centaur carbon vs sram rival
fattyatkinson
Posts: 40
Hi. Does anyone have an opinion on how the sram rival compares to the centaur carbon groupset? the sram is hugely discounted at jejames and is available for about £100 less than the centaur carbon albeit slightly heavier. Does anyone have any thoughts on what they would go for???
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I would try and get a test ride on a SRAM equipped bike if you have not ridden one before. The gearshift system seems to be something that some people love and others hate, to a much greater extent than the Campag / Shimano schools.0
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agree with the comments above..
I also have the carbon centaur and although I paid £400 for it as I wanted an awkward set of components it is still available for £380 if you look. can you really get SRAM for sub £300?
Also - the reviews I have read - the shifting is a bit - well, odd to say the least. the 'RED' groupset gets a good write-up, but the others don't seem to.0 -
Centaur - it's top notch, reliable kit for a very reasonable amount of money (especially considering the carbon chainset is almost identical to chorus).pm0
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where could i get centaur carbon for £380??? that is a great price. the best i've found is about £440. the sram rival is £340. cheers.0
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I've got SRAM rival, and I like it. I came from Shimano though, so no direct comparison. In short, my opinion is:
brakes are ace
shifters are really comfy, and you get used to them quickly
crankset looks cheap, and is a bit of a pig to initially fit (I needed a bit of pipe on the end of my allen key to get it done up tight)
mechs work well, but again look a bit cheap
cassette and chain seem good quality.
Haven't done too many miles on it yet, but mechanically it's nearly all the same as force, with the exception of the chinaring coating, so it shoudl last as long and work as well as Force, just be a bit heavier. Force was good enough for Saunier Duval, so it's good enough for me!0 -
leonlikestrees wrote:Force was good enough for Saunier Duval, so it's good enough for me!
Nah, they had to ride it. Apparently Millar hated it.0 -
Merlin cycles had it for £380 in february time - there were a few here (reddraggon included) that got it for that price - i ended up getting half from probikekit and half from ribble and paid just over £400 (£408 if memory serves - but that included the fancy gold KMC chain)
typically they don't appear to be listing it any more - although they do have chorus for £600
I can see that SRAM at £340 would be quite tempting actually - but I would want a go on a SRAM bike to check out this "doubletap" thing more fully.0 -
Miller hates everything! He wasn't too keen on the campag that cost him the prologue in the tour in 2003 either. Thepoint is, if it was so bad it was losing them races, they would have changed it one way or the other.
Having said that, I'd probably buy Dura-Ace next time, but I didn't have the cash for that, and I don't like the cheaper Shimano stuff. I got the rival for £330, and I think that would only have got me Ultegra (at a push) or Veloce.0 -
leonlikestrees wrote:Miller hates everything! He wasn't too keen on the campag that cost him the prologue in the tour in 2003 either. Thepoint is, if it was so bad it was losing them races, they would have changed it one way or the other.
It was because he (or his boss) was trying to keep the weight down and so ditched the front derailler. I think he would probably have had the same problem whatever groupset he was riding.0 -
merlin are doing ultegra sl groupset for £349 at the mo0
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leonlikestrees wrote:Miller hates everything! He wasn't too keen on the campag that cost him the prologue in the tour in 2003 either. Thepoint is, if it was so bad it was losing them races, they would have changed it one way or the other.
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I'm pretty certain it's the opposite - he blamed the manager for choosing aero non-Campag chain rings - Millar said they couldn't be bothered to get equipment from a proper company - meaning Campag.
it's a hard life if you don't weaken.0 -
I sell both, if you can get the Campag for £380 then that is a bargain not to be missed. I do the alloy version for £375, carbon is £70 more. Still cheap.
Otherwise I'd choose the Rival as I think it is great, but I'd suggest yuo ride a sram equipped bike first. A Scott for example, as contact points on a bike are very personal and you are spending a significant amount of money.
Alex0 -
I don't know anyone who's used SRAM road stuff long enough to form a sensible opinion. Their top-end mountian bike is certainly very well engineered, easy to service and a pleasure to use.
Campag Carbon kit looks very nice, although the engineering is less then top-drawer IMHO. The chainsets are difficult to fit reliably without the right tools, and the well known Campag freehub reliability issue still seems to be there to haunt them.
For that moeny, Ultegra is the waya head if you want useability and reliability, Centaur if you want to sacrifice a bit of that for Italian style, and SRAM if you want to be a pioneer..0 -
robbarker wrote:The chainsets are difficult to fit reliably without the right tools,
The only special tool you really need to fit an ultra torque chainset is a "10mm allen fitting extender thing"* to fit on the end your torque wrench.
The only shortcoming I can think of that the Groupset has is the probable difficulty in servicing the bearings on the crank spindles. Otherwise everything else seems better, comfier shifters, longer lasting cassettes, concealed cables, and better looking overall. Obviously a lot of the positives (probably) also apply to SRAM but don't apply (yet, at least) to shimano
* technical term0 -
robbarker wrote:Campag Carbon kit looks very nice, although the engineering is less then top-drawer IMHO. The chainsets are difficult to fit reliably without the right tools, and the well known Campag freehub reliability issue still seems to be there to haunt them.
