First of all Red went yellow, and now it’s turning black; SRAM are launching a new edition of their top line groupset that’ll be available from next month.
The brake callipers are black, for example, as is the rear mech body, and the chainset comes with black anodized chainrings. Essentially, SRAM have given most of the silver bits of the standard version a black finish. The changes are all cosmetic; features and function remain unaltered.
The yellow Limited Tour Edition of SRAM Red has just gone on general release, which is basically black with yellow graphics – this is starting to get quite complicated. It was first used in last year’s Tour de France by the SRAM-sponsored previous winners of the race, and then by subsequent SRAM-equipped yellow jersey wearers. The new black version is very similar, but you get standard graphics instead of yellow.
Many of the WorldTour teams, including Garmin-Cervélo, Saxo Bank Sungard and Liquigas-Cannondale, will be competing with the Black version over the 2011 race season.
So, there you go; it turns out that black is the new Red. Confused? You should be.
Prices have yet to be announced.
Mat has been in cycling media since 1996, on titles including BikeRadar, Total Bike, Total Mountain Bike, What Mountain Bike and Mountain Biking UK, and he has been editor of 220 Triathlon and Cycling Plus. Mat has been road.cc technical editor for over a decade, testing bikes, fettling the latest kit, and trying out the most up-to-the-minute clothing. We send him off around the world to get all the news from launches and shows too. He has won his category in Ironman UK 70.3 and finished on the podium in both marathons he has run. Mat is a Cambridge graduate who did a post-grad in magazine journalism, and he is a winner of the Cycling Media Award for Specialist Online Writer. Now pushing 50, he's riding road and gravel bikes most days for fun and fitness rather than training for competitions.