Road Cycling - Groupo or not to groupo?

How many of you choose to split your groups up rather than run a single groupo?
I run ultegra on my C'dale but when I pick up my new bike I am either thinking of running Dura-ace / Ultegra or maybe if my wallet allows doing a Record / Chorus.

Heres another... Has anyone here done a Campy / Shimano mix.... say Shimano brakes with Campy drive...without the ergos?

Just curious.

Everything I have is a mix.Sometimes even shimano/campy or shimano/sunotur. Whuts a gruppo anyway? And yes,Record 10 levers with DA dual pivots.

A couple of good reasons to run non gruppo parts:
To use wider tyres and fenders, fit long drop Shimano caliper brakes with Campy (your frame must have the extra clearance for this to work).
Use a non-gruppo chainset with a smaller BCD, so you can fit smaller rings (eg the Specialities-TA double with a 110 BCD), or use their larger/smaller length cranks (150 to 180mm).

Gruppos are cheaper than buying individual parts.

I'd go with Chorus over Dura-ace. At least in the US, the Chorus is a bit cheaper than Dura-ace. Record is about $200 more than Dura-ace.

Originally posted by flyefisher
Gruppos are cheaper than buying individual parts.

Not allways,and besides it is often worth a bit more to get it the way you really want it.

Taking the nonstandard answer
(at least from the responses so far),
I think alot of times the individual parts are
designed to work together (shifters and derailleurs
in new ergo/sti systems)
so a gruppo makes sense from that perspective.
That said, use friction shifters and you
can mix and match as much as you want)

Marty

Originally posted by lotek
Taking the nonstandard answer
(at least from the responses so far),
I think alot of times the individual parts are
designed to work together (shifters and derailleurs
in new ergo/sti systems)
so a gruppo makes sense from that perspective.
That said, use friction shifters and you
can mix and match as much as you want)

Marty Again,not really.

I have always mix-matched all my parts.

Currently a Record bike with Mavic Mektronik shifters/derailleur with a Shimano rear hub. It all works perfect. I change from Shimano to Campy rear wheels often with no problems at all.

"Currently a Record bike with Mavic Mektronik shifters/derailleur with a Shimano rear hub. It all works perfect. I change from Shimano to Campy rear wheels often with no problems at all."

How do you like the Mektronics? I never had the opportunity to experience those.

I've tried to choose the most bang for the buck, ie.. D/A shifters & rear deraileur, Ultegra crank and bb, but 105 calipers - the extra $ doesn't buy much in the caliper dept. I haven't had any experience with the new campy stuff.....yet.

All of my bikes are mixtures, too. All Shimano right now. Like Whirr, I consider the shifters and derailleurs the heart of the drive system so that is where I put my money, Dura Ace STI and derailleurs. Everything else is a mix of primarily 105 with some RSX, one Sugino crankset, a couple of Sora hubs, etc.. Since I am not a racer I am not concerned about a few grams here and there, decent quality and durability along with smooth operation are sufficient.

everything is all mixed up.

One of the road bikes is a DA/FSA cranks/Brew Brakes conglomeration, tho other road bike is a singlespeed.

Both geared mountain bikes are Sram 9.0/XTR front mech/Race Face cranks

And the Cross bike is Ultegra/Ritchey/XTR

Mixing is fun...

A

Singlespdstr: are those the carbon FSA cranks? If so, how do you like 'em?

My roadbike is primarily D-A except for the hubs (part of the wheelset), headset (King), seatpost (Easton) and crank (FSA).

My MTB has Avid brakes, Race Face cranks (mated to Race Face BB) and headset, Easton seatpost and the rest of the drivetrain is XTR.

I also ditched the Shimano chains for SRAM on both bikes.

I've always mixed components from different groups. My previous MTB had a mix of Deore XT and DX (originally came with all DX) and my old roadbike had a mix of RX100 and SRAM Gripshifters mounted at the end of the drops because I didn't want downtube shifters and STI was out of my college-student budget at the time.

on my mtb i don't groupo, but on my road bike I do..

Sense behind it- I don't want to spend alot on a rear deraill that i KNOW i'm going to nail everytime i'm on the trail or jumping around on concrete. But I like having smooth shifting on the trails so I get XTR/XT shifters.

On my road I like precision tuning.. everything flowing together.

Originally posted by Arsbars
, but on my road bike I do.

On my road I like precision tuning.. everything flowing together. And it doesn't or can't when one mixes it??

Originally posted by whirrr
Singlespdstr: are those the carbon FSA cranks? If so, how do you like 'em?

Yup, the FSA carbon Octalink. No regrets. I put them on because I got the frameset on blowout from Giant for $350 so I convinced myself that I could afford the extra coin on the cranks. Light, stiff and oh so attractive...

A

Originally posted by Singlespeedster
Yup, the FSA carbon Octalink. No regrets. I put them on because I got the frameset on blowout from Giant for $350 so I convinced myself that I could afford the extra coin on the cranks. Light, stiff and oh so attractive...

I have 2001 Pro cranks (Shimano spline). Do you have the 2002 Team cranks? Are the spiders fully wrapped in carbon or is it just the outside facing side? I'm curious about the construction. If I had to do it again, I would have gotten an ISIS spline with an ISIS BB.

They are the 2002 model, full carbon wrapped spider.

http://www.anthonysloan.com/tcr.jpg

Sound to me like you want the 10 sp. drivetrain. I had a DA group on my bike so I just pulled the components off that needed changing and bought the 10 sp. components individually. Sure I spent more overall, but the ride is sweet.