It hasn’t gone unnoticed that SRAM’s catalogue of subsidiaries has been rocketing in recent years.
Zipp (opens in new tab), Rockshox (opens in new tab)and Quarq (opens in new tab) are now fully part of the furniture – with their wheels, suspension and power meters all neatly integrated under the SRAM umbrella.
But what of the more recent additions? What are the new releases that can we expect (or simply wish) to see?
These are our top predictions for what could be coming up, plus a couple of suggestions for future brand acquisitions. (Spoiler: Classified (opens in new tab) is one of them).
We did approach SRAM for a comment on our speculations but, understandably, our invitation was kindly declined.
Now, just to be abundantly clear, we don’t have any secret source of information on this. We’ll be speculating purely based upon market trends and what we’d like to see. If we do end up being close to the mark on any of this, then we’ll be congratulating ourselves on our killer instincts.
If we’re way off, well, as we said: we don’t have a secret source…
Bike computers
(Image credit: Josh Ross)
SRAM’s purchase of Hammerhead (opens in new tab) back in January 2022 did come as a bit of a surprise – but maybe it shouldn’t have. The bike computer brand had been building a loyal fan-base with its critically acclaimed Karoo 2 – which so impressed Chris Froome he invested in the company himself (opens in new tab).
Not much time has passed since the acquisition – although it has been long enough for Shimano to set about forcing Hammerhead to remove its Di2 functionality (opens in new tab) – so we’ve yet to see any product launches from the brand under its new SRAM banner.
On the other hand, this leaves the door wide open for unfettered speculation.
The current Karoo 2 (opens in new tab) has been occupying a spot in the higher-end section of the head unit market, being more expensive than a Garmin Edge 830 (opens in new tab) but still cheaper than a Garmin Edge 1030 Plus (opens in new tab) (and also both the new Edge 1040 (opens in new tab) models).
It would be really nice to see a second, more affordable, model released. Perhaps undercutting the Garmin Edge 530 (opens in new tab), which has long been one of our top picks as one the best value head units out there.
Maybe it could lose the touchscreen functionality – as the Edge 530 does – and perhaps combine this with a shrinking of the screen size onto a more compact body. The…