getting ready to buy a TT groupset for my new frame. Any thoughts between these two options. My only experience has been with Ultegra. thx
go over to velonews or Pez and scroll thru the various raceday pics until you find the TT section (prologue, etc).
You’ll see that most of the TT rigs are set up with lower tier groups: The shimano guys tend to be set up with Ultegra, Campy guys are running the 10spd record vs. the new 11spd stuff, but the SRAM guys are running RED. (curious).
I just ordered up a new SRAM red group with an SRM, and am chucking my Ultegra group after 3 seasons. So, I guess my vote would be for the RED. Great value, nice and light.
I started with a Force/Red TT group and quickly upped to all Red. The shifting is great and the brakes are great, additionally the whole group is lighter than DA. Spring for the Blackbox bottom bracket, its smooth. Liked the Red TT group so much I bought a Red Road group.
Agree with raysr.
I would say though if you can get the 1070 cassette for training and maybe racing.
I don’t mean to hijack the thread but if force and ultegra are for the same price, which would you go for?
I haven’t had a lot of experience witht he red, but my S-Works Transition came with it and we ended up switching it all out for DA. The reason was that they had shipped it with a Force front derailleur and it would not shift properly at all. I had read some reviews that the red front had some issues and that was why they shipped it out with the Force. We ended up having to switch the derailleur out for DA, but then it would not work properly with the rear, so we switched that too. I had already had a problem with the limiters on the bar end shifters. The left shifter had to be cranked all the way back (past 180 degress) to shift. So we ended up swapping those out too. Then I decided to throw DA rings on the Specialized cranks (which I recommend by the way to anyone that is running Shimano on a Specialized bike with the Specialized carbon cranks, easily bolted on). Now I’m left with only the SRAM red casette which is amazing.
Now the bike shifts better than anything I’ve ever been on. You think about the big ring, and you’re there.
I need to add this disclaimer though as well. This is the 2008 SRAM Red set and I’ve heard they have fixed some of the biggest issues with the set.
Campy guys are running the 10spd record vs. the new 11spd stuff
there are no 11sp campy bar-end shifters yet, otherwise the campy-sponsored teams would be using 11sp.
I run a combo of SRAM Red/SRAM force with a DA crank. I switch my road bike to sram as well. I find the shifts to be super crisp and easy to adjust. I like the feel of the thinner TT levers on the red more, and the indexing is a bit better (not an issue with the super new sram TT levers that return to position) than DA. I have also found I have better shifting under high power ie. when climbing. I found the DA crank SRAM combo works a bit better for me. Don’t know why just des. For your info, i have red shift/derail, force brakes DA Crank with a Rotor SAAB BB.
Honestly, for a TT bike, what is the difference beyond cost and weight? On a roadie, the different shifting mechanisms and hood ergonomics might make a difference, but aside from the new Red “always centered” bar-end shifter, I can’t imagine much difference between the gruppi.