Shifters: SRAM Rival vs. Red
 

I have a Guru steel that came with Rival. I've put a Red crankset on it and it now weighs 18 lbs w/Speedplay Zeros. I am thinking about upgrades and was wondering if Red shifters are significantly better than Rivals. Also, the front derailleur is OK but sometimes imprecise. Red derailleur much better? TIA

Not enough difference to matter. I have full drivetrains of both and see no significant differences except weight.

Can't speak from personal experience, but everything I've heard is that Upper SRAM components only significantly differ in their weight, not performance.

SRAM Red shifters have Zero loss and Rival doesn't.

It would look faster with white tape

Both have Zero Loss in the front shifter...only the Red and 2012 up Force have the ZL in the rear. Red has carbon levers and shift paddles. Rival has aluminum paddles. Thats about it.

Rear derailleurs are mechanically the same...save for the carbon bits and ceramic pulleys on Red. Fronts are the same. The steel cage Red FD has Ti bolts vs steel on the other version.

This is the pre "22" Red I'm talking about.

Why is your handlebar tilted up? Or optical illusion?

That's the way it came to me. It was owned and ridden only twice by a young woman who is a helluva racer. I'm sure it was a bit big for her (I think the bike was given to her by a LBS as sponsorship) so she tilted it up to get to the hoods. Pretty sure she saw quickly that it wasn't going to work size-wise. I put a longer stem on, righted the bars and, yes, it now has white tape. :) I'll throw a current pic up asap.

I ride a 2011 Rival and switched the FD with the 2013 Red YAW fd. Now I don't see any faults on it. The shifting on the front is now way way way way way better.

I would love to make it full Red one day but it's not a priority. SRAM tends to be more expensive than practical Shimano.

Send me a pm

I have rival on my cross bike, and red with the yaw front derailleur on my road bike.

The rear shifting for red is slightly quicker because of the zero loss in the right shifter, but its not that big of a difference. The bigger difference is the change in shifter shape. I find the shape of the red hoods slightly more comfortable.

The yaw front derailleur is much better than the rival front derailleur. That would probably be the biggest upgrade from Rival, and much cheaper than buying red shifters.

I upgraded my front derailleur from Rival to Ultegra and that made a huge difference. Then I upgraded my shifters from Rival to Force (not even Red). Also made a noticeable difference. Now I'm never in a place with chain noise (or actually can easily correct if I am). I assume Red is as good as Force in this respect. I'm so glad I made that upgrade.

I also experience a huge difference going from rival FD to ultegra FD, but can you please elaborate a bit the difference from Rival shifters to Force, so I can justify an upgrade also :)

Sometimes I'd get some chain rattle with Rival. Was hard to get derailleur adjusted just right so it was spot on in every gear. With Force can do minute adjustments on the fly.