If your mountain bike has a SRAM setup and you want to keep your bars tidy, Matchmaker X (often abbreviated in SRAM’s literature to MMX) replaces multiple clamps with a single bar clamp for brakes, shifters and dropper controls to hang off of.
In contrast to Shimano which, starting in 2011, managed to spawn four different versions of its equivalent I-Spec “standard”, with varying levels of compatibility, SRAM (or rather its Avid brand) has only gone through two versions of Matchmaker since it was launched in 2006.
The current Matchmaker X clamp has a split design with two bands holding it to the bars. It bolts through the brake lever’s body to hold it in position on the bar.
As you’re assembling the brake, your shifter mounts on a small plate that sits between the two bands. That allows you to slide the shift lever around the bars in relation to the brake lever, for a position that suits you – rather like Shimano’s I-Spec II and I-Spec EV, in fact.
Once you’ve worked out where you want your shifter relative to your brake lever, a single screw clamps it in position.
There’s more adjustability in Matchmaker X because you can alter the angle of the shifter clamp on the bar clamp and the in/out position of the shifter body on the clamp. There are two positions in which you can fix it by moving a bolt between two screw holes on the shifter body.
On top of that, you can loosen the shift lever on the shifter body and move it on its spindle to move the lever closer to or further from the bars.
Want to bolt more kit to your clamp? It’s compatible with RockShox Reverb dropper remotes and X-Loc remote suspension lock-outs too.
For even more variety, SRAM offers the Matchmaker X clamp in either silver or black, although the shifter mounting hardware comes in black in both cases. There's also a black option with rainbow bolts.
SRAM offers Matchmaker X compatible shifters across a wide range of its groupsets, from its Eagle AXS electronic shifters down to 11-speed GX, so there’s a good chance that you can use it to clean up your SRAM controls.
You can also still buy the original (non-X) Matchmaker clamp and compatible hardware, so if you’re planning to convert to a single clamp make sure you’re not trying to mix and match.
And, if you’re mixing SRAM with Shimano, you can buy adaptors from Problem Solvers or Wolf Tooth, while brake companies such as Hope and Magura offer SRAM-compatible shifter mounts for their levers.
