Originally Posted by
GuitarBob
Fair question -- if I had a compelling answer I would have included it in my original comment ;-)
Two things, really. First, I had read that materials were modestly better in the internals of the DA shifters, so they might be less likely to fail over the long term (who knows). Second, I had ridden 6800 so I knew front and rear shifting were excellent, though I thought the action of the shifters was ever so slightly imprecise (they work freaking great, don't get me wrong); I had hoped DA might be slightly better. Is it? Maybe. A little.
A+ honest answer.
Both 6800 and 9001 work so well that it's very difficult to tell the difference. Longevity might be different, but with 25k miles on my 6800 shifters, I can't feel a difference in performance yet