Sram is the second largest component manufacturer in the world after Shimano. The company was founded in Chicago (USA) in 1987. Initially, the product range consisted only of twist shifters for gear systems. In the mid-90s, the German company Fichtel und Sachs was acquired and at the same time the product portfolio was continuously expanded. Today, the Rockshox, Zipp, Truvativ, Time and Quarq brands are also part of the Sram Group. The former Fichtel-und-Sachs site at Romstraße 1 in Schweinfurt is still Sram's development centre for drivetrains. And we visited it for a very special purpose.
Because as technically sophisticated as mountain bikes already are: No-one has yet made a serious effort to ensure the sustainability of our sports equipment. With our RIDE-GREEN campaign at the beginning of the year, we initiated an exciting topic that is not only a concern for society as a whole, but is also making ever greater waves in the bicycle industry. Together with partners such as Sram, Syntace, Danico Biotech, Canyon, Trickstuff and Schwalbe and experts from the Cradle to Cradle NGO, we are focussing on the topic of sustainability. In the 1/2022 issue of BIKE you will find the big final report and we will present our RIDE-GREEN concept bike.
Maximum durability and maximum recyclability
Syntace started things off with high-quality aluminium wheels, handlebars, stem and seat post, followed by organic lubricant specialist Danico-Biotech, which will provide all the oils and greases for our project bike - 100% plant-based and biodegradable. The brakes on the project bike will be precision-manufactured and extremely durable Trickstuff stoppers made in Freiburg, with a guaranteed supply of spare parts for years to come. Tyres and tubes will come from Schwalbe, who have been improving their own environmental footprint for almost a decade with their award-winning tube recycling. Sram supplies the drivetrain for our most sustainable mountain bike. In BIKE 12/21, together with Sram, we therefore clarify how durable a chain drive can actually be and where the biggest hurdles lie in terms of environmental impact during production. Our video provides an initial insight:
Our home visit to Sram as part of the RIDE-GREEN project as a video.
The eco gearstick from Sram
In order to minimise the ecological footprint of the shifting group, Sram has combined particularly durable shifting components into a group and supplemented them with specially manufactured prototypes.
