would like to know your thoughts. I am thinknig that upgrading to today’s 105 set may be better then running my 10-year old dura-ace rear derailer and ultegra front derailer on my tri-bike. I can purchase new 105 components for a very reasonable price. Thank you for your thoughts!
Ultegra R8000 components are just a few dollars more and much better.
I treated myself to some 105 brake calipers on my road bike a couple of months back and have been blown away by the quality. This stuff is easily as good as my 7 year old Ultegra on my TT bike. But then I’m still running a Sora 9-speed rear derailleur on my road bike with tiagra levers/shifters, so maybe I’m not the best judge… but I think that this stuff is also really good!
I kind of feel like it all just works really well these days and you are probably paying for light weight and shiny parts. The brakes grip the rim plenty hard enough (and I would know, living in wet and hilly West Yorkshire) and the shifters just, you know, shift.
But this is Slowtwitch so you’ll probably need DA Di2 or eTAP 
I kind of feel like it all just works really well these days and you are probably paying for light weight and shiny parts. The brakes grip the rim plenty hard enough (and I would know, living in wet and hilly West Yorkshire) and the shifters just, you know, shift.
But this is Slowtwitch so you’ll probably need DA Di2 or eTAP
This… the way I feel is the sport is already expensive enough so if it ain’t broke… Plus if you did that you have what I’m assuming is a 10 speed just collecting dust. Another option (I’ll be it a more expensive option) if you really want that group set is get yourself a Chinese Carbon road frame, have it custom painted with something awesome for what I understand is just a couple extra bucks, and roll everything down.
My road bike has/had 105 on it, raced it for two years and it was great. I did wear out the right shifter in under 20k miles, though. I have ultegra on my other road bike and I can’t tell the difference in performance.
It’s much better than my old 6600/6700 stuff from a decade ago.
would like to know your thoughts. I am thinknig that upgrading to today’s 105 set may be better then running my 10-year old dura-ace rear derailer and ultegra front derailer on my tri-bike. I can purchase new 105 components for a very reasonable price. Thank you for your thoughts!
Define “better”. Will it make you faster? Not unless the old stuff is broken.
I’m running 15 year old Dura Ace 9s on my roadie, and roughly 10 year old Ultegra with 9s shifters and cassette on my tri bike, and it still shifts flawlessly, especially after switching to a brand new cassette and a 10s chain. So much quieter than the 9s chain.
What will be an upgrade is replacing cassette, chain and maybe chainrings, breaking the bike down and cleaning and relubing everything.
I have never felt that the derailers significantly impact the shifting on a TT bike because you are still effectively using friction shifters to actuate the cables. So cables matter, the shift ramps on the front chain matter and to a degree the shifters matter. Unless you have damaged the derailers I would be surprised you will notice any difference when you update them.