SRAM Force or Rival

supergrass

Im just putting together a potential new purchase(Dolan Ares). When im choosing a groupset ive gone for SRAM. The question i have is it worth the extra 430 for the Force 22 over the rival 22 option? is there a huge difference between the 2? The problem is it will take me over my budget but i dont want to regret later down the line not going for it. any thoughts will be appreciated

Bar Shaker

Rival are superb. Unless the budget isn't an issue, you will be hard pressed to justify the extra expense.

Current Rival 22 was Force only just over a year ago.

supergrass

thanks for the reply.. thats exactly what i was hoping someone would say , as unfortunately due to a wife and kids budget is an issue

interesting that you say Current Rival 22 was force a year ago. thanks again

handful

Just had a similar decision to make with a Kuota. I have a mix of Apex and rival on my current bike so confidently went for the Rival 22 speed. It has the yaw technology that was on last year's Force so should be superb. Only a few weeks to wait and test it out! I went to Dolan and looked at their bikes a few weeks ago, nicely put together. I was tempted myself but was looking at the L'Etape/Tuono really. Nice people in there.

styxd

I'd go for the campag or the shimano over the SRAM stuff if you can.

galatzo

Very happy with my Force 22. New shape levers are great, flawless shifting and a damn site cheaper to replace bits compared to the Chorus I'd used for years.
I think the Ares frameset warrants Force 22 although £430 seems a bit much to upgrade from Rival as you can get a Force group for about £600 and then Ultegra 11 is only £450...
Are you buying complete from Dolan or sourcing bits separately ?

southdownswolf

Maybe worth buying the bike with Rival 22, selling the groupset before using it and buying the Force 22 from somewhere like Merlin.
Have you priced up a build with just buying the frameset from Dolan and components independently?
If you take your time it is surprisingly easy to build up a bike yourself, especially with all the helpful You Tube/ Park Tools videos.

diamonddog

Only difference between them is the weight, go for Rival it has now got the yaw front mech IIRC, the same as Red and Force.

bendertherobot

Rival was neglected in the line up for a while. So, really, the choice was Apex or Force. Apex got really really cheap. And is superb.

Also, it was quite difficult to get Rival as a groupset so, by the time you'd picked up all the bits, you weren't far off what Force cost at Merlin, for example.

Since relaunching it I'd say that it's brilliant value and, at Fudges, looks to be about £407.

Oh and ignore the "go Shimano" comments.

passout

With Merlins discount, I'd go for Force. Without it, then rival. Look at fudges.

StillGoing

styxd wrote:

I'd go for the campag or the shimano over the SRAM stuff if you can.

Based on what other than your personal choice? SRAM are every bit as good as Shimano and Campag and it all boils down to nothing but personal choice. Given that the OP was asking whether to go for Rival 22 or stump up the extra for Force 22 I fail to see where they invited personal choice of groupset manufacturers. You don't like SRAM; good for you, but plenty of others do.

OP: Rival is a very good groupset and won't disappoint. The 22 stuff looks much better than the previous versions and bearing in mind the Stages power meter for SRAM is a Rival crank arm, you won't look like you've got mismatched arms if you go down that route.

passout

philthy3 wrote:

styxd wrote:

I'd go for the campag or the shimano over the SRAM stuff if you can.

Based on what other than your personal choice? SRAM are every bit as good as Shimano and Campag and it all boils down to nothing but personal choice. Given that the OP was asking whether to go for Rival 22 or stump up the extra for Force 22 I fail to see where they invited personal choice of groupset manufacturers. You don't like SRAM; good for you, but plenty of others do.

OP: Rival is a very good groupset and won't disappoint. The 22 stuff looks much better than the previous versions and bearing in mind the Stages power meter for SRAM is a Rival crank arm, you won't look like you've got mismatched arms if you go down that route.

Yes, I'd go for SRAM over the other two I think, although I do think differences are small and its personal preference for shifting sytems really. The exception is if I'm on a really tight budget, as the cheaper Shimano stuff (think Sora) is hard to beat for the money.

supergrass

thanks for all the responses. I was looking at a full build from Dolan as im a mechanical idiot. Ideally it would be great to build it up im just not confident enough to do it. thanks again

StillGoing

supergrass wrote:

thanks for all the responses. I was looking at a full build from Dolan as im a mechanical idiot. Ideally it would be great to build it up im just not confident enough to do it. thanks again

It is a simple process. Provided you have the correct size allen keys, you could always fit the parts to your frame and get your LBS to index the gears if that is what is worrying you? There are stacks of internet videos out there explaining the process for just about everything with building a bike.