Hey! I had a minor crash the other day. Luckily I was unhurt, but unfortunately my “brifter” (new word for me) took the entirety of the hit.

Over the past year I’ve been learning about bike maintenance, and now have a decent understanding in some areas but not shifters/brake levers and associated cabling. So… the silver linings is that now I get to fill that gap!

I’ve tried to research how to resolve my current brifter-less situation. I have a Kona Rove DL 2021, 1x11 gearing and SRAM Rival 1 group set. I have the following questions:

  1. Where can I find a replacement SRAM Rival 1 brifter!? I’m in Finland, and can only seem to find the SRAM Rival 22 or SRAM Apex 1. I don’t believe the SRAM Rival 22 is the same product, but all my searching directs me to it and it seems to look identical.
  2. If I cannot find a replacement SRAM Rival 1 brifter, what are compatible (/best) alternatives (<200€)?

Then, once I have a replacement brifter, is my understanding of the easiest replacement process accurate?

  1. Disconnect both the derailleur cable and brake cable
  2. Unwrap handlebar tape
  3. Remove derailleur cable and brake cable via broken brifter
  4. Remove broken brifter

Reverse process with new brifter and cables. And does anyone have any “gotchas” or tips for me to bear in mind?

Thanks for any advice!

  • @ben1oOP
    1•3 months ago

    Really appreciate you taking the time to share your knowledge and answer my questions, thank you! I’ll soon have my hands on all the replacement parts needed and will give the repair a try. Thanks again!

    • misery mansion
      1•3 months ago

      No worries, hope it goes smoothly. The bit I found hardest to wrap my head around was the barrel adjuster part. Basically if your derailleur didn’t take a hit, the limit screws should all be fine still. These are what set the range of motion of the rear mech, and prevent it from moving beyond the range of the cassette on either side.

      That should be all fine so all you need to worry about is the cable tension being correct so that each shift is nice and smooth. You don’t necessarily want the cable to be ‘tight’, there is a correct tension. I.e. it can be too tight or too loose, so methodical quarter turns on the barrel adjuster is what will get you there.

      Here’s a video which likely has a decent breakdown of the main things: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kVLmpBpC0vU