Just saw this on my youtube feed
Smaller, weighs less, no wired blip support. There is wireless blip support
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I like my fat Force shifters on the gravel bike more than Ultegra Di2 ones on my road bike 
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I have huge huge hands. Iām looking forward to some deals now! 
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Donāt want to derail this threadā¦but check hereā¦
Already waiting to get that 105!!! Just need another day till payday!!!
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New graphics are ugly.
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Full court youtube documentary media press
Bummed that they didnāt add hidden buttons to the hoods, they were my fav thing about Shimano Di2
I am swapping over to XPLR axs on a bike this week, and had originally ordered the Rival shifters for the smaller size. Think Iāll keep the Rival shifters for now and hope they add hidden buttons to the new RED that is obviously coming soon.
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I find the (11 speed ultegra) Di2 shifters to be too small. I have not tried the Force AXS shifters but I like the fit/feel of the Rival shifters better than the the Di2. As mentioned above, the one thing I miss from switching is the buttons to change my computer screen that Di2
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The only problem with the Rival shaped ones is that back of the shifter (palm area) doesnāt sit close to the bars on my gravels bars, which have tight bend. I need to put 2 layers of tape scraps under shifter-bar interface, then the actual tape to make them transition.
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The integrated power meter option brings in a new level of āintegrationā
If a chainring is worn, the entire unit ā including the optional power meter ā must be replaced. The potential gain in shifting quality is resource-intensive and expensive. The spare part of the integrated chainrings including power meter costs a whopping ā¬ 443
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Iām surprised by the rapid iteration. Here are my pros, cons and neutral:
Edit: kudos to @Power13 for pointing out that the new Force crankset is compatible with the Quarq DZero power meter. 
Pros
- SRAM dropped the stupid āstandardā rear derailleur and made the WIDE rear derailleur the new default. Great move.
- Overall, SRAM seems to have refined the groupset a lot by simply adding in improvements from Red and Rival. Great move, I love kaizen.
- The groupset is overall a bit lighter. Now I donāt care as much about weight, but if you keep on shaving off a hundred grams with every generation, in two, three, four generations, you will make a meaningful difference.
- Even though it wasnāt clear from SRAMās website, @Power13 pointed out below that the Force crankset is still compatible with the ātraditionalā Quark DZero, the one that comes sans chainrings. So SRAM has added a cheaper power meter option on 1x and 2x, which is a big plus in my book.
Cons
Turns out I was wrong about power meter options ā¦
- I donāt like SRAMās Force-level power meter options: I donāt want power meters integrated into chainrings and their 1x crank only seems to be compatible with a single-sided power meter. While this is cheap and nice as an option, I really want a traditional Quarq power meter, at least as an option.
- No extra buttons integrated into the shift levers.
Neutral
- The price stayed the same. There is inflation, so that counts effectively as a lower price maybe?
- The new hood shape. I love my Force eTap AXS hoods. I like the chunkiness, I can securely wedge myself into an aero position and feel safe holding onto the hoods even on bumpy roads. I like some of the improvements on paper, though, but I need to try them out to see how they work for myself.
Overall, I think this is a great move by SRAM: they are iterating much more quickly than Shimano and apart from the power meter situation, I donāt see any glaring negatives.
Agreed.
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The elimination of support for wired blips is a deal breaker. If they made the batteries on the wireless blips were serviceable Iād have a different opinion.
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Theyāre not?!? I thought theyād use coin cells of some flavor. Thatās indeed a bummer.
With a 1x on a road bike (= no dropper post) and no software support to leaf through pages on my Wahoo, I donāt need additional buttons. But Iād buy some in a heart beat if e. g. I could switch my lights on and off or change pages on my Wahoo.
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Nope, completely disposable, warranty for 2 years includes the battery. I have a set, bought in August, that showed a low battery status and SRAM has replaced them, would prefer to just change or charge the battery
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I think this is overblown but I totally get why people instinctively donāt like it. If you take proper care of your drivetrain and use a wax based lube or better even a hot melt you dramatically increase the lifespan of both your chain and chain rings. Iām a few thousand miles into a SRAM 12s flat top road chain and itās showing literally no measurable wear using a proper 12s chain checker. At this rate the chainrings will will probably last me a decade, longer than I expect Iāll have the bike.
If I lived in the UK or somewhere else I rode in the wet all the time I probably would be more concerned, and obviously thatās not a insignificant number of people. Plenty of other spider and pedal based options available though for those who ride a lot in wet grit and/or donāt want to deal with proper drivetrain maintenance.
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Removing the crank spider power meter option from the force lineup is a huge fail in my opinion. That prior force design was super flexible to swap between 1x and 2x using the same spider and crank arms. As a guy who likes to swap chainring sizes and swap between 1x and 2x depending on course, the powermeter integrated with a chaining is just dumb. Does this mean the only option for 1x crank based power is a left side only powermeter? I canāt believe thatās right.
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Yes, I guess. I have put 500+ hours on my Force eTap drivetrain and only the chain had to be replaced so far. All other drivetrain components show little-to-no wear. However, I donāt like the idea of disposable power meters, and that on 1x you are stuck with a single-sided option only. Iām also glad that I can hypothetically change chainrings without having to buy a second power meter.
Yup. Thatās the only WTF on this release.
I am not 100 % sure. I checked SRAMās website and they only advertise the integrated power meter on 2x and the single-sided power meter for 1x and 2x.
If I can still bolt on a spider-based Quarq DZero, then Iām much more chill about this move. The single-sided power meter is cheaper and would simply add another power meter option.
I got a bike last year with a 1x rival setup and it had the option to add the left side meter. I think thatās a great option for the $, but Iām too much of a power snob and needed my real power number. No option on that crank (Iām almost positive), so swapped in a force crank with the dzero spider. I remember when that style crank came out being so impressed with the the design and ease of configuring different setups. The only downside is that it wouldnāt work with the smaller chainrings (46/33 was lowest I believe). It seems like that crank just came out yesterday and SRAM is pulling the rug out from under me just when I found something I really liked. Maybe it wasnāt bilaterally stiff enough or some dumb crap like that (I donāt ever pedal hard, so it doesnāt matter for me).
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