SRAM GX Eagle AXS Upgrade Kit [Rider Review]

Our "Rider Review" article series features the honest reviews from verified purchasers of Worldwide Cyclery. They contain the photos, thoughts, feedback & overall review you are looking for.

SRAM's wireless AXS Drivetrain turned the world upside down but the biggest concern was cost. Not a lot of people wanted to spend more than $1,000 on a drivetrain. Then came the GX AXS line which has continued to sell out almost instantly every shipment we get. For a fraction of the price, more and more riders are experiencing the next step of riding innovation with GX AXS. Our buddy Zach recently made the upgrade. Lets see what he thought:

Zach's Review

Before buying the SRAM GX AXS shifter, I was running the regular old 12-speed GX Eagle. I had no complaints about the analog shifter, and in fact, thought they did a great job. But ever since I saw the AXS drivetrain (and Nate Hills hitting it with a rubber mallet) I wanted to try it. I definitely couldn't afford the entire X01 or XX1 drivetrain but was seriously considering the upgrade kit for $800. I was honestly about to pull the trigger when I started seeing ads for the GX upgrade kit about to come out. I got on the waiting list for the GX AXS kit as soon as I saw I could do that on World Wide Cyclery. WWC was very good about communicating with me about when the item was in stock and again when they received it and shipped it to me.

As soon as I got the upgrade kit I immediately took my old shifter off and slapped that blue tooth bad boy on my bike. I didn't do any foolish instructions reading or anything like that I just bolted the new derailleur on and put the new shifting lever on the handlebars. I got the chain on and started pressing buttons. Nothing happened so I did what everyone does these days and watched YouTube.

I had to charge the battery for about an hour to get it to full charge and the shifter comes with a coin-style battery.

Connecting the shifter to the derailleur was super simple even though I skipped ahead and installed it first. I was a little worried about adjusting the derailleur because I was so used to a cable but it turned out to be super simple. Out of the box, it shifted pretty well, and with just 3 clicks of the micro-adjust mode, the shifting was super smooth. I have been riding bikes for 15 years and have always done 95% of my own bike maintenance including drive train adjustment. This was by far the easiest derailleur setup I have ever done.

After about 10 rides the battery still doesn't need to be charged. The app for the AXS was simple to use and it allows you to pick how many gears it shifts when you hold a button down and which button shifts which way. I did have to get used to the shifter and almost wanted the new style that is supposed to be more like an analog shifter but after a few rides I got used to it and now couldn't care less about the difference.

Final thoughts:

"I bought the SRAM GX AXS upgrade kit for no better reason than I thought it was cool. After installing it was so easy and seeing how well it performs on rides I couldn't be happier with my purchase. I enjoy it so much it makes me want to take a look at the blue tooth dropper post from RockShox. The bottom line is I love it and I highly recommend it. I hope I can afford to put it on all future bikes!" - Zach