Shimano GRX 810 vs R8020 hydraulic shifters

johnmcl7

I'm not sure if this is better here or in the buying forum section but I figure there's more likely to be people here with experience of the GRX groupset.

I have a 2017 Trek Domane 5 SL Disc which comes with the RS505 2x11 shifters with hydraulic brakes, I've never been keen on the feel of these shifters compared to the RS685's on another bike but it's not felt like it's worth changing them. Although the bike is a road bike and only ever used as a road bike I'm quite keen on the sound of the new GRX 810 shifters especially the servo wave mechanism as I'm more of a mountain biker and the behaviour sounds similar. Many of the articles I've been reading so far are reviewing the Di2 version of the shifters which are clearly quite a different design so comments on those are not necessarily relevant to the mechanical versions.

Or the alternative is just to stick a pair of R8020's on, I'd be interested to hear any feedback on people using the new GRX shifters.

edward.s

Not used the GRX ones so can't comment on that, but we do have bikes with 685, 9120, 8020 and 7020 levers (4 different bikes, in case you were wondering :-) ). Any of those levers would be a massive upgrade in comfort from the 505s, not to say a huge upgrade in looks!

Brake performance with the 9/8/7000 series levers has never been an issue for me.

The 505s were always a relatively budget option and the shape and looks were never my favourite thing - I'm just about to replace the last pair we have in service with some lightly used 7000 series levers I obtained from someone with upgrade-itis.

shawny

I use the 8000 levers, really impressed with performance and braking

johnmcl7

I definitely agree about the look and feel of the RS505 and while I'm generally not bothered about the brand or look of the groupsets, the bike feels like it deserves better. The problem is the RS505's functionally work well and with the hydraulics being a pain to change over so I've held off changing them, I was planning on going Di2 but somehow missed the fact the levers don't move to change gear (unlike XT Di2 which has more mechanical shifting) so that's why I'm now thinking of GRX.

There's nothing wrong with the RS685 shifting but I like the featherweight control of the servowave MTB brakes and that it seems to translate to easier braking while on the hoods for the GRX shifters. Hence wondering how they compare to the RS685's in practice.