For all you savy people and wrenches some help here please:
Can you use the ceramic bottom bracket from RED with a Force crank without any issues or funny stuff?
Would not be advisable to go with the following setup, if so, why: RED Shifters, RED front Der., Force cranks, RED BB, Force Rear Der. with a dura ace cassette.
Are the 2008 Force shifters better than the 2007 or exactly the same. I read some negative reviews about the quality and throw that supposedly dont affect RED but dont know if 2008 Force still the same.
1 - yes, just don’t try it on an FSA or Shimano crank spindle - won’t work.
2 - I would say get a Force FD, cheaper and stiffer (reports on RBR that the Ti one flexes bad). The shifter accomplishes the trim, not the FD. The other option would be a Shimano Ultegra FD, what I’m currently using, which is just as cheap and works very well (better than Rival/Force IMO). I would suggest the Red Cranks over Force as the rings are much better than the Force/Rival ones. THe difference between the Red setup and Force setup is effectively the ceramic BB (at MSRP), so if you want the BB, do yourself a favor and take the better shifting benefit. That is worth $100 of new rings anyway.
3 - get the Red shifters. Per SRAM rep I spoke with twice, there won’t be trickle down to Rival/Force for at least another year. For the $50-60 difference, get Red and be happy. THe Gore cables are an added bonus that get you the price differential between Force and Red, so you can think about it that you get all the lever correction benefits, or smoother cable shifting for free. The long throw is a bummer on Force and the lever length on Red is also nicer, at least for me. My ideal setup would be:
Red levers
Rival RD
Shimano FD
Shimano/FSA cranks (don’t feel the ceramic BB is worth it)
Ultegra cassette (Powerdome is neat, but pricey and doesn’t work for CX)
Any reason you select the Rival rear derailleur over the Red other than price? Why do you say the Powerdome doesn’t work for CX (I’ve been using Shimano over SRAM Powerdome for the past 6 months, just curious if you know something I don’t!).
thanks for the clarifications. for some reason I thought I read that something on the force fd prevented the adjustment.
I thougth about the fsa kforce cranks but have read mixed reviews on their cranks.
I am using a dura ace cassette I have.
I am thinking
RED shifters
RED cranks
Force fd
Force rd
dura ace cassette
I take Rival over Red for price mainly and small weight penalty (i.e. waaaay past $1/gm here). For 37gm of claimed weight, I get to pay $120 less; that is a bargain for me (said in an Eddie Murphy voice).
As for PD and cross, the problem as I understand it is that the mud cannot evacuate the cassette well, so your chain will skip maddeningly. Makes sense to me given how much crap is my cassette spider at the end of a goopy race. Pachocha did a write up on this in the VN buyer’s guide and I’ve heard rumors of many of the CX’ers like Timmy and Wells switching to either Shimano cassettes or the Force/Rival one after trying them out (I think Portland USGP was the pivotal race). You’re in Boulder, check with the VN guys or Brandon D and see what their experience is.