Originally Posted by
ColonelSanders
How important are the respective roles of the Shifters vs the Derailleurs in shifting quality?
With my limited knowledge, I was thinking that the Derailleurs were the all important part and shifters were just an afterthought, but as I said, I do have quite limited knowledge about these things.
As far as Shimano goes, I would say that performance wise, not a big difference between 105-ultegra-duraace in terms of derailleurs. Rear derailleur matters much more than front derailleur. With flat bar shifters, alivio isn't any better than most stock shift/brake combos. R400 series (tiagra?) are nice. R700 series (ultegra) are great. All components, high and low end, will get the job done, but there is a difference in speed of shifts, smoothness, shifting effort, feel. That and weight are what you are paying for. My preference is for top end shifters (best you can find for your setup), respectable rear derailleur (tiagra on up) and really don't care about front derailleur. You'll find thoughtful manufacturers thinking similarly in terms of component selection.