You should try Campagnolo before making such terrible claims
The problem with that is everything else needs to be campag 
The biggest limitation in braking is rider skill, followed by tyre friction coefficient. Iāve yet to find disc brakes that canāt lock a wheel so even if one offers slightly greater mechanical advantage or higher friction pad compound, what use is it? Itās all feel and placebo.
Iāve achieved top 0.1% in some very well known and ridden technical descent segments on sram brakes, that tells me all I need to know 
I think much easier actuation and the new pivot location might make effective braking from the hoods a helluva lot easier. Especially true in rougher terrain (e.g. gravel) where you want at least 3 fingers holding on under the hood, leaving only one for braking. I have huge hands and still find it hard to feel confident braking from the hoods on rough terrain with any current groups Iāve tried. (Havenāt tried GRX Di2 though)
Iām sorry, but this is just factually incorrect. Braking is about much more than just the power required to lock a wheel.
Different pads a can absolutely make a major difference in braking performance, especially if you are changing compunds.
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Can you elaborate? How do you define performance?
What measure of performance is meaningfully higher if the system youāre comparing to is already capable of overwhelming the friction of the tyre?
Brake modulation for oneā¦.the ability to apply more power faster without locking up a wheel. This gives you the ability to brake harder, later before a turn, thereby increasing performance.
Rim brakes are āalready capable of overcoming the friction of the tireā, too. It is a meaningless data point.
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Modulation is a fair requirement, but itās not something sram brakes lack. In fact, itās one of their strengths imo.
If adding more braking torque was beneficial, weād all be on 180, 200, 220mm rotors by now.
Itās not and you can check that by heading out on a previous gen sram bike and pulling the front brake as hard as you can at 70km/h.
Regardless of that, 99% of road cyclists donāt get anywhere near the limits of their brakes, what they want is greater heat capacity and fade resistance to cope with dragging the brakes and longer braking events
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OK, I just realized weāve had this discussion before with you making the same or similar nonsensical arguments.
Iām gonna just move on.
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Hi all. Iāve never used SRAM but it seems like all the gravel bikes Iām looking at now come with SRAM AXS than GRX Di2. Annoying as Iāve got Shimano 11spd on literally all my other bikes and wheels, but it will be what it will be.
What would you say I need to know before committing to thisā¦?
Other than really nothing on a 11 speed Shimano is going to be compatible, not sure what else you need to know. What specific questions do you have?
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That sucks. Why is every bike going to UDH. I have the Grail Gen 1 and I am only limited it. meaning I couldnāt buy the SRAM XX T-Type Eagle Transmission AXS rear Derailleur for my Mullet set up 
SRAM AXS 1by > GRX Di2.
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we can hope they do it at some point, T-Type installation is a lot easier than anything else, no limit screws and no b-gap screw and chain size from sram makes everything super easy. but clearly road bikes still need more udh adoption before they can commit to that, maybe even xplr being udh direct mount only will limit the adoption into the gravel space, but hard to say
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- SRAM is a lot more flexible when it comes to 1x gearing options. You can run anything from a 38-tooth to a 56-tooth chain ring (provided they fit your frame), larger ones are available from third parties.
- Shifting and braking works very well on both systems. You can find scientific treatise on the subject where topics like shift feel and speed are discussed. In my experience, the difference doesnāt matter and is most āaestheticā.
- SRAM has a first-party power meter that just works.
- All of SRAMās current electronic group sets use the same shifter mechanism in the RD. Thus, shifting will be identical from Apex to Red (if all other drivetrain components are equal).
- Unless you go for SRAMās cheapest cassette, you need an XDR driver. But such is life with standards. That would only matter if you want to swap wheels between your bikes.
- Things like dot fluid vs. mineral oil in brakes or battery philosophy donāt matter much in practice.
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Thatās such a helpful answer, thank you. So I need this XDR driver thing. Iām taking that as essentially just swapping between a shimano 11spd freehub/cassette and a XDR 12spd freehub/cassette between bikes if I was to ever bother to do that, which seems fine
Right then, seems like its not the end of the world
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If you have a quality rear hub, then you will be able to purchase an XDR driver. When swapping wheels, you need to replace the HG hub with the XDR driver or vice versa before installing the cassette.
If you switched to SRAM on another bike, you could keep your wheels, replace the HG hub and off you go.
To be fair, as soon as you change any standards (even going from Shimano 11-speed to Shimano 12-speed), you introduce more steps when you have a mixed bike fleet.
The one thing Iād like to add to my list above:
- Ergonomics is different. Hood, brake and shift ergonomics were the reason why I went with SRAM. The taller humps on the hoods that some people dislike/deride are a main reason why I am not on Shimano. Most people I know prefer SRAMās simpler paddle system than Shimanoās, especially on a 1x. (Even when I was on Shimano mechanical, I couldnāt get used to Di2ās way of doing things and would keep on misshifting even after 2 weeks. Other people have zero problems, though, YMMV.)
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Love my Uthald although I bought before red came out. Not that I would be spending $6k but itās fun to think I would. Maybe Iāll update to red shifters next year or something since sram shifter ergonomics are my big complaint
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had my first ride yesterday on the new E1, at this point Iām already set to drop the coin and upgrade the force d2 levers on my gravel bike, the red e1 levers to me felt unbelievably better than the force d2, the effort required is so much less than the force, I have a fresh bleed on both bikes, same rotor size both sram, but Iām using MTX red on my gravel bike with force d2 and trickstuff orange pads on the red e1 but thatās not giving me all the better lever few and effort required on the red e1, itās that much better imho!
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are they anywhere available to purchase without the brake caliper? From what Iāve gathered the new levers are compatible with old RED calipers but I couldnāt find a shop selling only the levers (yet). Iām so ready to ditch the og RED eTap levers. Theyāre too clunky for my big hands
I havenā seen the levers only yet, Iām sure theyāll fill orders for group sets and lever/calipers first. Definitely keeping an eye out for these though, Iām in the same boat and would be happy to upgrade on at least 2 bikes. I gather nearly all the braking improvement comes from the lever and they are fully backward compatible with all current calipers. I wonder how much less expensive lever alone will beā¦?