Groupset Advice

loukest

Hi,

I currently ride an oldish dura ace groupset, I think it's about 5 years old. Never had any trouble with it. I've decided to go for a compact chainset, mainly to cater for a holiday to the alps but the price of chainsets has prompted me to have a look at groupsets as a whole.

The 2011 Chorus looks great. My question is......is it any better or worse than my dura ace and is it worth spending the additional £400 and go for record? I'm not a competitive cyclist or anything like that so I'm not bothered about the odd gram. What would Record give me that Chorus would not?

Thanks.

wicked

loukest wrote:

Hi,

I currently ride an oldish dura ace groupset, I think it's about 5 years old. Never had any trouble with it. I've decided to go for a compact chainset, mainly to cater for a holiday to the alps but the price of chainsets has prompted me to have a look at groupsets as a whole.

The 2011 Chorus looks great. My question is......is it any better or worse than my dura ace and is it worth spending the additional £400 and go for record? I'm not a competitive cyclist or anything like that so I'm not bothered about the odd gram. What would Record give me that Chorus would not?

Thanks.

Not very much really. Bit less weight and more bling. All the 11 speed groups feel the same when you ride them IMO. It all depends on if you are willing to pay for the bling factor, I personally was not when I saw Athena at half the price of Record. One thing to consider is replacement cassettes and chains etc which as you go up the groups the price rapidly rises!
All 11 speed groups are of course FAR better than old DA!

rc856

I've been running a full Chorus groupset for about 6yrs and I really can't remember having any issues with it apart from a plastic bit on one of my brake levers breaking last year.
I replaced it with Centaur carbon purely from the money side of things.
I've also just replaced the chainset with a Centaur carbon compact for a trip to the Pyrenees this year.
I think once you get to Chorus/Record/Super they all have the better materials/bearings etc than the groupsets below and some people just like to have the Record name...and maybe save a few grams.
I know if I could afford it, I'd be buying Super Record...just because

loukest

Thanks, good advice. I had a quick look at the tech specs but I can't really see anything that would sway me towards record. Don't get me wrong, I would love it and I do like the bling factor but I'm not sure if I like it enough to spend another £400

mrwibble

SRAM Force brilliant, double tap is fantastic

nochekmate

Merlin cycles with VIP discount have competitive prices at the moment - Record come in at about £900 and Chorus at just over £600 I think

dcj

record:
hollow lighter crank, better bearings, carbon guide plates on rear mech, carbon outer plate on front mech, ball bearings on the brakes, some ti sprockets on the cassette. very little else.

something else to take into account is the cost of tooling up to fit and maintain any 11 speed....

the chain tool for 11 speed is over £120 and is workshop quality, not a back pocket item. you need it to peen the rivet when refitting the chain.

secondly many of the allen bolts are TORX and normal allen keys don't fit.
also you need the ultra torque tool to join the crank spindle.

i know this because i just bought athena 11 (which however doesn't use the same crank tool)
athena 11 carbon crankset is actually lighter than chorus which uses the heavier hirth joint for the crank spindle and has the same solid crank as athena.
even so, record and super record (non ti spindle) are only about 15 grams lighter than athena :shock:

i think 11 speed is worth it, but in real performance terms - stiffness, braking performance, gear changing precision etc there is little difference between athena and s record, let alone chorus.

thats what makes athena outstanding value.

however S rec or rec and chorus has a bigger ' want' factor'.

loukest

Wow, I didn't reralise you needed an additional set of tools! So, if I did go for any 11 speed I'd need a new chain tool, crank tool and a new set of hex keys?

TMR

Athena is all (and more) a 'normal' person needs if they want to go Campag TBH.

skyblue337

Bear in mind that 2011 Athena has the lower end Powershift mechanism which means you can only downshift one cog at time (vs up to 5 for Chorus and above). Seems to me that if you can get a good deal on 2011 Chorus it's the sweet spot of the range (esp vs Athena carbon since the prices aren't massively different). Merlin are doing 2010 Chorus Compact for £720 with the VIP discount including the 11-25 cassette which is usually £20 more

dcj

Wow, I didn't reralise you needed an additional set of tools! So, if I did go for any 11 speed I'd need a new chain tool, crank tool and a new set of hex keys

not neccessarily all of that but...

you don't say what range your existing dura ace is. if it has outboard cups then the cup tool is ok with the campag cups if you are careful and the cups threads turn smoothly in the frame.

torx keys are not that expensive and work retrospectively with normal hex bolts. i mentioned it because if you didn't know and went to build it up, you wouldn't be able to without an unplanned trip to halfords

the crank fixing tool for chorus and above is only £8. for athena crank its just a normal 14mm hex bolt.

by far the most expensive consideration is the chain tool.
i guess you can avoid having to buy the chain tool if you use KMC 11 speed chain instead or at least the KMC link with the campag chain. however, to qualify to extend the normal warranty from 3 years to 4 years you must use an 11 speed campag chain.

graham_g

Seriously, your dura-ace group is still top notch, and if it's still performing great then it's really not worth pissing money up the wall on a whole groupset when a compact crank is so easy to buy individually. Get yourself a nice crankset and stick with what obviously works well for you.

fleshtuxedo

Do you realise that going to Campag means that you need to convert your wheels? Either means changing the freehub or changing the wheel.

keef66

Just fit an ultegra compact chainset for your alpine foray

dcj

actually i agree, save yourself a load of hassle. especially if you have dura ace 7800 series which is brilliant.

eiger30

I went through the same thought processes 3 years ago before a trip to the Alps. In the end I opted to downsize from a 53/42 to a 53/39 and a 12/27. This has got me up Ventoux, Galibier and D'huez no problem (so to speak), plus saved my a small fortune.

careful

I dont know about Chorus, but I tried a bike fitted with Athena for a day recently. I hated it - after Shimano it felt very clunky and "agricultural" with a rough, noisy change. I would keep your DA.