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!
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!
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
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.
Thanks, I wasn’t aware of such charts. Super useful to know, both now and for future repair/replacement jobs.
Some advice for next time:
The leavers can’t be tighten too much to the handlebar. In case of crash it will just twist and don’t break. It happened to me few months ago and only damage was on the hoods (the rubber condoms on top tear).
Thanks for this! I’ll try to follow the Nm recommendation more carefully this time :). I haven’t invested in a torque wrench yet but my local DIY place has one.
I was horrified after my crash- everything was crooked, spun and in places where it shouldn’t be.
When I told it to my friend he just told me that if it would stay in place I would have to replace most of the parts.
I had heavy bags on (last day of trip) and bent my rack, so yeah I think he’s right.
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.
New brifter, cables and bar tape on the way. Thank you for the advice :)