zenout

What component would you switch out first when leaving rival and going to red...I cant do it all at once right now....Thanks all

robertkat

Rear derailleur. Keep the rival front. Shifters maybe, crank too.

TrojanHorse

I would do the shifters first, I believe that's where you'll notice the biggest difference (zero loss on both)

RD second, crank third, then brakes, then front der. The new yaw FD is cool, but I'm not sure you can install that as a stand alone item without the appropriate shifters.

Why do you want to upgrade? I have mostly force on my bike with red shifters and a red crank. The red crank is ONLY because fleabay was littered with them when the new red came out. $200 and the equivalent force cranks would have been $350. Ridiculous. In my opinion Red chainrings are frail little things, so when they inevitably wear out more quickly than you want and your shifting performance goes to heck in a hand basket, get some praxis rings or something like that.

But really, why switch?

zenout

Ive always wanted red.But you know what,my lbs says im wasting my money.I have to respect such honesty.I realize im not a racer and i dont have the feel to even notice as i rode an all red bike yesterday and i couldn't feel any difference.Your point is well taken and that money could be used for a Garmin.

TrojanHorse

I think generally speaking Force has 99% of the functionality but weighs more. The shifters (and that yaw FD) are the only things that actually have a difference in function.

But yeah, if I were you and I didn't have garmin, I'd go there. That's the best cycling toy ever.

xjustice09x

The first thing I would switch is the right shifter to get zero loss for the rear. Comparing rival to old red that's the main difference other than weight. When I was test riding bikes a few weeks ago I could notice the difference. I have rival on my current bike, and test rode a bike with old red.

If you are switching to old red with the titanium front derailleur cage, I would consider keeping the rival front derailleur.

If you are talking about new red I would put front deraileur, crank, and shifters at the top of the list in that order. The new front derailleur is supposed to be quite a bit better than the old one. The chainrings on the new crank are supposed also help improve the front shifting. The old shifters work fine, they just have an unnecessary trim position.

I should be building up my new frame this weekend with a complete new red groupset. If money was tight I probably would have ended up with force, with the new red front derailleur. And if I could afford to spend a little more I would have added the new red crank.

teufelhunden222

where are you located and what is the fate of your rival components?

SirVelo

I did the same thing (switching from Rival to Red) and although I already had the Red components from my Tri-bike, I really couldn't justify the dollars - even when I upgraded to Red Shifters. A lot of people will say the zero-loss shifting is great - and it is, but I only felt minor differences between the Rival and Red shifters (speaking for myself only). When it's time for your annual maintenance, I would change out the shifter and housing cables and get the best ones on the market (Gore Ride-On, Yokozuna, etc). They do make a difference in smoothing out the shifting AND I would invest the money and get a Garmin or a really good wheelset (if you don't have a set already). To me, those are really good upgrades (only because there is nothing wrong with Rival).

zenout

Tell me this about the Garmin....Is it a true gps in the sense i can input an address and it will guide me there?I don't want to know only where i am but i want to know how to get turn by turn where i want to be.

psalm

If you want turn by turn, I believe the 800 is the only one that does that.

TrojanHorse

psalm is 95% right

If you want one that functions like your car GPS you need the big dog (700s or 800s should all do it) and you can input an address, and you'll get turn cues and a nice display.

The 500 has a very rudimentary navigation system - it's a true GPS but there's no address entry or even any maps. What you CAN do is create a track in say, ridewithgps.com, output the tcx file to garmin training center (software for your PC) and then upload the guidance to your garmin 500 or 510. You do get turn by turn navigation that way, although it tends to tell me to turn right as I'm missing the turn. You can also look at an over head view of the track, so you can see what's coming up. It works fine when you want to take the time to preplan your course. It's useless for navigation once you're out riding around.

I just use my phone when I get lost but there are plenty of people using those larger garmins, hopefully somebody will have some specific feedback for you.

cdp8

Zen, Garmin just announced replacements to the Edge 800 and 500 (the 810 and 510) at the CES a few weeks ago.

https://www.pocket-lint.com/news/4904...ycle-computers

If you are still thinking about Red, I saved for a build kit, rather than buying part by part. Like auto parts, you get raked over the coals if you try and buy it piece by piece. Colorado Cyclist, Competitive Cyclist, Jenson, etc. all sell build kits and gruppos that are significantly cheaper than buying each part individually. I hated the delayed gratification, but when I added up the price difference, I realized I couldn't just throw that money away.

robertkat

My newest bike has full Rival and I think it's great stuff. Instead of upgrading anything, I spent the money on sweet set of wheels that really let the bike come alive.