Hi Guys,

Curious as to your opinions on a great groupset for touring/ climbing. Long story short, I'm going on my 4th cycling trip this summer from El Paso, Texas to the Canadian Border. There is always a ton of climbing involved (we don't go around mountains). I am looking to upgrade my Shimano Tiagra Groupset on my Cannondale CAAD 9/6. Currently looking at SRAM Force. Thoughts? There a better groupset to satisfy my climbing needs? Exclude carrying gear and such from your opinions, that is transported along the way. We average 100 miles per day. Price range is $1000 max so please don't tell me to go buy Super Record..

Thanks,
deCycles

Really almost anything will work. When you say "touring" are you carrying stuff or are you trying to weight weenie? My touring bike has a bunch of parts gathered from donations by other riders. It has a 28x28 low gear.
I have another bike with an Ultegra triple group and I have put on an 11-30 cassette for hard climbs in the Sierra Nevada.
Do you need lower gears than what you have?

I think you should go and buy super record.

Tiagra is fine... properly adjusted, it's as good as any other groupset, unless you're looking to lose some weight off the bike. Also, no groupset is designed to be shifted while under load (climbing hard).

whichever fits your hands better. They all shift about the same, it's more of a personal preference about ergonomics and shift actuation than anything else.

As mentioned, you can't go wrong with just about any groupset, in terms of reliability and performance.

For touring, I would suggest SRAM Apex. Pulled from a review:

"... made up of a compact 50/34t crankset mated to an 11-32t 10-speed cassette. This package gives the now familiar top gear of 50/11 or 119.9 gear inches and a mountain bike-esque 34/32 low gear or 28 gear inches. This allows any cycling enthusiast who currently rides a double crankset to scale the steepest of hills with a never-before-experienced ease – albeit quite slowly, depending on one’s ability to maintain a high cadence."

Apex will give you plenty of top-end gear for downhills and tailwind. I am generally not a big fan of ultra low gearing, but if you are doing tons of climbing, I imagine having the low gears will help save your knees.

+1 for apex, with the 32t cassette, it's a good option for climbing.

+2

unless you feel you need a triple.

You'll get very different yet well informed answers on the "Touring" forum. A lot of serious/fully loaded touring riders are using MTB components in their drivetrains.

OP; Not sure a tourer really needs a 10spd get up. Could save a lot of money with something like a 7 spd coupled with a well chosen double or triple crank. I tend toward selecting each component specific to the touring requirement so I end up without a groupo. If you are going to do serious touring and going to be carrying a good amount of weight in your panniers, then think a lot about your lower gears. When I did that a few months ago to finish a new heavy tourer, I end up doing 11-34T 9 speed SRAM cogs and a 24/39/50 FSA triple crank (the 24T is a Race Face ring replacing the original 30T FSA ring). MTB specific stuff seems to work fine on non-MTB bikes and is usually well priced compared to racer-boy bits.

You have to push down hard on the pedal to ride your bike up a hill. There isn't any group set that will do that for you. You can get a lowish gear on almost any of them. How low a gear you need depends on a lot of things, from your fitness to the route you're going to take.

Since you're going to spend a lot of long days in the saddle, what you really need is something comfortable; if you're going with brifters, make sure they fit your hands well.

I also prefer having something less than 30T on the front. I had good luck with the exact same setup you did. (FSA crankset + 24T after market inner ring). The only thing I did different was that I made a hybrid cassette out a 12-25, and a 11-34 because I like having my gears closer together for riding on flats, but wanted a "tap out" gear for really steep stuff.

I've also used a mountain bike 22-32-42 on my touring bike with no problems.
(all 9 speed)

+3 on the Apex, but be aware the same Wifli medium length rear derailleur can be had in Rival now (Force and Red, too? Not sure.) So SRAM offers a lot of help for your touring, climbing requirements without straying too far from a road setup.

Not ideal. No triple option limits your low gear, the spacing you can have for a given low gear, and increases the front shifting you do.

53-39-26 x 12-13-14-15-16-17-19-21-23-25 matches the range of 50-34 x 11-13-15-17-19-21-23-25-28-34 but you won't want to change the cassette for flat ground.

13-14-15-16-17-18-19-21-23-26 and 13-14-15-16-17-19-21-23-26-29 are also options providing a usable 39 ring gear harder than you'd have with the compact crank, 34 small ring, and 11 starting cog. The triple middle ring splits the big and little ring chain lines so 39x13 is usable; and 34x12 is like 39x14.

Triple crank.

Campagnolo with Ultrashift or second generation ergo levers perhaps with a shiftmate to keep your cassettes + wheels.

Athena + Chorus levers (3x11)

Centaur + Chorus QS (were still available new) levers (3x10). 2010 Centaur/Veloce levers seem to be no longer available as NOS although used might be an option. Used second generation (rounded hood) levers are definitely available although you'd want to disassemble the right lever and install new G springs + retainer.

Campagnolo first generation levers (1992-1997), second (1998-2007, although Record/Chorus 10 speed QS levers were sold side by side with 11 speed Ultrashift levers) generation, and Ultrashift (2009-2010 Veloce and above with Athena and better being 11 cog, 2011 and newer for Chorus and above 11 cog only although you want to pass on the 2009 10 cog levers due to weak shifter detents) can all shift at least five cogs smaller with one lever actuation which is nice when you have a double shift to the small ring, especially on a compact double where that's more frequent and the next gear can be five cogs away.

Buy from the UK; price is comparable with Shimano/SRAM when you don't pay the US Campagnolo tax.

I know about it being cheaper when purchased from the UK, but why; what is the US Campagnolo tax? - Robert

If you're running 9sp, you can get an older 9sp XT rear derailleur (RD M751) like this:https://www.ebay.com/itm/SHIMANO-XT-R...item4ac499f083. You can run it with wide range cassette like this:https://www.jensonusa.com/Bicycle-Cas...-Cassette-2011. A new chain, keep the front derailleur and shifters and you'll have much wider gearing. The reason I suggest an older model 9sp derailleur is that the newer ones won't always shift with older 9sp shifters. You could also run a microshift mountain derailleur, Nashbar sells them. This would save you a good amount of money that you could use for beer instead

Well sheesh, in that case anything (even Shimano Tiagra ) will work. But if you have your heart set on SRAM Force, go for it.

Any modern groupset with a triple crankset should be great since you are not loading up the bike.
Good luck. Sounds like a fun trip!

another vote for apex,
compact with a 32 you can pretty much spin over anything

It's a sort of joke about Campagnolo pricing in the United States. If it says Campagnolo you'll pay a premium here even though in the rest of the world Campagno components are priced competitively with other brands.

I don't understand the deal with Apex. Don't people use the small chainring at all?

Of course. For climbing, into the wind, or just if you have a fast cadence. I use the small ring most of the time.

Oh, kind of like prescription drugs even when made in the USA.

and considering sram and shimano drive trains are compatible, can't you have an apex cassette in a shimano groupet? I'm assuming that shimano rear derailleurs can handle the 32 gear on the sram. I'm partial to shimano because I prefer their shifting mechanics.

I just don't think it's really worth it to have a longer RD cage just to have a 32 on the cassette. 28 is plenty, coupled with a 34 on the crank, that's pretty darn near 1:1.

Triple up front.

Wide cassette in back.

Long cage RD.

Bar-end shifters are optional, but handy with a triple and in a touring context.

You could get a complete Surly Long Haul Trucker or a Cross Check for around $1200. I'd say you might as well pick up one of those, and use it as a commuter/dirt/backup/relaxed bike.