SRAM s Wireless 7 Speed Drivetrain RockShox s 2026 DH Suspension First Ride

If you were paying attention during last year's World Cup downhill season, there are all sorts of hints that Ceram and Rockshox are working on something new. There are forks with strange bulges. There are wireless electronic drivetrains popping up here and there. Even a couple little teasers that there might be something different going on with the shocks. Well now, just a couple months away from the first stop of the 2027 season in South Korea, all the details have been revealed. And there is a new boxer. And there's a new vivid coil shock. And there is a XXDH wireless drivetrain. They're all right here on this Mondraker Summum. So we're going to go over the details, let you know what's new, how much it costs, as well as a few little different ride impressions. I was able to get a few days on this bike down in Queenstown, escape the cold, some warmer weather. I can just kind of tell you initial broad overview of how it's all working so far. Let's start with the drivetrain. Basically, Ceram took their normal trail-oriented transmission drivetrain, shrunk it down. It's got a really stubby little cage, a small 7-speed 10-24 tooth cassette. Uses the same shifter pods as before, as well as the same chain. But the derailleur is totally new. Cassette is new. There's also new cranks and chainrings. Let's start at the front. Start with the cranks. Cranks are available in a range of sizes from 150 millimeters all the way up to 165. Two different spindle widths, depending if you're using a 148 rear end or 157. And what chainline you're looking for is either a 55 millimeter chainline or 56.5 millimeter chainline. So it's all just designed to make sure that chain is nice and straight and kind of match with what your bike's doing. So there are options. If you want to run these downhill cranks on your enduro bike, you can do that. Cranks themselves, pretty similar shape, just a little bit beefed up. Got some more machining on the ends, but they stay fresh looking after you smash them into lots of rocks. Also new chainrings to go along with this. There's 4-bolt 104 BCD, which allows you to run O-chain. Not surprising because SRAM recently bought O-chain. We want everything to be compatible. Then there's also the 8-bolt pattern direct mount. Again, those chainrings are available in a new thicker option designed to withstand rock impacts or anything else you might encounter on a downhill track. Moving to the back, it's a little derailleur, a little tiny derailleur, short cage. It uses the same damper inside, kind of like the clutch mechanism that SRAM uses, as what's found on the normal trail-oriented transmission derailleurs. But because the cage itself is shorter, there's a lot less leverage and it gives it even more chain retention. So when you move that back and forth, it takes a fair bit of force to move it. So it just keeps things nice and secure, less chance of that chain hopping around and moving out of gear. That's the reasoning behind kind of bringing transmission to the downhill world. I mean, the wireless aspect, it's kind of clever, not totally necessary. It does increase the price and we'll get to the price soon. But SRAM's reasoning was that this transmission system, because it's designed to shift under load, it really allows those riders, as they're coming out of the start gate, to keep the power down. They don't have to let off the shift and that can make a difference. According to SRAM, something like 1 20th of a second over the course of the first 15 meters, if you're able to keep pedaling and shifting. Those are SRAM's numbers, so it may be taking more than a pinch of salt, but it makes sense that if you're putting the power down, as soon as that starting beep goes, you don't have to let off. It could give you a tiny, tiny advantage, but these days, at the top of the pack, that's really what it takes to win or get second or third. The times are just separated by tiny, tiny increments, so that could help. And speaking of that cassette, there's two different options now. There's one that's designed to work with a normal XD freehub body, and then one that works with the XD slim. So you can kind of have a hub designed around it that has wider hub flanges, better bracing angle, uses all the same spoke tension, and that's a kind of small detail that'll really help World Cup mechanics when they're building up a lot of wheels. Everything can be the same tension, faster wheel builds and swaps, and ideally stronger wheels. So that was a very speedy run through, but hopefully you got all that. New tiny derailleur, that's expensive, $700 for that. New cranks, $450, and the cassette itself is $500. When all is said and done, you're looking at around a $2,000 downhill drivetrain. It's so much money, and that is at full retail. Some bikes will come with it, and you'll get a discount that way, but my fingers are crossed that there's a cable actuated version coming somewhere in the not-so-distant future. I tried to ask SRAM if that was the case. They couldn't confirm or deny, but I'd be really surprised if they weren't working on it. And if not, and you're watching this, please work on it, because this is really expensive stuff. It works great. I've got three days in on it, like I said. No problems. It shifts cleanly and smoothly. No chain retention issues or anything like that, but the price is going to be a major hurdle. But it is the top-tier XX-level stuff, so hopefully we see trickle-down happen sooner than later. That's the drivetrain. Now, let's move to the front of the bike, this fork. You probably saw the bulges that I was talking about last year around the air spring side of the fork. It's a little section that sticks out. There's speculation that maybe it was something that allowed the fork to be tuned. You could put some spacers or some kind of bottom-out resistance. It's not any of that. It's basically an addition. It's kind of an ADU that they added on to the fork lowers. They're calling it Linear XL technology. It's basically an air annex. That's RockShox term, an air annex. So it's just a little rectangular portion of the fork lower that's bumped out a bit. And what that does, it allows for there to be the same amount of air volume on the air spring side and the damper side. The benefit of that is you get a more linear air spring curve. That means that when the fork is deeper in the travel, you don't get a sudden ramp-up that's caused by the air trapped