Here are my thoughts on Force AXS. I have had it for 7 months - a little over 5000 km.
Pros:
- When set up properly, it shifts very smooth.
- No wires is obviously great
- Easy to manage charging. When the LEDs ligth up red, you still have plenty of time to get home and charge.
- I really like the shifting: Right for higher gear, left for lower gear. Both for shifting chain ring. Very intuitive.
Cons:
- Front derailleur is hard to get right. Very little room for error in adjustment can lead to chain dropping. For some reason the compensating shifting mode made the problem worse.
- Limited choice of chain rings.
- Finish is not good. Big plastic cover on crank set looks cheap.
- Cassette is coated in a black finish that wears off, leaving it looking permanently dirty.
- Cassette can make the system a little noisy if not lubed well. (I replaced cassette with a Red cassette, which minimized this a lot, looks cleaner too)
- Crank set is extremely difficult to get off, if you ever need to.
(- Flattop chain requires specific chain tool and possibly chain wear checker.)
I got a Quarq power meter spider (110 X 5) that allows for the use of Carbon- Ti chain rings. You can use the Force crank arms. Hopefully there will be more Flattop-compatible chain rings in the future.
Last edited by flx100; 08-13-20 at 12:28 PM.