Holdsworth Super Professional SRAM or ULTEGRA

hmjelectricalwales

New here so apologies if this has been covered before, I’m looking at purchasing the Holdsworth Super Professional this month, this being my first road bike, looking for general consensus, the bike is available with both the SRAM Force 22 or the ULTREGA options for the same price. Reading all reviews and opinions, I’m leaning towards the SRAM option, what are people’s experiences with these setups

imposter2.0

The choice should come down to which method of shifting you prefer, and whether you prefer the ergonomics/shape of the SRAM hoods or Shimano. Both are excellent groupsets, but you need to decide based on your own preferences.

david37

Shimano all the way. If you prefer reliability over "innovation"

diamonddog

imposter2.0 said:

The choice should come down to which method of shifting you prefer, and whether you prefer the ergonomics/shape of the SRAM hoods or Shimano. Both are excellent groupsets, but you need to decide based on your own preferences.

100% this, for me it would be SRAM as the shifting suits my small hands and it has proven itself to be very reliable over the years. I have Rival and Force mechanical and now Etap never had a problem with any.

fenix

My winter bike is ultegra and the summer one Force. I'd go for Force but it's very marginal.

You can also make a nice noise playing with the Force gear levers that you can't with Ultegra.

hmjelectricalwales

diamonddog said:

imposter2.0 said:

The choice should come down to which method of shifting you prefer, and whether you prefer the ergonomics/shape of the SRAM hoods or Shimano. Both are excellent groupsets, but you need to decide based on your own preferences.

100% this, for me it would be SRAM as the shifting suits my small hands and it has proven itself to be very reliable over the years. I have Rival and Force mechanical and now Etap never had a problem with any.

It’s for this reason I was leaning towards SRAM, I too have relatively small hands, this will be my first venture on a road bike, so no experience with either system, I think they are both on a par with each other, but from what I’ve read, the SRAM offers a cleaner, crisper shift. I’ll let you know which way I decide.

teisetrotter

So it is disc. All I can say is reliability and the Ultegra disc groupset I had were not what i would put together.

I am not sure of the newer hoods, but the original behemoths that came on my CAAD13 were not good. They tended to sheer cables every now and then, I think three times over about 20,000km for me whilst out riding. The shifters were pretty stiff and the enormous throw of the inner brake lever to get one gear change pretty dire so for small hands all round not good. Add to that the routing of the cables came out just where the ball of your thumb rested and it all added up to the worst designed hoods ever known. Also, the discs were made of butter. Solved when I bought more expensive ones.

I think if you were moving from down tube shifters to STi's and these were you first ever, you might think they were great. In the end, I saved and upgraded to Di2 which had hoods not designed for giant lego men, very neat and compact. Still not the best of gear changes as the downshift would lag behind any front change so a smooth transition between front rings was not really possible, but it's a small niggle with an otherwise very smooth experience.

I am now building a new bike after trashing my old summer bike. I have only tested the SRAM 12 speed etap groupset, alongside the Chorus 12 speed. Both were ahead on smooth gear changes to my Di2, marginally. The Chorus is the one I have plumped for because it is cheaper, the hoods are an excellent design and the gear changes are the best I have come across. You can with the manual jump instantly up to five gears if you choose, although three is the magic number.

Can't say anything about the very latest Di2. The older one I had was very good but definitely last in terms of capability and design when compared to SRAM and Campy.