Apex shifters/rear mech vs Red shifters/rear mech

paul_mck

Can anyone shed some light on the big differences in the two? I can either get new Apex stuff or second hand RED stuff for my roadbike. The Apex would work better due to a long complicated piece of man maths.

Question is how much "better" are the red parts over Apex? I already have a RED crankset and front mech so matching up would be nice, but as I say the Apex stuff would work out better and be brand new, which is always nice.

Opinions appreciated!

Gazzaputt

Red are a country mile ahead of Apex.

Lighter and far far better precision in shifting.

Technologies found in Red will not appear in Apex for sometime.

You might be better with Force as imo it's only weight that comes between Red and Force.

paul_mck

well my plan was to pinch the Apex off a new boardman CX bike Im planning to get. Or buy second hand RED gear. Not really worth going for Force as it would only be a little extra for the RED gear which would then match up with the cranks/FD.

these big dilemmas are a real pain :P

amaferanga

Apex works perfectly well, but I think Red shifting is sharper. Plus Red looks way better than Apex. I'd choose used (but in good condition) Red over new Apex.

ride_whenever

Apex is nice, works really well and is bombproof. However red is so much slicker, the dead lever throw is almost entirely gone in red whereas the throw is so large in apex that it gives me trigger-finger tendonitis in my shifting finger.

No contest.

paul_mck

RED it is then Now to find a set of shifters. I might run an Apex rear mech for a while until I can upgrade it to RED as well.