Originally Posted by
Robert A
I have the same question - Ultegra vs. Force. But where do you go test ride a bike with Force?
Most shops should have something with Sram road shifters of some kind. Really just get a sense if you like the way doubletap works and the hoods feel. A lot of brands are Shimano across the board except for their 1x hydraulic drop bar bikes, but that'd give you a decent sense for how the shifting works at least. All the Sram road groups work pretty similarly--the biggest jump is from Apex to RIval because Rival gets zeroloss on both shifters--which basically means that the shift lever begins engaging a shift almost immediately as soon as you start moving it.
It is a little annoying how uncommon Sram road is on 2x road bikes. It's good stuff! I also think Shimanoand Campagnolo are good stuff--but they all feel/work different enough for people to have legitimate preferences.