Cyclist
Cyclist’s Gear of the Year 2024: Tech
Ding ding it’s time for round two of Cyclist’s 2024 Gear of the Year round-ups. This time we’re talking bike tech, hardware, that kind of thing, and it looks like one brand in particular has had a very good year – and it’s not Campagnolo.
Sam Challis, tech editor
SRAM Red XPLR AXS
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With Campagnolo still resolutely refusing to score a product open goal by making its popular Ekar gravel groupset electronic, SRAM was free to slot that shot home this year, stepping into the 13-speed electronic groupset product category uncontested with the launch of Red XPLR AXS this summer.
To continue the theme of lazily leaning on sporting analogies to do my editorial legwork (I don’t even like baseball), the brand hit a home run with its design as well – Red XPLR AXS is fantastic.
It blends fast, accurate shifting with a functional spread of gearing that, thanks to its 13 speeds, doesn’t create any jarring jumps in cadence. Thanks to the porting over of elements of road-going Red’s components (levers, brakes and crankset) and some fancy machining on the cassette, the groupset is light at a claimed 2,488g as well. Never mind gravel bikes, Red XPLR AXS makes the strongest case to date for 1x gearing on the road, but therein lies its problem – it uses SRAM’s UDH standard, meaning not every bike is compatible with it yet (though things only look to be going SRAM’s way in future).
Red XPLR AXS’s full-mount rear derailleur is a true step forward in design, being robust, serviceable and easy to setup, and the brand should receive bonus brownie points for fitting 13 sprockets into 12-speed spacing, so preexisting chains and freehubs can be used, as opposed to more standards and SKUs being created.
It isn’t perfect – the nature of the full-mount derailleur means there can only be one cassette option, which isn’t the widest range and alone costs £600, so proper drivetrain maintenance is essential to stop running costs from becoming prohibitive. The cost of the groupset more generally – retailing for £3,980 / €4,465 / $3,979 – is hard to stomach, but thankfully the future looks bright, given that SRAM has a track record of trickling its AXS technology down to more affordable price points with little change in performance. As such, Red XPLR AXS gets my gear of the year vote just as much for what it heralds as what it actually is.
- Read our full review of SRAM Red XPLR AXS
James Spender, deputy editor
SRAM Red AXS (in particular braking/the brake calliper)
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The latest SRAM Red is absolutely superb. It’s not a huge step up from the outgoing Red AXS – less due to lack of innovation, more due to old Red being very good already – but it makes my list for its improved braking and new styling and machining.
Of the latter, groupsets are your bike jewels and we are vain cyclists after all (I know I am anyway), so with Shimano laying unchanged in 2024 and the new Campagnolo dividing opinion in looks, SRAM has stolen a march for its exceptionally clean looks. It’s like Terminator made brake callipers.
Of the former, braking has been vastly improved in the main thanks to repositioned lever pivots and increased distances from pads to rotors. The result is superb modulation – the feeling of proportional progress; the harder you squeeze, the more braking force is applied – and genuine, as billed by SRAM ‘one finger braking’. Once Campagnolo could count itself leader of the braking pack, but with the new Red, SRAM has drawn level, maybe even outstripping it.
- Read our full review of SRAM Red AXS
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Unifying bolt sizes (Canyon Aeroad, Scott Addict RC use the same size bolt throughout pretty much)
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Two very exciting bikes have stood out this year for one very boring reason: bolts. Canyon’s new Aeroad and Scott’s latest Addict RC both use T25 torx bolts in all the major places (seat clamp, stem bolts and bottle mounts etc) and as such the bikes can be on-the-road maintained with just one tool, which can then handily be stashed on the bike. In Scott’s case that’s in a bar end; in Canyon’s it’s part of the thru-axle.
Eagle eyed viewers will be wondering what of such thru-axles, but said tools also nattily incorporate 6mm allen keys too.
Why should you care? You might be like me and resent having to swap between multiple tools just to tighten up a headset. Or you might just care that, like USB-C, the sooner we can ubiquitise stuff the sooner we can make easy savings in terms of environmental impact. Boring reasons, boring innovation, doesn’t make you faster or better looking. But I like it.
Laurence Kilpatrick, staff writer
Knog Blinder Set
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Efficient simplicity is what I’m looking for in a set of bike lights and the Knog Blinder 1600 set very much delivers. First of all, the two mounts provided by Knog give riders the flexibility to attach onto near enough any handlebar, or go for the sleek out-front Go Pro attachment.
The light itself is beautifully designed: a cold slab of machined aluminium that fits in the hand, complete with a ridged exterior to aid with grip, and provide contours for the mount to attach onto.
Battery life is good, the beams are varied and 1,600 lumens was plenty for all my different uses. Scrolling through functionality is taken care of by just one-button, so is pretty much idiot proof.
The rear light is slightly less deluxe in its constituent parts, with a plastic body and simple stretchy black rubber bands used for securing the light, but performance is similarly strong and the variety of bands ensures that it will fit any seat post.
Clik here to view.

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