Originally Posted by
Mulberry20
I have ridden both extensively and there is no comparison in terms of long-term reliability. Campy all the way.
Given that I'm currently using an eleven year old 6600 group with around 50K miles on it on one of my bikes, have never had any problems with it, it works brilliantly and it still looks basically new, I'm going to go ahead and reject this statement and everything else in your post. (Note: I love Campy stuff as well.)
IMO, there's very little difference between 5800 and 6800. I have 6800/685 on one bike and my wife's road bike is 5800. 5800 is awesome stuff (and way better than 5700). 6800 might prove to be slightly more durable than 5800 in the longer term, who knows. I have always gone with Ultegra (since it was called 600 and had friction DT shifters) and never had any issues. I'll continue to buy Ultegra. Yes, Ultegra costs more than 105, but amortized over the life of the group the extra cost is not really worth worrying about. Of course, this calculus changes a bit when considering a complete bike. DA is awesome but just not worth it unless you can easily afford it, IMO.