in the lowers. You can still tune the progressive as you want with tokens, the same plastic tokens that go in the top. But this just means that there's a non-tunable aspect of the previous fork's performance has been removed. The goal is that riders can fine-tune things and adjust them on their own terms rather than having the fork dictate what the end of the stroke feels like. I know the cap on it looks like it should come off. You can play around with things in there. But if you took it off, all you would see is the bottom-out bumper. There's really nothing there. It's just kind of a manufacturing thing. It is a removable cap, but that's nothing to do with tuning the fork. There's also some other technology hidden in this fork, starting right about here. SRAM's calling it their butter wagon technology, which makes my eyes roll around in my head because, I don't know, it's one of those, definitely seems like a marketing term, but the concept is pretty clever. They've got a bunch of divots machined into the lower of each stanchion. And those divots, the goal is that they pick up the lower bath oil and bring it up to the top and keep everything nice and lubricated. So every time you cycle on that fork, it's picking up little bits of oil, bring it to the top, and just cycles through as you're riding the bike. Should keep things running nice and smooth. They've moved to a 15 weight Maxima oil for the lowers, a little bit heavier than before, just to kind of keep everything, again, get oil in the important parts, keep the bushings lubricated, keep things smooth no matter how nasty the conditions are. So that's the butter wagon technology. Cringy name, clever concept. There are also holes drilled in the stanchions, again, designed to kind of keep the air where it needs to be, prevent any excess air buildup. So there's lots of channels for it to move through, just keep things nice and consistent and predictable no matter what you're riding. There is a new damper to go along with this, but the main thing is that it was just designed to have a bit more damping in order to balance out the reduced friction of the system as a whole. So your damping range can be pretty similar, but if you took the Charger 3.2 and put it into an existing fork that doesn't have a linear XL and all that other tech, you'd probably feel like maybe a little bit overdamped. So basics of the new Boxer. Got those butter wagon technology stanchions, linear XL air annex and air spring, updated Charger 3.2 damper, and some numbered dockles. Also the oil inside is now Maxima 15 weight and there's a new SG 920 grease that's used on the inside. Everything designed to keep the friction nice and low and all operating smoothly. It's going to be available on 180, 190, 200 millimeter travel increments for 27.5 and 29 inch wheels. Priced at $1,999 US dollars for the top tier ultimate version. Now let's get into the shock. Right there, new Vividcoil shock. The main change with the Vividcoil is an updated reservoir. It may seem like a tiny thing, but the change in design allowed RockShox designers to improve the oil path flows. So that means the oil gets to where it's supposed to be going in a more smooth, more controlled manner. And it also allowed them to drop the IFP or internal floating piston pressure from 200 PSI down to 120 PSI. And what that does, it means that the shock can feel more sensitive off the top. Gives you a little bit better small bump sensitivity, you know, less breakaway force needed to get it initiating its travel. They did change one thing, the hydraulic bottom out. It's still there. It's still the same technology. It comes into the last 20% of the shock stroke, but now it's called ABO for adjustable bottom out. It's still hydraulic though, so maybe it's H-A-B-O? Hybo? I don't know. But on there it says ABO. Don't get confused, it's still HBO. So those are the main differences. Just that updated reservoir, slightly different tune, you get those numbered dials. Price, $719 US dollars for the Ultimate version. There's a whole lineup of different options though, all the way down to one that just has a rebound. So there's kind of some more basic ones in the Vivid lineup, and they all benefit from that new reservoir design. And let's wrap things up. How does it all ride? Like I said, just got three days in on it. Three amazing days, I will say. Got to ride Queenstown, there's the Coronet downhill track, and also the Skyline bike park. So some proper downhill trails. And the biggest takeaway was it was pretty easy to get up and running. It didn't take too much fiddling. I did plenty of experimentation trying the ranges, the adjusters, and doing some bracketing. But by the end of those three days, I felt like I was in a really good place. And whether you're a privateer, a bike park rider, or even a pro racer, it is nice to be able to find that happy spot without too much fussing around. I was able to use full travel when needed. The bottom out catch or feel of the Boxer is really impressive. It's got a generous bottom out bumper, so you can use all the travel, but it doesn't feel like you're clanging metal on metal with those bigger hits. And as far as where it sits in the stroke, it feels like it does kind of have that sweet spot right in the middle. Skyline bike park has some nice, steep, very rooty trails. And as you would hope, but it is nice that it's true, this thing really comes alive at those medium to higher speed hits. Just feels like you can keep charging ahead. You can feel what the wheel is doing, but it's not jarring you around. Overall, nice and comfortable. Yeah, so I was able to run the Boxer with zero spacers in there, still have plenty of bottom out resistance, and kind of just found a nice happy spot. We'll be putting this thing to the test, some of the newer forks that are coming out this season. It is still winter, so it's going to be a little bit before we really start to put it in the downhill miles. I'm pretty excited to get that going because downhill bikes are awesome. If you didn't know, they are. This Mondraker, also very impressed with that. Those first few days were super fun. Nice, just kind of felt like I got up to speed. It's a cool bike. So you can read about the first impressions of that in a separate article, but there's a lot going on here. It's kind of exciting time for the downhill world. Well, there you go. That's the new downhill bits from RockShox and SRAM. Hope you enjoyed that. Thanks for watching. We'll catch you next time.