SRAM UDH – Finally a universal mech hanger?
Many frames, one spare – a universal MTB mech hanger. With the new UDH hanger, SRAM wants to make everyone’s life easier, from riders to bike shops and frame designers. Read on to find out what the new mech hanger is all about and what we think about it.
Do you remember the days when every old-school mobile phone had its own charger? Now, the UDH wants to be the MTB-equivalent of the USB-C-Port in the smartphone industry. With the introduction of the new hanger, SRAM wants to introduce a universal solution for all MTB rear-derailleurs and revolutionize the market.
According to the american brand, there’s nothing that can stop us from using a universal mech hanger on (almost) all MTBs. If you ever ended up with a broken mech hanger on a MTB-holiday, you know how frustrating it can be. Since every bike has its own hanger, it can be hard to find the right hanger from a small local shop. Sometimes this means that you’ll have to call it a day or finish your holiday on a rental bike But the new hanger wants to make this frustrating experience a problem of the past! As stated by SRAM, the new hanger will be available from most local shops and should fit pretty much all future bike models.
The new hanger should improve shifting performance through a more precise chain alignment. In addition, it was designed to rotate backwards in case of impacts and thus avoid chain suck. The slight play also increase the lifespan of your rear-derailleur. Since compatibility is key in this industry, SRAM ensures full compatibility with all groupsets from Shimano, SunRace, Box Components and many more. Also, manufacturers aren’t required to pay a licence to use the new hanger. However, this is not backwards compatible, which means you can’t simply swap it for your old one. The mountain bike needs to be designed around the new system, which means we should expect a number of new rear-end designs any time soon. For some bike manufacturers, however, it could be challenging to make their new frames compatible with the UDH system. Whilst Trek already uses it on some of their bikes – like the Trek Fuel EX 9.9 2020 we already tested for you – the SRAM UDH is already available at a retail price of € 15. SRAM have not yet announced whether the new universal hanger will be available for road- and/or gravel-bikes and how the compatibility issue will be addressed.
Our conclusions about the SRAM UDH
Whilst it’s still too early to tell whether the new derailleur hanger will help promote standardisation, we think that a universal hanger is a superb idea – especially if it improves durability and shifting performance and, above all, if it’s easier to get than conventional hangers. And since manufacturers aren’t required to pay costly licence fees, we find the idea even better! We are curious to see how many bikes will use the new system in the near future.
For more information head to sram.com
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Words: Photos: SRAM, Robin Schmitt
