Shift system of choice?

triathlonthomas

Evening all.

Horses for courses and all that, but cost aside, and everything else equal, would you go for:

1. Ultegra Di2;
2. Dura Ace 9000 mechanical 11s; or
3. Campy Record 11s?

Would your answer differ at all if you had smaller than average hands?

I'm still umming and ahhing. Option 3 would be a foray into the unknown for me, but I hear such good things, I'm sorely tempted...

Cheers.

danlikesbikes

Well I'll give you my option & that is none of the above but Sram Red for me as thats what I'm used to.

I'm sure you will find positives & negatives for all the above 3 & my choice also and quite a BR members who use one or possibly more but not sure many can claim to be using all 4?

triathlonthomas

Thanks Dan. Think SRAM Red comes in a bit dearer than the others? I know I said "cost aside..." but I was kind of comparing comparables.

That said, why are you such a fan of Red? I've never owned anything but Shimano before and I'm trying to get a feel for the differences before I book in a few test rides on different machines / group sets.

triathlonthomas

Also what bike are you running Red on if you don't mind me asking?

adambutterwick

Sram Red on Merlin cycles circa £1k:

http://www.merlincycles.com/bike-shop/r ... -2013.html

sungod

they'll all work fine

when i was choosing between red, dura ace and record/super it came down to hood shape, the red hoods just felt better for me, i also liked the double-tap shifting

others will have different preferences

it's a long term decision, get into shops and try them, or ask other riders you see on the road to let you fondle theirs, decide which you prefer, then look for the best deal

danlikesbikes

triathlonthomas wrote:

Thanks Dan. Think SRAM Red comes in a bit dearer than the others? I know I said "cost aside..." but I was kind of comparing comparables.

That said, why are you such a fan of Red? I've never owned anything but Shimano before and I'm trying to get a feel for the differences before I book in a few test rides on different machines / group sets.

My bike is a Felt & came with Red.

I come from an MTB background & most of my bikes have been Shimano but my last MTB was Sram and I really liked it. When looking for my first road bike I had no preference either way as nothing to compare them too. Tried a few bikes and the Felt came out tops with Sram Red as standard, when I upgraded a few bits and swapped to having a winter bike too this was also then fitted out with Sram but not the Red groupset as a bit of overkill IMHO.

il_principe

Campagnolo Record. Preferably in EPS flavour. Esp if you have smaller hands.

northpole

I have dura ace and s record on my road bikes. I much prefer the Campag logic and operation to the Shimano. A much more engaging feel goes with it too.

If I had smaller hands I may rethink that. The issue is that on the upshift, Campag requires significantly more leverage to effect the change and I am assuming that smaller hands/ shorter fingers would possibly need to apply greater pressure. A test ride on a Campag equipped bike should answer that question for you.

EPS would overcome any such minor issue, but that's a different subject/ budget...

Peter

g00se

Those three seem to go around the £1300 mark. Another option would be Athena EPS which comes in about £300 more but there may be deals to be had if you buy components separately.

All are very good. I would go Campag but that's just personal choice. I haven't got huge hands and don't have an issue with leverage on the thumb levers. I would think small hands would only really effect reaching the brakes levers on the drops - and a lot of that is down to design of the bars and fixing location of the levers more than anything.