Gear sets....will I notice a diffrerence?

[raleighnut]

Big fan of 105 here, right balance of quality, long life and weight

 

[mjr]

SRAM Rival ftw
(I really don't like Shimano brifters with the wobbly brake lever and oversized hoods)

Amen! Shimano haven't made good groupsets since 600 Arabesque and Tricolor. The current range is just a choice of how polished you want a turd.

 

[SkipdiverJohn]

Don't get sucked into bike groupset snobbery. Leave it to the bike snobs with more money than sense. Shimano don't make junk parts. Even the cheapest stuff in their ranges works fine if the bike is maintained and kept correctly adjusted.
Price up replacement chains, rear sprockets, and cranksets and go with whatever you can stomach the ongoing maintenance replacement cost of.
For me, that would not include anything using 10 or 11 speed cassettes.

 

[IanSmithCSE]

Good evening,

I am a bit of a luddite and went from downtube Ultegra/105 to Di2 Ultegra and then Claris on 50/34 and 11/32 (8 speed) on a commute bike

There is no doubt in my mind that Claris is way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way worse than Ultegra/Di2.

But if you don't know any better then Claris rear shifting is wonderful, front shifting less so, for me worse than downtube shifting.

There is the implicit problem that Claris often comes with gear ratios that I think are terrible, there is no reason why they must be, but they just seem to be.

So I would be a fan of buy Claris and accept that it may not be what you want in a year or two's time, but it is way better that the 5x2/6x2 sold in the late 1970s.

If you race or want to keep up with very fit riders then 10 (11/12)x2 matters, if you want to ride for fun then 8x2 is probably all you need.

Di2 is brilliant, I often find that is scorned by those who can't afford it but say that they can, but have never tried it because it is obviously nonsense.

Bye

Ian

 

[fossyant]

Don't get sucked into bike groupset snobbery. Leave it to the bike snobs with more money than sense.

Oof, running two road bikes with Shimano 600 (Tricolour Ultegra) and 7400 Dura Ace. Both have been fantastic. Only had the groupsets over 30 years, terrible value.

 

[Kajjal]

The key is to make sure you have the range of gears you need. Then on road having smaller gaps between gears is always useful as it gets you in a more efficient gear to make the going easier. 10 or 11 speed is good for this but in reality most people simple adapt to whatever they have keeping it well maintained and adjusted to get the best out of it.

 

[mjr]

So I would be a fan of buy Claris and accept that it may not be what you want in a year or two's time, but it is way better that the 5x2/6x2 sold in the late 1970s.

It depends which 5x2/6x2. As I wrote, Arabesque (1978) and Tricolor (1988, Ultegra) were OK and Shimano has been outclassed by its Rivals forever since.

 

[T.M.H.N.E.T]

SRAM Rival ftw
(I really don't like Shimano brifters with the wobbly brake lever and oversized hoods)

What's your budget, new vs. used? What else are you looking for in the bike...racy, more endurance/relaxed, need for mudguards and rack, frameset material hankering etc...the groupset is probably among the last things to consider depending on budget.

Have you actually ridden any modern roadbikes?

Apex and force are just as good*, I'd put the SRAM lineup closer together spec wise than Shimano

*Except when I forget I'm on a 1x gravel bike and try to shift

 

[fossyant]

I like SRAM and Shimano MTB stuff. The lower end SRAM stuff is very good - i.e. kids bikes. SLX/XT on the Mrs bike and X9 (SRAM GX / Shimano XT equivalent) on mine. Just works. Any sloppy gear changes just require new cables. My 30 year old Shimano LX/XT gears work great on my old bike.

It's just about looking after what you have.

My mate killed an XT front mech within a year as he rode to work on his MTB and never used it - never squirted it with oil.

 

[vickster]

Apex and force are just as good*, I'd put the SRAM lineup closer together spec wise than Shimano

*Except when I forget I'm on a 1x gravel bike and try to shift

Force is above Rival, never used,

 

[T.M.H.N.E.T]

Force is above Rival, never used,

 

[vickster]

What’s funny?
Force is above Rival in the sram hierarchy (Ultegra equivalent), I’ve never used it though so cannot comment on how it compares to Rival (105 equivalent)

 

[T.M.H.N.E.T]

What’s funny?
Force is above Rival in the sram hierarchy (Ultegra equivalent), I’ve never used it though so cannot comment on how it compares to Rival (105 equivalent)

Explaining SRAM to me I know Force is above Rival, what I said was that all 3 are just as good and IMO better/more closely specced than the same 3 level Shimano groupsets

 

[vickster]

Explaining SRAM to me

I wasn’t 🤷‍♀️

 

[ExBrit]

Hi, in my tentative search for my first road bike I have seen various bikes with various gears and there is obviously a lot of choice but with a lot of price differences?

For example, it seems that Shimano 'Claris' is the most basic, and 'Sora' is also fairly low down compared to say the 105 set? Then there is Tiagra although I think Ultegra is above that? All very confusing for a beginner.

So would I really, as a beginner, notice any difference between a bike equipped with a Sora set as opposed to a bike equipped with a 105 set? Or between a Tiagra or Ultegra or 105 vs Ultegra etc.....

Would I notice a smoother or faster/slicker gear change or not?
Should I not get hung up on this or should I aim for a particular set up as a minimum requirement and why?

Shimano 105 is called "The groupset of the people". It is widely considered to be the best value groupset. Cheaper groupsets will wear out faster, are less reliable, and weigh more. More expensive groupsets weigh less, but don't really last much longer and are not much more reliable. As a beginner with an intent to ride a lot for the next five years, 105 sits at the sweet spot. To give you an idea of what the extra money will buy you, I am currently replacing my Campy Chorus bottom bracket after 50,000 miles.

Hope this helps