flesh_pile

Last year I 'made the leap' and rode with Sram Rival stuff during the race season. I loved the low cost, sub Dura Ace weight (with an ISIS FSA Carbon Pro crank), and the concealed shifter cables. The one thing that I didn't like was the very loud noise emanating from the shifters when changing gears (much noisier when releasing cable tension but still noisy when pulling the cable tighter). It seemed to me that it would be a big tactical disadvantage if you were going to try to make an attack. Everyone ahead of you would hear the shift(s) and have time to react and start to ramp up their speed before you passed them with a large speed difference. I never tried attacking in any of the races this year so this was never a problem for me but I think I'm willing to take the risk this year and do so. Most of my sprint finishes were from well within the pack where this noise is not really an issue and the two exceptions didn't really matter either (a long drawn out sprint where everyone gunned it from wayyyy too far out and things got strung out and another one where I lead out the sprint and where everyone could see my move anyways).

I first noticed this issue on an actual ride this week (as compared to a hypothetical situation). I was riding on a 9 speed Tiagra bike that is as quite as anything compared to my Rival equipped race bike from last year. The training ride is a semi-competitive (power) hill sprint workout and my friend (who is using Rival) was drafting off my wheel going up one hills. I was going hard but was still going to contest the sprint when he tried to make his move. With about 100 meters to go, I heard the click(s) of the Sram shifters and knew he was starting to make his move. I poured on the power and managed to match his speed by the time he had pulled up next to me (slight reaction time difference between his shifts and when I started going all out so he did get a slight speed gap on me but not much) and I was able to win the sprint. If he had quieter shifters, I probably would not have noticed his attack until he was next to me and already had a few mph on me that I probably would not have been able to make up by the time we finished cresting the hill.

So here's the question: have any of you ever had an attack thwarted by noisy shifters or have any of you thwarted an attack by hearing the racket of the Sram shifter levers? Or am I just thinking too hard into this and under real race circumstances when everyone's' brains are oxygen starved these noises all become meaningless? Is it worth the weight penalty and exposed, ugly, and un-aero shifter cables of Shimano to get quiet completely quite shifts? What are your opinions?

travkat

they are no more of a tactical no no than Campy. If you want to be stealthy with noise then Shimano is the way to go. However with the enormous lever throw required everyone will know you are shifting anyways. Stick with the SRAM

And maybe you just read the situation correctly and jumped at the right time. Your friend could have been shifting to an easier gear for all you know...the noise means nothing really.

Hida Yanra

considering how many pro's (whose jobs depend on this sort of stuff) ride with SRAM, I think it doesn't make all that much of a difference.
Sure, they ride what they get paid to ride - but I haven't ever heard a single peep about this issue out of the anyone who does it for a living - and if it were thwarting the attacks of say, Jens V. - I'm confident that it would be getting talked about.

Also, I am the sort of rider that tends to attack a lot (I didn't say I attacked successfully, just that I do.)
On a hard attack, the noise of my noisy shifters hasn't 'derailed' any of my attacks yet, I'll be the first to admit it when it does. If I attack hard enough, and at the right moment, it works, otherwise it is time to rest up and try again.

roadwarrior

I heard Contador said the same thing....that it's a lot harder to win Grand Tours because he's riding Red.

I see the BF Think Tank is in full swing.

Metzinger

Coming soon! SRAM brifters with Dolby!

botto 

you obviously have never used DA7800.

mihlbach

If it were an issue you could also fake out riders by just shifting your gears and bluffing.

FlashBazbo

+1

Rutnick

The same lame comments were made when index shifting first hit the scene. The friction people argued that the noisy shifts would give the attacks away.

HTFU and just ride. You are overthinking it.

TCR

I don't know about tactical suicide but they are annoying.

umd

no

topflightpro

Gee, at that point, I'm usually sucking wind so bad, the only thing I can hear is me gasping for my next breath and struggling to hang on.

And I'd be willing to be I'm loud enough to drown out any lever clicks within about 10 feet of me.

brentley

I ride with someone who once told me that he didn't purchase a new bike one year during race season because it had STI shifters and he thought that noise would be an issue (this was back in the transition days from friction). So it was a somewhat widespread belief.

damocles1

You're worried about a tiny click? Shift under load to the bottom of your cassette when riding your carbon wheels, then get back to me about noise...

SushiJoe

^^ this

mattm

what does that sound like?

SushiJoe

Impending doom swooping in on swift wings.

Or something...

nafun

Use it to your advantage. Shift sometimes as a feint. Kind of like teasing the big ring with friction shifters.

CrimsonKarter21

Anyone who's countering attacks before they can see them is doomed to a life of failitude.

SushiJoe

Like Joaquin Phoenix?

CrimsonKarter21

Explain. I haven't gotten this weeks issue of Juicy Celebrity gossip Weekly


























I'll bet you clicked on that, didn't ya?

Val23708

my strategy with my rival shifters is to start at 90rpm and spin up to 120 before i shift, thus i should be going 33% faster by the time they hear me

SushiJoe

He's a rapper now. Didn't you hear? Look for his interview on Letterman on YouTube.

travkat

Not true Botto, I switched from 7800 to the RED last year and really do love it. Nothing wrong with my shimano at all but I like the RED better.

travkat

Here is a quote from Cycling News' review of RED by the way.

"Different users will likely have their own favorite new feature of the lot but it's really the combination of all of them working in concert that delivers the biggest improvement over Red's predecessors. Lever throw is roughly half that of Force/Rival (and about 40% of what's required for Dura-Ace) to yield noticeably faster and more precise shifts and the new shapes and adjustable reach mean that the controls are easier to manage, especially when in the drops or for riders with smaller hands."