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Rob - sorry but the campag UT chainsets are the easiest things to fit - ever!
The BB cups are fitted to hand tight only and simply thread on with a bit of low-strength threadlock. the chainset drive side just pushed in. There is a keyed circlip thing to stop the drive-side moving, a spring washer in the other side followed by the left crank and it's half axle. An allen bolt tightens the whole lot up in the middle.
They are amazingly easy to fit and remove - true 2-minute job.
The single special tool (which isn't really needed either) is an allen key extender for the central UT bolt - it's about a fiver from wiggle.0 -
I can't believe you're even considering going for Sram Rival, Centaur is proved to be a great groupset and won't let you down. Evolved from Daytona, it's excellent vfm and very reliable.
The Sram effort is probably hugely discounted cos they can't sell it.0 -
gkerr4 wrote:There is a keyed circlip thing to stop the drive-side moving, a spring washer in the other side followed by the left crank and it's half axle. An allen bolt tightens the whole lot up in the middle.
I didn't say they were difficult to fit, I said they are difficult to fit reliably, at least without a socket extender and big torque wrench. There are countless tales of them coming undone when punters haven't tightened them to the correct (very high) torque. The fact that the wavy washer is needed points to the less than perfect engineering of UT. I predict a new outboard bearing crankset design from Campag sometime soon, their MK1 version is by no means perfect.
They do look good though..0 -
Rival has all the same mechanical parts as Force just isn't as light. The parts do look a bit cheap but it works really well. The double tap is easy to get used too, really easy. Its not even that heavy almost lighter than Dura Ace for less money. I'd try it out first but if you can get over the fact its not got carbon on it then I'd say its better centaur.0
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mr-ed wrote:Rival has all the same mechanical parts as Force just isn't as light. The parts do look a bit cheap but it works really well. The double tap is easy to get used too, really easy. Its not even that heavy almost lighter than Dura Ace for less money. I'd try it out first but if you can get over the fact its not got carbon on it then I'd say its better centaur.
I'm afraid that the Argument that Rival is very similar to Force makes it better than Centaur, is a poor one.
After all Centaur is very close to Chorus, which is very close to Record. Chorus is better than Force, after all - so what does that tell you?0 -
That wasn't why its better. Rival is lighter than centaur. Rival costs about £330 compared to £470 for centaur. There probably isn't a lot in it once there on the bike and its all down to personal preference. I'd go for sram every time because the double tap is genius.0
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mr-ed wrote:That wasn't why its better. Rival is lighter than centaur. Rival costs about £330 compared to £470 for centaur. There probably isn't a lot in it once there on the bike and its all down to personal preference. I'd go for sram every time because the double tap is genius.
£470 is an over estimate. If you shop around you can get it for less than £400.
You're comparing the RRP of Centaur to the "no one wants me - so I'm hugely discounted" cost of Rival.
Centaur would probably also be that cheap if it wasn't selling.0 -
I think it's worth getting Chorus shifters if you can - I'd rather have seen them offer Chorus type ergos with an otherwise standard Centaur group than offer a carbon option which to my taste doesn't look as good even if it shaves a few grams.
it's a hard life if you don't weaken.0 -
Its not all about the gears. Centaur brakes would stop a train. How good are Rival's?It's a little like wrestling a gorilla. You don't quit when you're tired. You quit when the gorilla is tired.0
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robbarker wrote:I
Campag Carbon kit looks very nice, although the engineering is less then top-drawer IMHO. The chainsets are difficult to fit reliably without the right tools, and the well known Campag freehub reliability issue still seems to be there to haunt them.
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Not that much of a criticism to have to have the right tools to fit the groupset ! I take the point that they are harder to fit than shimano chainsets.
Campag freehubs IME are about the best there are.0 -
As part of ordering a PedalForce bike, I got an offer on the SRAM Red which I decided to take a bit of a gamble on. I was going for Chorus but decided to try something different when it was costing about the same price as Chrous. When I get the frame and have it built up I can report more fully on its attributes.
What I was wanting to say is that Red looks great but whe I got it a couple of weeks ago it came with a Shimano 32.8mm FD Clamp. Apparently SRAM are having issues with their FD adapters. After all the efforts and costs on the groupset, they seem to have let themselves down badly by not being able to supply, what I would call, a basic item. I'd have liked to have kept SRAM throughout but its not to be!!!0 -
redddraggon wrote:£470 is an over estimate. If you shop around you can get it for less than £400.
You're comparing the RRP of Centaur to the "no one wants me - so I'm hugely discounted" cost of Rival.
Centaur would probably also be that cheap if it wasn't selling.
£470 is from total cycling. I've only seen centaur for less than £400 without the carbon crank.0 -
mr-ed wrote:redddraggon wrote:£470 is an over estimate. If you shop around you can get it for less than £400.
You're comparing the RRP of Centaur to the "no one wants me - so I'm hugely discounted" cost of Rival.
Centaur would probably also be that cheap if it wasn't selling.
£470 is from total cycling. I've only seen centaur for less than £400 without the carbon crank.
I got it for £380 from Merlin. Gkerr4 managed to get his for around £400 by shopping around, getting components in different places.0
