Sram Rival 09

kush said:
I now have two near-identical and relatively new Cannondales, one with Red, one with DuraAce. Shimano DA wins hands down (sorry J). For shifting and for brakes.

I also have two cross bikes, one with Ultegra, one with Rival. It's close, but I'd nod to Ultegra for feel.
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ChrisRU said:
Do you think the 105 group is a better buy?
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DeathMetaLance said:
Excellent question. I was wondering the exact same thing.
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I remember having this conversation (Shimano vs SRAM) with Ben right after I bought a TCX last year... unfortunately I can't provide an educated opinion on performance having only owned the bike a short time but there is clearly no shortage of quality reviews in that regard...

I can, however, tell you that I run Ultegra on my Supersix and I prefer it to SRAM but a wide margin for one reason (which may/may not translate the newer 105/Rival)… comfort...

while this is all completely subjective (hand size, position, intended use, etc), the first thing is that I found was that the ergonomics of Shimano, while on the hoods, was by far superior to SRAM. With Rival I tried multiple positions, tape gel under the hoods, Hudz soft hoods, and at no point was this even remotely close.

Second this was the ease of shifting (both in the drops and particularly on the hoods) is much more effortless (thus improved comfort) with Shimano. Regardless of hand/finger position, Shimano shifts much easier. Some may argue that the 1:1 ratio of SRAM superior (or even quicker) to Shimano 2:1, but my feeling is that the milliseconds saved in 1:1 vs 2:1 shifting (and I only really noticed a difference on the downshift) means nothing to me when comfort is sacrificed...

happy deliberation...
 
Each of the brands have their own unique set of issues. The new Shimano stuff needs to have very clean cable routing and minimal friction in the housing to work as good as it was designed.

Sram chains are not the greatest, neither is the Red cassette. The front derailleur needs to be adjusted with a slight angle to make up for the lack of trim in the front shifter.

Given those things, I use Sram just because of the hood design. If you have smaller hands the Sram levers are significantly more adjustable than Shimano. And the shift lever/brake lever are adjustable independently of each other. Sram is also less prone to coming out of adjustment due to getting knocked around or having dirty cables, which is why it's so popular amongst cyclocrossers. With all the repairs I do during cross season, replacing front Shimano shifters is the most common, enough so that we keep several L/H shifters in stock at all times for quick turn-arounds. I have one customer in particular that broke 6 L/H shifters without ever crashing.

-Jim.
 
I'm curious about those who have switched from Campy to SRAM. I'm a long-time Campy user (1993 Record shifters on my bike since '94) and I was all set to put Campy on my next road bike until SRAM came out with the integrated shifter/hydro brake combo as I want my next road bike to be more touring-oriented.

A late friend was a long-time Campy user and went to SRAM a few years ago and said it the switch was easy, but I'd like some other opinions as I was never got comfortable with Shimano shifters (which is funny since I will only run Shimano mtn shifters).
 
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