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:
- 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.
- 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?
- Disconnect both the derailleur cable and brake cable
- Unwrap handlebar tape
- Remove derailleur cable and brake cable via broken brifter
- 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!
I’m almost 100% sure the 22 brifter is the same part. 1 vs 22 seems to simply referred to 1x11 (1) or 2x11 (22). Confusing naming but on the 22 spec you would have one brifter with 2 gears and another with 11. On your bike you just have one brake and one brifter, the 11 speed.
So you just need a new SRAM Rival 11-speed brifter, which should be the same on both.
As for changing them over, you may as well replace the cables while you’re doing the change. You’ll need to remember to shift all the way down so that the holes for the cable line up nicely. Tons of YouTube videos on how to do this.
You will likely also need some cable cutters, a 5mm hex wrench and whatever tools the brifter needs for opening/loosening.
You will need to adjust the gear cable tension to ensure smooth shifting. This should only require tightening or loosening using the barrel adjuster on the derailleur, and shouldn’t require any changes to the high or low limit screws on the derailleur. Again, plenty of YouTube videos for this.
Good luck and if in doubt, go to the bike shop
It’s the same. Great post. OP this is all the info you need!
Check out the SRAM compatibility charts here: https://www.sram.com/en/service/manuals--documents/compatability-map?filters=brand|SRAM&showRecent=false&page=1
Find your derailleur model and find compatible shifters then make sure the shifters are mechanical brake compatible. You can probably find the model numbers somewhere on the parts. I don’t know about SRAM but Shimano only puts numbers on some things so might be a little hard.
This is general advice because I’m not too familiar with the SRAM product line.
Any SRAM brifter should work so long as the cable pull is the same (I believe SRAM uses the same pull for everything) and it has the same number of gears. The SRAM rival 22 should be the closest/identical match because it’s 11 gears in back as well. It’s 22 for two gears in front and eleven in back for a total of 22
As for the replacement process, you’ve got it pretty much spot on. You’ll likely want new cables and possibly bar tape, but that isn’t a strict requirement.