Spram Rival

[Bigtallfatbloke]

Any good???
Better than a 105 ?
Worse than ultegra?
Where do they sit?

...will the bike shops have the spare bits as easily as shimano..or campy??..especially if I take it abroad?

I read a review that siad they were good but the front cog shifting was a bit sudden...anybody care to comment?

 

[Greg Roche]

Actually, we at Sunday Bicycles have decided to use it as our preferred OE supplier for groupsets in 2009. We're sorting our specs out now to launch the 2009 range on 1st October.

This year we used Shimano, mostly. We looked at SRAM for 2009 not because there were any issues with Shimano (preferences, maybe, but no tech issues) but because theres been a massive availability issue on Shimano groupsets in the trade this year, and this was giving us a headache.

Once the guys from SRAM came to see us, we were really impressed. Its a bit expensive as an after market purchase, but the quality is excellent. Its really comfortable and you get used to the double tap thing in about 2 minutes. The cassettes are also shimano compatible.

In terms of trim (adjustment) on the front shifter, Rival in 2008 (which you can buy cheap online at the moment) doesn't have it, and this would have been a weakness (you being told about the 'sudden' front shift might be this). However, for 2009, rival has trim, it also has carbon levers and its lighter than Ultegra SL.

I've no doubt we'll continue to sell Shimano and Campag, but SRAM have convinced us to give them a go as the preferred option... and i'm saving up for a RED groupset on my own bike (for 'customer test and demo' purposes only, of course!!)

Give it a go, we have been well impressed!

Greg

 

[Bigtallfatbloke]

Cheers Greg that is interesting. So would it be better for me to wait and get a 2009 rather than a 2008?

 

[shooter560]

Greg, you mention a lack of trim adjustment in the front shifter for Rival 2008, well thats very odd as mine, had it since March 08 has adjustment however its only for the inner ring, the same for the Force (have that GS as well) its only the Red that has trim adjustment in the outer ring, but even the Red only has adjustment in one ring not both.

After all of that I swapped out my Dura Ace GS in favour of the Sram Force, and my Ultegra SL for the Rival and can honestly say hand on heart its been the best equipment swaps I've ever made, Shimano is good, but Sram is like having the cherry on top. Can't wait till my Red GS comes on next years bike, then I can have my cake and eat it

 

[rich p]

as Monty Python said, spram, spram, spram, spram...........