In the fall of 1987, things get underway at Sram. The first office and production facility opens in downtown Chicago with six employees. Sram starts with Grip Shift, the twist shifters that are initially only advertised for racing and triathlon bikes. The targets for the first financial year are ambitious: the sales expectations for Grip Shift are 100,000 units, but only 1,000 twist shifters actually find their way to customers.

The Sram bosses are by no means discouraged by these lower-than-expected figures. The company is steadily growing into an important player in the bike industry. And here's a year-by-year account of how Sram is expanding and what the German component specialist Sachs has to do with it. When did Sram buy Rock Shox again, and when Avid - here are the answers. The focus is on the development of road components, the review of mountain bike development within the group is still pending.