Sram force or Campag Athena

chrispsmith83

So I have finally made my mind up on model, colour and size of the Canyon Ultimate AL. However im unsure on the group set, looking between force and athena there is a £250 difference so would be cheaper to go for athena. Are these 2 group sets comparable? The spec on the rest of the bikes is identical.

What would you do?

£250 would come in handy for new clothes

http://www.canyon.com/_en/roadbikes/ser ... te-al.html

gwillis

I have the ultimate al with campag had Ii 2 months . I've not experience of SRAM but ride another bike with 105. Athena has never let me down and wears really well as long as you look after it and keep it clean etc .

napoleond

Athena is great, I use it on my winter bike. The only problem is the stoopid chainset fitting. Utterly stoopid.
For ease and light weight, go with force (I had SRAM red for 4 years and it never let me down, but have switched to campag. I do prefer the campag hoods and shifting. It looks miles better too...

gwillis

Forgot to add I did around 7500 miles on one of my other bikes with Athena and can't see any real gains going above it unless you go for super record . SRAM is lighter if your a weight weenie.

chrispsmith83

How is your Canyon? Weight is not such an issue for me, more reliability and how the bike handles

GGBiker

Can you not step up to campagnolo chorus, at least the shifters? That way you get the ultrashift 3 up 5 down benefits.

ShutUpLegs

chrispsmith83 wrote:

How is your Canyon? Weight is not such an issue for me, more reliability and how the bike handles

Handling is excellent

gwillis

Handling is really good and frame is stiff yet pretty comfy . I miss the ultrashift that I have on my other bike so yes that would be a good upgrade . Build quality is very good and I found the service to be spot on . Canyon do things in a very regimental way if that makes sense . Everything is done via email and they bike out of the box was ready ride . The fit is getting there and I'd recommend you check stem length before purchasing due to the 1.25 size fork steerer. Mine was a 2012 model from the outlet and I'm very happy so far given the price and spec . Future upgrades will be possibly a chorus chainset when funds allow and that's it . I run kysirium sls on high days and holidays and the rest of the the time the equippes that came with it or a set of novatec hubs on DT Swiss 465 rims that I built .
I'm struggling to find a negative at the moment at 7.5 kilos its reasonably light I'm just kicking myself that I spent so much money on itslian carbon bikes before

southdownswolf

Athena, in silver, is the best looking groupset available.


Couldn't comment on how good it is though

passout

Force if it were me (from Merlin cycles probably).