Durace 9000

Captainlip

I have a full ultegra groupset and am wondering if anyone has experiance with the 9000 groupset and if its worth the extra outlay?

I do like durace stuff that ive used in the past and this new 9000 range has caught my eye and am debating selling the ultegra groupset off my new bike.

unixnerd

Problem is that a lot of wheels aren't compatible with the new deeper cassette. Look out for lots of used DA 7900 stuff on ebay though.

ugo.santalucia

Looks a bit dodgy to me.. apparently the new dropout distance will be 131 mm, which means frames need to be spread a touch... it is OK for metal frames, but carbon ones are so stiff... I suppose they kept the same spacing to facilitate the adaptations to Di2 and generally to save money, but I am not sure DA 9000 is something I would buy right now... it might be a while before the market catches up and in the meantime you might be limited to hyper expensive wheels designed with the new free hub... not to speak about the cost of a replacement cassette...

Bobbinogs

ugo.santalucia wrote:

... not to speak about the cost of a replacement cassette...

I think the price of DA cassettes is enough to scare me off ever thinking about going for total DA (not that I have any DA now )

Captainlip

just worked it out and it will cost me £1200 for the DA groupset, Think I will save some dollar and get a garmin, roller and lighter wheels before considering durace.

thanks for your excellent points.

unixnerd

DA need not be expensive. The Sora groupo on my tourer was worn out after 10k miles so I moved the 105 from my Cannondale onto it and replaced that with used DA 7800 bits from ebay. They were a fraction of the price as DA 7900 had recently come out. Biggest bargain was the shifters which I thought were used but turned out to be brand new with the plastic protection strips still attached!

I prefer the way 7900 hides the shifter cables under the bar tape but my 7800 shifts far better than the new Ultegra groupo on my Rouabix (wanted DA 7900 for that but it was sold out).

Can't help but feel Shimano could have designed a cap nut for the cassette that was recessed and would allow existing wheels to be used (must be a market for such a thing now). I think they've shot themselves in the foot a bit with the deeper hub design. If I could keep my current wheels I might be tempted to go 9000 on my Roubaix.

mallorcajeff

buy a canyon they will probably bring a DA equiped bike out soon for not much more the way they are going. I have 7900 Di2 and the replacement parts are very expensive but justifable (almost) the new prices? My god I wont be going near it, and as said above goign to be lots of non compatability issues going on for a while I think

Captainlip

Ive tried the sram red against the durace and the red was clearly poorer than ultegra 6700, everyone who tested the bikes all made the same comment, so that left me being satisfied with the ultegra and buy some useful components garmin/rollers/clothing/wheelset or do for durace.

I think it makes sense to keep the ultegra as very happy with it.

unixnerd

Ive tried the sram red against the durace and the red was clearly poorer than ultegra 6700

Interesting you should say that. Because the DA version of my Rouabiax was sold out I was offered Ultegra or Red. Didn't fancy Red was all my other bikes were Shimano and I wanted them all to shift the same way. Red is lighter though and I often wondered if I'd made a mistake.

Captainlip

red is undoubtedly lighter, but the shifts are clunky and mechanical in comparison to ultegra it just isnt as smooth.

Red isnt a mistake but ultegra does shift better.

Paul 8v

That sounds like it will be a real pain that they've changed the rear hub spacing...

neeb

Completely mad to make it incompatible with existing wheels. Campagnolo managed to go to 11sp without changing the freehub width, why couldn't Shimano? Or is there some weird copyright involved?

How will this work in practice with newly marketed wheels? Currently nearly all wheels come with a choice of either shimano or campag freewheels, and usually you can swap the freewheels if you need to. Will manufacturers now have to produce completely different hubs for shimano and campag, or will they just produce a single version, with the campag freewheel effectively having a built-in spacer? The latter would seem more likely, but presumably this will be a less than perfectly optimal solution for campag users as it will require the wheel to be dished slightly more than would otherwise be required. Why should campag users have to fit around shimano's design incompetence?

On the other hand, if the new freehub width becomes standard, maybe campag could go up to 12 speed if they adopted it?

napoleond

None of it shifts as well as 7800... Doubt 9000 would be any better...

Grill

The big manufacturers already have 11 speed 9000 wheels out. They're compatible with the older 10 speed as all they need is a spacer so I really don't see the big deal. Let's be honest, if you have the cash to drop on a DA9000 then a new freehub probably isn't a big deal. If it is then save some coin by just getting the groupset minus the cassette and shifters as the brakes, chainset an mechs have been worked enough to make it worth it.

In terms of shifting, everyone I've spoken to who has tried 9k is taken aback by how amazing it is. More positive than 7800 and lighter than 7900. Sounds like a winner to me.

neeb

Grill wrote:

if you have the cash to drop on a DA9000 then a new freehub probably isn't a big deal.

But a new set of top-end wheels certainly is! I guess with some expensive carbon wheels you could get the rim rebuilt on a new rear hub, but it would be a real pain...

Grill

neeb wrote:

Grill wrote:

if you have the cash to drop on a DA9000 then a new freehub probably isn't a big deal.

But a new set of top-end wheels certainly is! I guess with some expensive carbon wheels you could get the rim rebuilt on a new rear hub, but it would be a real pain...

Or you can run DA 9000 with a 10sp cassette. Problem solved.