The official line from Sram is that the new AXS road groupsets are only compatible with Sram chainrings. However, in some recent conversations with Praxis, I am told they now consider their current stock of rings 12-speed compatible. This has not gone official on their website yet, but I am told it is coming in the near future. Apparently their new stock of rings are even specifically stamped “10/11/12 Speed” on the large ring, or something similar. Additionally, there is at least one company that sells aftermarket 2x AXS-compatible rings - Carbon Ti.
With this in mind, has anyone tried aftermarket rings with AXS groupsets with any luck? Has anyone had any specific experience with current stock Praxis rings?
The reason I’m asking is that I have a perfectly functional Quarq 5-bolt, 110 BCD DZero power meter on hand, which I would like to use on a new bike with AXS. Obviously, this solution would be significantly less expensive than buying a Quarq unit that is compatible with the AXS chainrings, or buying another pedal-based power meter.
I have the Sram Red AXS with 2x AXS Carbon Ti compatible rings (48-35) since October. At the beginning I had a XMC DLC 12 speed chain and the whole system wasn’t working properly. Specifically, the problems happened when shifting from the big ring to the smaller one in the front (in the back was perfect). Half of the times the chain dropped. After a couple of rides I brought the bike back at the shop (quite disappointed at the least) and they realized/told me the chain had a 0.5mm difference compared to a AXS one and there there was the problem (I then checked XMC website and actually they say their 12speed chains are only compatible with SRAM MTB as Sram AXS road requires a flattop chain). So they installed a red AXS chain and since then it has worked. I haven’t used the bike a lot this winter, due to Covid and weather, so I’d rather wait to give a full review in the next weeks, but here (if I’m not wrong) and on the weight weenies forum many people are happy with the system - Carbon Ti rings and Sram AXS. It’s a pity the XMC didn’t work because the sound and the look were formidable.
And then there is Wolftooth, where you can select “Sram AXS 12-speed flattop chain” as a selection criteria. And you find chain rings that way which feature a so-called “drop-stop B” tooth profile which is claimed to be for nearly anything (from 9 to 11 and 12 speed besides Shimano 12 speed).
That would coincide with what your Praxis Works contact mentioned. I wonder, though, what’s with the bigger diameter of the rollers of the AXS flattop chain?
thanks for the input… my bad I didn’t study enough before letting the LBS put the XMC chain on…
Neither do I understand the need for a different chain form… or wait I know the reason… they want you to be locked in their system…
All of this gets so muddy. I’ve got a Praxis rep telling me one of their engineers is riding their chainrings on his AXS setup, and SRAM telling me the party line that only their chainrings work with the flattop chain. This is the main downside to switching away from tried and true 11 speed stuff.
SRAM official, at least through our SRAMbassador (yeah, that’s a real thing), is that only the 12s specific SRAM road rings work properly with the flattop road chain.
Digging a bit further, non-officially, SRAM 11s rings are supposedly OK but I have not tried it so take with grain of salt as with all anonymous internet info.
Wolf Tooth confirmed for me that their 1x chainrings with DropStop-B profile work with the flattop chain (also indicated in the product notes now for those rings).
I went through this dance looking for 2x 5 bolt 130BCD solution. Only came up with the carbon rings for 2x and stopped looking.
I opted for the Carbon Ti ones, because I like how they look and because I wanted to use a THM Clavicula, which is not compatible with original Sram AXS rings.
Carbon Ti says you need to change them around the 10k-ish mark, it’s a short life span. Sram claims their original ones should last a lot.
Carbon Ti produces different rings based on the system you have, so the ones for Sram AXS are specifically made and compatible with such system.
For the 500/600ish km I used them with the Sram Red chain I have no complaints and happy with the performance, but as I mentioned earlier I want to put them under more stress before giving a final review.
For what’s worth Carbon Ti is a well established and reputable company and all my friends who have Carbon Ti components are happy with them, that’s why I bought the rings and I am confident they will keep delivering
Two years ago when I did the Red AXS upgrade I contacted every chainring manufacturer I could find contact info for. Had several conversations with Praxis including a face to face at Sea Otter but they were like most quite slow to respond. One of my last tries was to Rotor America. The guy I spoke with told me their rings would work with the 12 speed Flattop chain and that their pro riders had been using the setup without complaint. With a 30 no questions return policy I figured why not. Well, two years and over 25,000 miles later I can say the combination works great.
For a 2x set-up, the only option I know of is Carbon-Ti. Absolute black have been saying on their website that they’re working on AXS-compatible rings for about 2 years, who knows if and when they’ll start selling something. There are quite a few aftermarket 1x rings (Wolftooth and Garbaruk would be my recommendations) but I guess 2x rings are that much more difficult to make work.
For the record, my Force flattop chain fitted perfectly (as far as I could tell) on my aging 10/11 speed Rotor Qrings. I never rode it like that and the shifting may or may not have been perfect, YMMV. And the chain certainly did not fit a 3/32" Dura Ace track chainring (a 10 speed chain does).
Hi Folks,
any updates on this topic? My new bike with Rival AXS groupset is getting more and more real, but I want to use my Quarq DZero PM (110BCD, 5 bolts).
The 5 bolt chainrings? They have axs compatible chainrings with 4 bolts and 110 BCD.
At the moment, the carbon-ti are the only option, but they have a nice price tag
Thanks for your inputs.
I tried a similar chainring from rotor, but they didn’t fit on my quarq pm (the battery casing was too big).
I will have a look for the praxis works and the options, that’s maybe an option
on my MTB I’m using sram axs eagle gx shifter and derailleur with kmc chain, shimano 12spd cassete and deore xt crank. works fine. it would have worked with shimano chain too.
this is the setup I’ll convert my gravel bike to… sram rival axs shifters, sram axs gx rear derraileur (mullet) paired with 12 spd kmc chain, 12 spd shimano cassete and 1x 110BCD wolf 44T chainring.
don’t know if the same hack can be applied to sram axs road derailleur though… someone must have tried for sure and there might be something in the interwebs…
You have probably already investigated this, but they note which combos are compatible in the drop down menu for the 110 BCD rings. It will only state “10/11/12 spd”, or something similar, for certain combos. Off the top of my head, I think it’s only 48/32, 50/34, and 52/36 which are listed as compatible. Keep in mind, however, that their 48/32 rings will not fit most non-Praxis spiders. This means Quarq isn’t compatible with their 48/32 rings.
