SRAM's road group
 

What do you think of SRAM's road group?

I am not sure what advantage it offers? It seem to suffer from the same weakness that Shimano had since 1992 - you can only upshift your cogs one cog at a time, and you can't tune your chain ring shifts. It doesn't seem to do anything singificantly better than Shimano or Campy.

Wow, you've already used it? Cool! Can you tell us about your experiences with it? What did you think of the lever action? Do you have any pictures?

This has to be the earliest review of a product not yet available for sale. Please tell us how you came to these conclusions if the product hasn't been finalized, boxed and shipped yet.

...




lol, pwned

I've never used Sora, but I can assume it's not right for me. Is it safe to say that it is also possible to say that (given the limitations of the SRAM group expressed in the original post), you could also make a similar assumptions about it?

I wouldn't want to use a high end group with those limitations.

If human beings had to personally experience everything before they made a decision about it, we'd still be living in caves.

No offence, but I think it is presumptuous to assume that a group is unsuitable if one has never ridden it :)

I'd be pretty eager to give the SRAM stuff a trial, if I could find some to try. Then again, I have two bikes with Sora drivetrains that have never given me cause to complain. The Kinesis Racelight frame in particular is a good fast bike. Oh, and I have a "105" bike too. Never tasted Campy though.

Ed

But Euro's point is more general - culture is a good thing. Culture being knowledge passed on from one to another so that the other doesn't have to learn only from experience - we can learn from others' experience. That's why it bugs me so much when people in these forums say, "well, you just need to try it for yourself." If that were the case for everything, then there would be very little point to having a forum, eh?

Hooray!

OP's point is a common complaint with Shimano, and from all accounts OP is accurate on SRAM shifter operation. I think they are reasonable comments. Mind you, I think the "I can change from the top to the bottom cog cog in one change" feature of Campag is completely overrated. Even for racers.

The only reason I use Campagnolo is because I preferred the shape of the levers over the old 9 speed STI's I had. In my opinion the biggest things SRAM will bring to the market is a new lever shape and a bit more competition!

...and a reasonable point, re the importance of culture, it is too - if culture always takes us in a the direction of improvements. However, part of cultured existance might be considered to be knowledge and experience. I don't doubt anyone's knowledge of SRAM, or SORA but they may not have the experience, just as I have never tried Campag - Ergo, I don't criticise it (pun intended :)) or even pass comment. Besides, there is a lot of personal taste involved here, not only a comparison of mechanical prowess.

OK I'll shut up before this gets too poncified and pretentious (echoeing cheers from the gallery!)

Ed

If it wasn't for pretentious ponces, we'd also still be living in caves.

I agree with Ed, that there's obviously a lot of variables and some things need to be personally tried to decide. But you're still here on this board, disseminating and gathering information/data from other people's experiences, as if it actually mattered. And Euro is right about the caves. Especially those ones 'cross the big pond :D

HOORAY all round! :beer:

THis is ultimately neither here nor there, as personal, subjective experience should be the ultimate arbiter, BUT, the president of SRAM, and a senior engineer were in the shop this week and they had a set of the new shift levers with them, mounted on a bar.

I goofed with them for a bit and I am feelng pretty positive about them.

Definite advantages:

Less moving parts than Shimano. KISS principle.

The hoods are (due to fewer moving parts) more ergonomic. The recent Shimano 10 speed stuff has taken a step towards being something that is actually comfortable to cycle on, the SRAM hoods take that a step further.

Brake lever reach/arc. I have pretty big hands and the brake levers worked nicely. We got the girl in the shop witht he smallest hands and she claimed that they worked well for her too.

Grey area:

I like the actuation of the shifters. Click through gears to upshift, half click with the SAME lever to downshift. On paper this sounds ludicrous, a fertile field for mis shifts and frustration, but in person it was intuitive and easy to use. The half click is easier to achieve than the trim adjustment in Shimano shifters.

If you are a die hard Shimano hater, the decision should be easy. If you are a happy shimano user, the decision should be similarly easy. (I had dinner over the summer with the engineer from Shimano that designed the new Ultegra grouppo, and I made sure to tell him how pleased I was with its performance and feel) If, like most of the cycling population, you are just looking for the best option, the game gets more interesting this fall. OEM September, aftermarket by Xmas.

Thanks Singlespeedster. Its great to hear from someone who has actually had a chance to fiddle with the components - and put the thread back on topic ;).

I hope that this stuff takes off. By providing some competition and stepping into the old two team battle, if it is any good, it should be a good influence on future thinking.

Cheers,
Ed

I'm willing to give it a go if only because it is american.

That, and I like new shiny things.

Nothing wrong with a nice cave free from pretentious ponces.

Fair point. But doesn't 'cold and damp' describe both caves and Northern Europe?