Sram Force AXS: Does it work with only one lever?

johnnyleemail

Hi all, I'm on the verge of taking delivery of a new Mason Bokeh frame and whilst I was shopping around for good prices on Force AXS hydro groupsets I wondered if I could run just a right shifter and use an 'old' (non AXS) force hydro lever as my left lever (brake lever only..no shifter paddle) to save me about £250. Yep, my levers wouldnt match perfectly but for a 250 saving it might be worth it. So my question is.. does anyone know if Sram have designed AXS so that it wont work unless 2 AXS levers are present? I assume thats the case.. and I assume that once you add the 2 AXS levers and set everything up with the app, if you then take one lever away (out of range of the signal) the whole system stops working?

I imagine there wont be too many replies to this thread but I thought I'd throw it out there anyway as you never know.

Cheers, John

MidlandsGrimpeur2

Yes your assumption is correct you need both levers as the left shifter moves the RD up the cassette to the largest sprocket, without it you cannot change gears both ways! Another lever cannot work as it is all programmed to the same system.

brundonbianchi

The SRAM AXS can be programmed to work both mechs with one lever. It’s under custom shifting / synchro shifting on the app. However there is no double tap system, so you still need both levers.

whyamihere

brundonbianchi said:

The SRAM AXS can be programmed to work both mechs with one lever. It’s under custom shifting / synchro shifting on the app.

No, it can't. The levers only have one button. You can configure whether that button on each lever is used to upshift, downshift or perform a front shift, and you can do the same for the 'combination', which is both buttons together. You can set the front mech into sequential mode, where the system will automatically shift the front, but you still need 2 AXS buttons to shift both up and down. You could do that with Di2, not with AXS.

Something you can do is to use the lever button to shift one way, and use a blip button to shift the other way, which can be configured in the app, and is a change from 1st gen eTap. This isn't going to be a great experience because you're going to need to find somewhere to put that blip button. They're pretty expensive too, so eat into the savings quite a lot.