Sram Vs Shimano Groupset

ronron

Hello all, I'm new to road cycling and trying to build up a trek madone 5.2 frame with either sram or shimano groupset. I have a budget of about $1500. Any recommendations? I've searched for some advice and found a couple of good articles. Please share any more or your experiences... Thanks
http://tourdefrance1.wordpress.com/2011 ... groupsets/

sloppyschleckonds

Can't beat a Gripshift

cabbage1879

Ah Gripshift.

racingcondor

I moved from Shimano to SRAM. You can't go far wrong with either, I only changed because I prefer how double tap works (and was getting a new bike).

jeepie

Ditto racingcondor. I switched from Shimano to SRAM too.

Try if you can.

If you can't - if you like a hard shift/positive shift go SRAM. If you like a silky shift/smooth go Shimano.

Also if it's important to be able to change gear on the drops I find SRAM easier. This isn't that important to me.

gilesjuk

SRAM gears stay in adjustment a bit longer. The actuation ratio of Shimano means cable stretch has a larger effect on the indexing.

Also SRAM has the cables under the bar tape like Campag. This is a good and bad thing depending on what you value more.

Personally I want the cables out of sight as much as possible.

petemadoc

gilesjuk wrote:

SRAM gears stay in adjustment a bit longer. The actuation ratio of Shimano means cable stretch has a larger effect on the indexing.

Also SRAM has the cables under the bar tape like Campag. This is a good and bad thing depending on what you value more.

Personally I want the cables out of sight as much as possible.

Shimano now runs under the bar tape too.

anto164

and changing cables on shimano sti units is much easier.

danowat

If pushed, SRAM, but both are perfectly good.

petemadoc

I'm surprised someone hasn't said something like

Campagnolo is the best . . . the end

anto164

Campag is retarded.. Come on, thumb shifters?

akcc05

anto164 wrote:

Campag is retarded.. Come on, thumb shifters?

Why is using your thumb (as oppose to your index fingers) to shift gears retarted? I am sure it's down to personally preference but I find Campaq groups quite sexy, there is a bit of je ne sais quoi to the Italian design.

For those of you who have used both Ultegra 6700 and Sram Force, could you describe what the differnce is? I am running 6700 on my current bike and would like to give Force a try on my new bike. Note I am not asking which one is better (sorry for the hijack).

BBH

Firstly,both are great!!, but in an ideal world.....

SRAM everytime. Force is great - light, double tap shifting (really easy to get used to), fast and accurate when shifting. Nosiy compared to 6700, however, its a positive shift.

I find the hoods and levers more ergonomic than shimano, especially when shifting in the drops.

go for SRAM - you probably wont go back

awallace

Jeepie wrote:

Ditto racingcondor. I switched from Shimano to SRAM too.

Try if you can.

If you can't - if you like a hard shift/positive shift go SRAM. If you like a silky shift/smooth go Shimano.

Also if it's important to be able to change gear on the drops I find SRAM easier. This isn't that important to me.

+1

awallace

Oops meant to say i have gone Shimano to Sram to Shimano again but i do prefer the smooth change and actually prefer the shifting of Shimano but its horses for courses!

danowat

SRAM has a very positive "mechanical" and accurate feel to it, Shimano feels a little "softer", that said, because of this, SRAM indexing has to be setup bang on, where as you can get away with a little on a Shimano setup, as you can feather the shifters slightly, something you can't do with SRAM.