This is a 42c tire coming out to 44mm. 4mm is just about bearable. In muddy conditions it’s probably too little.
I’ve had SRAM Red on all my bikes (TT, Road, Gravel) for 3 years now, and I am happy to move on.
SRAM AXS is great because:
- the Quarq PMs are great
- awesome gear ratios for gravel
- Red Cranks are top notch
- easy mixing and matching
- easy to swap parts
- micro-adjustments on the fly
- wireless blips
What I didn’t like though is:
- It weighs more than DA
- the FD is a b‘tçh
- chain, especially in conjunction with small rings are relatively inefficient
- the shifters are too fat
- braking performance
- limitation to 13 tooth gap doesn’t make sense to me
- relatively slow shifting performance
On Gravel, SRAM has the edge for most people, with great 1x set ups, greater gearing range and it having a clutch on the RDs.
For road I find it way too compromised because every component also has to work for 1x and gravel, which just doesn’t work so well.
So for me, Shimano everything is less of a compromise than SRAM everything.