I bought a bike with Force eTap AXS last year, and I have been super happy with it … until about three weeks ago. My right shifter won’t execute shifts reliably anymore. Basically, shifting down works 100 % of the time, but shifting up deteriorates from 100 % to 95 % to eventually 50 %. Sometimes the rear derailleur will execute all shifts in the backlog, although most of the time they are simply “forgotten.”
I changed the battery last month, which fixed the issue for about two weeks. Battery drain seems to have increased, too: I changed both shifter batteries in June after my yearly bike service, and my Wahoo indicated that the batteries of both shifters ran low. I initially thought I must have had a bad batch of batteries, but the issue re-appeared on my last ride yesterday. Thing is: last week was a rest week, so I was riding very little and apart from the ride yesterday it was all in erg mode, so I shifted only very few times.
I found this thread that speculates whether it is the safety mechanism in the rear derailleur that prevents shifts from happening, but it seems that there the users have had trouble shifting in both directions whereas I only have issues shifting into a harder gear.
Has anyone had similar problems? As anyone can understand, I dread having to drop off my bike, especially with an intermittent issue.
Unfortunately, I am having problem with the SRAM app now. I could connect to my rear derailleur alright, but not to my shifters or my power meter. As soon as I connect to my rear derailleur, the app glitches and cuts off the entry for my Quarq power meter, for example.
Bluetooth devices don’t want to connect to multiple things at once. Turn off everything else and quit any other apps on your phone. Then try connecting to it.
Also, Bluetooth range isn’t great and there’s lots of other stuff on that radio frequency (WiFi, microwaves, baby monitors) so try keeping your phone pretty close to it
Have you reached out to SRAM (or your vendor) to troubleshoot? I had an issue with a AXS force shifter a couple years ago where it killed a battery very quickly. It worked fine when I replaced the battery, but wouldn’t connect to the ap after that. I called SRAM and they got a new shifter (along with new brake caliper) quickly sent out. I had to go through my LBS to do the swap (they wouldn’t ship direct to me), but SRAM was awesome on the support end and I believe they compensated my LBS for dealing with it and mailing back the old shifter. I think you are supposed to start the troubleshooting process through whoever you bought the bike/group from, but I didn’t have confidence that an LBS is going to know what SRAM does about this stuff and I was in a hurry.
I was able to connect SRAM’s app to my shifters, they use the latest firmware. I also noticed that the right shifter needs a lot more energy, even though I have changed the batteries in both shifters about a month ago, the left one (which up until now has worked reliably) shows a low battery warning in the SRAM app.
Ran into a similar issue with the new AXS flat bar pod shifter. A call to Sram tech said that many battery companies are adding a “bitter coating” to coin cell/2032 batteries to make them undesirable for childrens consumption, and this coating may interfere with connectivity. They recommended wiping batteries with isopropyl alcohol (and then dry) before installing. This worked for the shifter but unfortunately the rear mech ended up the problem and they sent new one and a call tag. If you cannot sort out the issue I would reach out to warranty and see if they can get you sorted.
Battery connections are definitely not binary. A little extra resistance from the bitter coating causing slight voltage drop is the problem with those duracell batteries. I had it with my Quarg where it was still operating but acting totally flaky. A quick alcohol wipe on the battery and problem fixed.
They still work more often than not. It’s not as if duracell released a battery that causes problems all the time or they wouldn’t have released it. And it’s not just a cycling/SRAM thing, you see posts all over (particularly Air tags) with people having intermittent issues due to the bitter coating. Again, it’s not binary. The connection is sometimes good enough to work and sometimes causes enough voltage drop to cause problems. These things are constantly subjected to vibration and temp changes that are slightly affecting the contact point (ie - resistance) and the battery behavior changes as well (voltage/output drops with temp).
Maybe a glitch in the Matrix, but earlier today looking over my bike in preparation for a ride later today my right AXS shifter wouldn’t work. Left shifter and left and right wireless Blips worked, but not the right shifter. I tried it a few time, then it started working. I pressed its AXS button and got a green light. IDK. With the blips, I have a backup if it quits on the ride. I specifically went with mechanical on my mtbs, and plan to go mechanical on any new bikes, if possible. Batteries, charging, apps, updates, pairing,… It’s all too complex for something done so simply and reliably with a cable.
