Chainset - 9000 or 6800?

londoncommuter

I appreciate this whole area has been kind of discussed before but I was hoping for specific thoughts on which chainset to go for. I'm building up a Westbrook's Di2 Foil so have 6870 mechs and shifters and will almost certainly use 6800 brakes, chain and cassette. The one that's causing me sleepless nights is the bling looking chainset....

They come in roughly (after all discounts, cashback etc) at around £90 for 6800 or twice that at £180 for 9000.

The most objective comparison I've found is here and it's not exactly a ringing endorsement for the 9000:

https://fairwheelbikes.com/c/reviews-an ... k-testing/

Probably just being dozy but I can't find much else (even Shimano don't really gush about the differences).

Obviously, twice the price doesn't give you twice the performance but how much "better" is the 9000 chainset (and more importantly, how good will it look with the rest of the groupset being 6870/6800 )?

markhewitt1978

Nobody apart from yourself would even notice that the rest of the groupset was 6800, but they will notice your chainset, if that's important to you. Personally I'd go with the 6800 then it's proper full Ultegra rather than pretending to be Dura-Ace but isn't.

iPete

http://www.bikeradar.com/road/news/arti ... kes-43061/

Some of the model-specific results are intriguing as well. For example, whereas the Shimano Dura-Ace crankset was once the gold standard in terms of stiffness, it falls only mid-pack in these results in terms of average deflection and stiffness-to-weight ratio – and the substantially cheaper Ultegra model is expectedly heavier (by about 75g) but it's also slightly stiffer, too.

I'd get (and do have) the 6800, that's a large wad of cash for a minor weight saving. Unless you are desperate to have a sub 7kg build, save the cash for something else.

matt-h

i bought the 9000 chainset purely on looks.
I think the 6800 looks crap

Matt

sloppyschleckonds

matt-h wrote:

i bought the 9000 chainset purely on looks.
I think the 6800 looks crap

Matt

I'd go with Matts suggestion.

markhewitt1978

To each their own. I swapped out my chainset for the 6800 as I think it looks good.

dj58

If you prefer the look of the 9000 and don't mind paying the extra for it then buy it, otherwise stick with the 6800

iron-clover

I personally think the 9000 chainset looks an awful lot nicer than all the other Shimano offerings, with only the SRAM Red chainset looking nicer in my opinion (although I'd probably prefer DA over Red in the real world).

However, I would just stick with the Ultegra chainset rather than putting in the extra cash for the DA chainset, that and it would look out of place with everything else as ultegra.

londoncommuter

To complicate things it seems for those prices it's a 50/34 6800 or 52/38 9000 and I can't decide between those either! Oh to be more decisive....

iPete

52/36?

londoncommuter

Sorry, I did indeed mean 52/36.

With an 11-26 SRAM 1170 cassette it would give an almost identical bottom end as with an 11-25 cassette. On the flip side, the extra top end on a 52/11 compared to a 50/11 doesn't really bother me as 50/11 should be plenty.

Can't see the weight difference being that much (4 teeth on the chainset and 1 on the cassette!) so what's the decider? Both have 16T drop from large to small and need 4 rear shifts to give smooth transition when changing rings.....

markhewitt1978

Let fate decide http://www.virtualcointoss.com/

Bozman

Maybe I should read the whole post in future

mamba80

As Martin Lewis would say, Do I need it? Will I use it? and Can I afford it? the answer is clearly yes to all those questions... so buy the DA 9000, its £90 notes, hardly worth getting worried about considering the cost of the rest of the bike.

paul1000

I've 9000, ultegra looks so dull, you wouldn't tell the difference from 105, both are black, go for the bling lol

dj58

londoncommuter wrote:

Sorry, I did indeed mean 52/36.

The DA 9000 Chainset is available in Chainring teeth combinations: 50-34T/52-36T/52-38T/53-39T/54-42T/55-42T
so double check that the one they have quoted you is in fact 52/36T if that is what you want.

J273

Where can i get a 9000 chainset that cheap :shock:

rokt

I changed my Ultegra 50/36 to a Dura Ace 9000 52/36.

It looks great and Ultegra is just plain ugly ! and the 52/36 suits me.

markhewitt1978

For me the Dura Ace chainset just looks a bit too bling and obvious. Especially as I don't have the performance to back it up

londoncommuter

Still not decided myself but I thought I should add to the thread in case anyone's interested that the actual weights of 170mm 52/36 chainsets are 681g (489g DS 192 NDS) for 6800 and 625g (452g DS 173g NDS) for 9000 so 56g in it.

Looking at other components like bars and stems (completely unscientific this) you seem to pay around £1 to save 1g so on the face of it the upgrade to DA isn't worth it. Looks shiny though.....

ugo.santalucia

I am assuming you don't need to be reminded that you can lose 56 grams of body fat free of charge and without much of an effort... all you need to do is to reduce your calories intake by approximately 400 Kcal for one day only. You can even spread it over a working week.
Typically 400 Kcal means 2 pints of lager... or 2 small packet of crisps or a couple of Mars bars or a small kebab or half a pizza.
Then you can buy the 6800 chain set and donate 50 quid to the Dave Rayner fund by entering the Etape Du Dales... the thought of 112 miles with 3 K of climbing will probably make you lose another half a stone at the very least...

londoncommuter

But that doesn't factor in the copious quantities of parkin which would would have to consumed. Would need to splash out on Dura Ace brakes to compensate for that. Where would it end?

polyx

Both 6800 and 9000 are visually appealing, much better than old 6700 and 7900.
Said, nothing is worse than scratch on a shiny surface of 9000 or a chain tattoo on a calve of an owner.
Great power comes with great responsibilites!
As also been mentioned earlier, if the rest of the grouppo is 6800, I'd go with same chainset.