Rival vs Force

stumpy paul
stumpy paul Posts: 197
edited November 2009 in Road buying advice
New bike build.

LBS has offered full Force groupset for £210 more than Rival.

Is the weight and / or performance worth it?

Ta for any feedback.

Comments

  • softlad
    softlad Posts: 3,513
    in a word - no, I don't think it is. £210 is a lot just to save around 200g at the very most - and functionally, they are pretty much identical. I've just gone for Rival for the same reason...
  • If you appreciate the value, yes it is. As it is with cycling gear, you pay more and more for less and less of a difference as you get into the very high ranges. I feel that the brakes are something that feel a lot better on force than rival, and the reliability of the shifting also suffers slightly with rival. I've ridden both for long periods of time and I can see where you could make the argument that it isn't worth it, but if you have the money, i would say go for it.
  • It depends if it's 2009 Force or 2010 Force, if it's 2010 version I'd go for it. 2009 Rival is very close to Force, 2010 Force is much closer to SRAM Red.

    If I were building another bike with SRAM I'd go for new Force over Red.
  • softlad
    softlad Posts: 3,513
    pmac1893 wrote:
    If you appreciate the value, yes it is. As it is with cycling gear, you pay more and more for less and less of a difference as you get into the very high ranges. I feel that the brakes are something that feel a lot better on force than rival, and the reliability of the shifting also suffers slightly with rival. I've ridden both for long periods of time and I can see where you could make the argument that it isn't worth it, but if you have the money, i would say go for it.

    I should have mentioned, I'm using 09 Force calipers already, but I honestly dont think the extra cost of the shifters and mechs can be justified from a function point of view - unless of course you want them - in which case get them. There's nothing worse than buying stuff, and then wishing you had spent a few more quid to get the next one up.. ;)
  • mfin
    mfin Posts: 6,729
    You can mix it all up between al the sram stuff as you see fit... unless your one of those who likes a perfect matching groupset. I run Sram Force with Red Shifters mixed together with Dura-Ace cassette and chain and all works beautifully. Don't think much of their chainsets as there are so many other good ones on good deals out there ...but thats just me.