SRAMForce 1 Type 3.0 Rear Derailleur(Return to Product Page)

Upgrade from Rival. Great cost effective derailleur. No issues 3 months in.

I purchased my SRAM CX1 derailleur as an upgrade from a SRAM X9 Type2 Short Cage on my primary CX bike. I got a great deal on it from BTD. I use Force 10 speed shifters and coated shift cables. The first thing I noticed was the action was a lot lighter than my x9 as well as Rival and Apex derailleurs that I own. Initially the CX1 was fine but shifting to the smaller cogs became slower and slower over several days. My first race was at Providence and after a couple of warm up laps it was not shifting well into lower cogs. I took the bike to the SRAM neutral support tent. Two mechanics worked on it there for 30-40 minutes. While the shifting improved the problem did not go away. The diagnosis was an out of alignment derailleur hanger and cable drag in the shift cable. They aligned that hanger and sprayed boat loads of tri flow in the shifters and cable housing. After the races I pulled the cable and ran new cable. I used to use the mtb ferrules that has a short length of sheathing that extends past the ferrule going into the brifter. My experience is this has helped to keep the cable housing from getting choked up with corrosion from sweat and power washing, I removed this. Re cabling helped but the problem still comes back. This weekend I was finishing a race and it would not shift down at all and in the last 200' I'm left spinning at 180RPM in a low gear with BPM well in the red (I lost to the guy I was chasing by 13 of a second). My suspicion is that the derailleur body spring has a lower tension. Either this is a defect or it is by design to keep brifters from blowing up. Either way I haven't been impressed with my CX1

Adjusted it using the videos then a second minor adjustment after the first ride and since then has worked as smooth as silk even shifting under heavy load.

CX1 is a perfect system. No dropped chain, foolproof setup. 40T front, 11-32 back gives me everything I need to CX racing and some trail rides.

I had the previous version of the SRAM Force 1 on my Cannondale Slate and it was great but abuse over time required replacement. This Type 3. version shifts rapidly and smoothly and reliably. The clutch is firmer allowing you to hammer through the rough stuff in smaller cogs without the chain slapping the stay. If you need to replace your rear derailleur and this is compatible, i would not hesitate!

This derailleur survived when all else failed at the 2014 Washington County Fairgrounds Cross Crusade race. There were 107 DNFs, most due to rear derailleur failures. Not only did the CX1 work throughout the race, it shifted brilliantly under load even when it was completely packed with mud. I used this derailleur with a 12-30 Shimano Ultegra Cassette, a Shimano 105 10-speed chain, and a Race Face Narrow Wide 40T chainring up front.

I purchased this CX1 rear derailleur to work in conjunction with my 10-speed SRAM Force shifter on a 1x10 system for my Asylum Meuse. Let me say that this is probably the coolest piece of bike tech I've purchased in two years. Not only is it super durable, it's snappy and responsive and when combined with a narrow wide chain ring, I've experienced absolutely NO chain dropping or chain slap on my stays. This is in large part thanks to the clutch system. I'm also very impressed with how aggressive the teeth on the pulleys are (they really hold onto the chain and make sure it keeps moving even when it's all gunked up).

If you have SRAM shifters and you're looking for a way to lighten your bike, upgrade your shifting, and switch to a 1x1011 system, this is the best thing you can get.

What's more, when and if I decide to upgrade to 11-speed, all I have to do is get a new right shifter.