SRAM's Red AXS XG-1290 E1 is the flagship 12-speed road cassette, and it's the piece you're buying when you've committed to the Red AXS ecosystem and want the lightest option that still delivers the full X-Range gearing philosophy. Machined from a single piece of steel using SRAM's X-Dome construction, it mounts to XDR driver bodies and is available in 10-28T, 10-30T, 10-33T, and 10-36T configurations. If you're running Red AXS shifting and need a replacement or want to swap ranges for a specific event, this is the cassette that came on the bike.

The X-Dome design mills the cluster from hardened steel as a single unit, which reduces weight while maintaining precision, and the open architecture sheds mud and debris to keep shifting consistent as the drivetrain gets dirty. There are no pins, bolts, or spider carriers holding individual cogs together, so tooth spacing stays exactly where SRAM machined it — no drift, no play under load. The trade-off is that when the cassette wears out you replace the whole unit rather than swapping individual cogs, but for a race-day cassette that's the point.

Gear progression uses at least five one-tooth jumps on the 10-28T, 10-30T, and 10-33T options , which keeps cadence transitions tight in the gears you actually use on flat and rolling terrain. The 10-30T and 10-36T ranges are the first time SRAM has offered these spreads in the Red series , so if you've been running Force or Rival to get climbing gears, you no longer have to step down the hierarchy to build an all-road setup. The 10-36T in particular opens Red AXS up to gravel and mixed-terrain builds without changing groupset.... Read More