My daughter (long-time mountain biker) just bought her first road bike. She test rode EVERYTHING from Ultegra/Force on down -- but started out knowing and caring nothing of the various component levels. It was as blind a test as you could probably have. By the time she was finished, she could tell you exactly where each level skimped in a way that impacted performance.


Her evaluation: Ultegra and 105 perform very much the same -- and 2016 (not 2015) Tiagra is close (blasphemy!). For her, the brakes are a big deal and that eliminated SRAM, every house brand, and Tektro very quickly.


She went full 105.