The past few years have been a tidal wave of generational change and innovation. It's safe to suggest that no company better embodies that than the imaginative product designers at SRAM, and no product better embodies that than SRAM's Red eTap HRD Shift and Brake Kit. Wireless electronic shifting? Check. Hydraulic disc brakes? Check. SRAM's typical zeal in approach R&D? Check. Obviously, the eTap HRD system won't be the final say in road gruppo technology, but we have a hard time imagining where the industry can go from here. Which is why we continue to trust SRAM's relentless pursuit of innovation. We first saw the seeds of this innovation on brakes like the new Guide and reworked Code series, with the eTap HRD levers importing features like Contact Point Adjustment and a healthy body of anti-heat design elements from their mountain bike counterparts. With new features comes a new model name: gone is yesterday's HydroR; here to stay is HydroHC. Contact Point Adjustment dials the amount of grab you have to put on the levers before the pads dig in to the rotors. If you like a light touch, you can dial them light; if you tend to throttle the hoods during hard efforts, maybe allowing a little leeway for incidental lever pull would be a good move. Either way, you can adjust the levers to match your style--and each other--without manually fiddling with the calipers and pads. The heat dissipation tech hinges primarily on four features: heat shield, insulated aluminum pistons, and a wider pad pocket. Of these, the stainless steel heat shields are the most notable, as they insulate the fluid from the pads, providing an extra layer of thanks-but-no-thanks that helps prevent fade during long periods of braking. All of these features were first implemented in the Guide, Level, and Code redesigns, so they've already proven their mettle in the emergency braking moments that often define off-road. At the heart of it all, SRAM's proprietary Airea communication protocol cr...