Originally Posted by Otis

If you are talking about current '08-'09 parts I would go Chorus for the shifters at least.

I've always bought Record and Chorus, although I can no longer afford current Record. My main race bike which I go through parts on was just rebuilt this winter. I needed to replace the left hand shifter and went Centaur to save a few bucks. I always thought the performance was pretty equal, but that is definitely not the case for this shifter. The action is very clunky, nowhere near the performance of the Record and Chorus stuff I've had in the past. I can live with it for the front der, but I would not keep it if I had bought a right hand that felt like that.

I also bought the Centaur UT CF cranks because they were about $30 less than Chorus and listed as the same weight. I figured they would be identical except for the lettering. But the difference is the chainrings, which are really ugly. I wish I had spent the extra for the Chorus there as well.

In the past I found the performance between the top 3 groups pretty equal, but that looks like it is no longer the case. I will not buy under Chorus in the future.