Originally Posted by
grolby
Calling it a "bet the company" move sounds dramatic, and drama is appealing, but is there any evidence for that? SRAM is doing fine, it's hard for me to believe that eTap failing would sink the ship. That notwithstanding, I otherwise agree. There's no good reason for them to try and do too many things at once.
I wouldn't disagree with that statement in terms of the road market specifically. They are doing strong in many other aspects, including offroad suspension (RockShox) and other businesses under their umbrella (Zipp). There are a LOT of factors that play into this, but the recent Hydro brake release was dismally bad for their reputation. If they were going to take a big step like this, it's best to play it 100% safe. It looks like a really solid group, so I'm curious to see how it does. I don't think I like the FD shifting feature, but whatever. It's still pretty cool and innovative to start from scratch rather than mimic their DoubleTap system.
Now all that said, holy crap, when did I get so old? I'm only 32, but in the last year, I got a mortgage and a (used) BMW. Now I'm looking at a new bike build and I'm totally repulsed by electronic shifting and disc brakes. Like I want zero to do with them now. I can already see myself in 15-20 years talking about "the good old days" and attending "vintage" Gran Fondo events with my Domane. I am becoming the boring white guy I've always despised.
Ok, so maybe I do want disc brakes, just not right now. And yeah, I'll probably buy an electric shift bike in 5-10 years. I'm such a sucker.