Rerock

To start, I bought a Trek Crossrip LTD last spring as my new commuter. I love the bike, but wasn't sold on the Shimano 105 brifters. I figured I'd give them an honest try, but after a few months and a couple thousand miles, I want to swap them out for SRAM gear.

At the same time, I've never used the smaller front chain ring, so I figured I would ditch that along with the front derailleur. I would also like to add a bash ring/ chain ring guard to keep my pants from getting caught (for the few times I ride with long pants).

This is kind of an exciting time for road bike components with hydraulic disc brakes hitting the market/ becoming more popular, and CX- specific components starting to gain momentum. Because of these factors, its kind of tricky to determine what to go with.

I'm happy with the TRP HY/RD brakes, but am not sure if they are compatible with SRAM brifters. I would presume so, but have no idea how to go about confirming that.

I love the top mounted cheater brakes as well, and would probably miss them if I went to full hydraulic brakes. However, if full hydro brakes perform as well as my mountain bike brakes do, then I'll get over not having them.

My wife is fully supportive with whatever it takes, so there is no budget limits; however I'd prefer to not have to buy things I don't absolutely need either. If I could get by with just different brifters and RD, great; but if I have to get new cranks, BB, cassette, etc, than so be it.

At that point it may or may not be worth it to go with a full hydro system or not.

Who knows, maybe it's best to wait one more year and see what products come out/ prices to come down?

It's a lot of options/ scenarios to consider, so I'd appreciate your thoughts.

Thanks!

Bike Gremlin

And the question is?

Rerock

If my bike has all the Shimano 105 stuff, can I just switch to SRAM brifters and rear derailleur and call it a day?
If not, do I need to switch the entire groupset, or just certain parts?
Are SRAM brifters compatible with TRP HY/RD brakes?
If not, does SRAM have a cable/ hydraulic equivalent that would work?
If not, does SRAM have a full hydraulic CX groupset?
If you were to compile a 1x10 or 1x11 SRAM setup that is tolerant of daily commuting dirt, grime, and abuse, would you use road gear or mountain bike gear?

Let's start with that. :laughing:

dynaryder

Probably. You def need to match the brifters to the rear der,but there's a good chance the front will work. Of course,if you go with a 1x setup this won't matter.

I don't see why they wouldn't be;the TRP's use cables to work the hydraulics down at the caliper,so it should be fine.

SRAM had a recall on their first run of hydro road. Things should be better,but I personally would wait and let the pros do the field work in getting the bugs out of the new road hydros(SRAM and Shimano).

First,I'm not sure if you meant this,but SRAM's XX1 1x11 setup is all one groupo. You need a the XX1 hub,derailleur,cassette(10-42!),and shifter,and I don't believe they'll work with a brifter. Beyond that,ask the folks over in the cross forum;anything that can survive cross racing can handle commuting.

martianone

Suggest 1x10 set up, a 39 t chainring and 11-36 cassette will cover a huge amount of territory.

tjspiel

If your really excited about the idea of hydros I would not do anything for a year or two.

To answer one of your other questions, I've used a mix of road and mountain components on my commuters for many years, - even during the winter. Though winter is just plain hard on components, the road components did no worse than the mountain components I've used.

Bike Gremlin

For daily commuting abuse, I'd go with max 8 cogs in the back. With 1, 2, or 3 front chainrings - depending on the terrain. Road, if you need drop bars (those are nice), though MTB groupsets are more robust, water/grit/dust resistant. Shimano Claris (road), or Shimano Acera (MTB) are the seet spot IMO: cheap, reliable, good working (Acera, haven't tested Claris - but have friends with 8 speed Sora - reliable, good).

fietsbob

You want the pricier components Go for it .. they wanted the cost of the new bike to be cheaper to sell better, so they didn't fit them in the first place,

to lower the selling price .. now that it's yours do as you wish. Its Your Bike Now.

Rerock

The thing I dislike the most about the Shimano is how the brake levers move inward to upshift.

I'm happy with these TRP HR/RD brakes, but if the new hydraulic stuff are as strong/ awesome as my MTB brakes, heck yeah I'll wait.

I've decided to not buy anything until I can go to a bike shop and take the stuff for a spin. I'd imagine that's not going to be until next spring until this new stuff starts hitting the market.

I like the ration this 50T chain ring provides, and it looks like the biggest that is offered in that CX1 crankset is 46T. Unless the rear cassette has smaller teeth too so it's proportional. If not, maybe I'll just get the CX1 rear derailleur.

I'll definitely be getting a new drivetrain, but it's sounding like it'd be best to hold off for a little while until things are a little more common/ available.

RubeRad

Volagi Liscio Ultegra Di2 Hydraulic. $6246. You're welcome.

Andy_K 

TRP claims that the HY/RDs will work with new Shimano, old Shimano and SRAM. However, new Shimano levers pull a different amount of cable than old Shimano or SRAM (which are about the same in this regard), so at the very least the brakes would feel different because the same lever pull would move the hydro plunger a different amount. I believe that SRAM pulls more cable than new Shimano, but when you pull more cable the effective power of the pull is proportionately reduced. I don't think it's a very big difference (about 7 percent), so you'd probably be OK. I'm nearly certain that your interrupter levers pull a different amount of cable than either one, so you probably already experience some variance.

I'm using HY/RD's with 4600-series Tiagra levers. I've never been able to find a clear answer about whether these have Shimano's old or new cable pull. I've seen compatibility charts from Shimano that seem to indicate both (i.e. different answers from different charts). I think they have the old (SRAM-like) cable pull, and they work very well with HY/RD's.

SRAM makes a 1x11 specific "road" groupset (Force CX1). It is available with hydraulic brakes.

Rerock

Looks like fun, but unfortunately it's Shimano; exactly what I'm looking to replace.

My wife kinda sheepishly came home with a brand new car, and my car is in worse shape than hers was, so she can't say much for a while... lol

It looks like the CX1 chain rings only go up to a 46T; I wonder if I could put a Force or Red 50T on there instead to keep the same gearing I have now.

Edit: thanks for the info Andy, I appreciate it; very helpful. The cheater brakes dont seem to bite as hard as the brifters, probably because they dont move as much cable. They may not work as well, but I do like having them there.