Input on SRAM Red

[MartianDestiny]

So by bike mechanic is saying the SRAM components are far better than shimano.

What are your experiences? It sure would be nice to buy american!

Lisa

"Far better", um no.

They both have different feels and shifting mechanisms, and it's a personal preference thing. But they are both about equal at similar component levels IMO. I physically cannot comfortably shift SRAM Red with it's new "double tap" design and my small hands, so for me SRAM is absolutely worthless. I can see where other riders would get used to it and like it though.

All my bikes (2 mountain, 2 road) run full Shimano and it's never given me a problem on any of them.

Ride them both and make your own decision if you have a choice. Otherwise just buy the bike and ride it.

[itself]

I agree, the Shimano Ultegra and Dura Ace that I have on my present bikes performs seamlessly. I wonder if SRAM has designed shifters for smaller hands that are woman friendly.

Lisa

[ehirsch83]

Interesting, I actually love SRAM because I feel the double tap is much easier then the long throw of Shimano.

I felt it works better for smaller hands, but jmho

Ask Andrea how she likes it, She rides RED. I have not been able to, financially, upgrade to Red, but I am super happy with my rival/force mixture

[tab123]

Not to go completely off topic, but I am saving up for the re-designed Campy hoods. They fit my hands perfectly; I used them on a rental bike on a trip earlier this year. My hands are not too small but smaller than the average man's I would think. I always found Shimano hoods to be too big for me.

Karen

[MartianDestiny]

Interesting, I actually love SRAM because I feel the double tap is much easier then the long throw of Shimano.

Long throw? My Ultegras engage almost instantly and I don't have to go more than a few cm to get a shift. I do have shims in them to make the reach shorter, but that was an easy adjustment.

Maybe the SRAM I rode was out of adjustment (highly highly unlikely considering the shop). I could get the first shift fine, but then to get it to shift the other direction I had to basically let go of the handlebar and rotate my hand all the way around to get it far enough over to shift.

My Sora "crap" doesn't take that much distance, even when it's out of adjustment.

[NadiaMac]

I have extremely small hands and have been enthusiastically using sram since it launched, starting with force (cross bike) and rival (road bike) and recently upgrading to red on the road bike. I find the double tap shifting to be effortless, compared to shimano shifter which I find require a great deal of force to shift. The reach from the sram hoods is smaller than the reach with shimano (the shape of the hoods is quite different) and I find that the sram brakes require less force to brake than say shimano. I can up and downshift in the drops, unlike my prior campy components where I couldn't reach the thumb shifter in the drops. Best of all, Red (and 2009 force and rival) have adjustable length grips on the levers, so I was able to move the levers very close to the stem, permitting confident braking in the drops (something I've never previously had).

Again, these are all matters of personal preference, but I do have mutantly small hands (my pinky is less than 2" long and I can't reach an octave on the piano) and I am using this equipment with no problems. So I would be reluctant to label sram as small hand or female unfriendly!

[Faster Pussycat]

Hi everyone, after a long time reading thought it was time to join in!

I recently put SRAM Force shifters/derailur on my road bike which had 105 as standard. I have small hands too (I ride an xs/44cm specialized frame) and I love it.

It took some getting used to as the 105 just had so much swing in the cables. There is next to no swing, I doubt even a cm. I had a lot of issues with the left shifter and the degree of swing was thought to excacerbate a sensitive neck problem.

I find the hood shape more comfortable as well.

The only downside I have found is that with the SRAM force you lose the option of trimming the front cogs. Being only new to cycling this confused me and i tended to get quite jammed on the big ring!

I also like the look as there is less cables happening but I prefer SRAM in terms of both function and fashion.

[kenyonchris]

I have Shimano ultegra on my Road...SRAM on my MTB. I agree with the long throw on the Shimano's left. I have small hands. I have learned to deal, I like the Shimano "ok"...I am a Campy girl at heart and am putting Campy on the new build, I have had Campy on bikes before. So for the Road it is Campy. I have ridden the Red on a road bike for a short distance to try it, and like it better on the left shifter, but it feels too mechanical for me in general on the road bike. However, I love it on my MTB, far better than the Shimano (I have had Shimano on MTBs before). It shifts very surely, very securely, even if I misjudge and wind up shifting hard on a climb (apologizing to the bike as I do it).
I read a review of the three (Campy Super Record, Shimano's upgraded 2009, and SRAM Red) and the biggest gripe the reviewer had with the Shimano was that the left shifter's engagement point required 1.7 inches of shift movement. I have found that to get a really clean shift, I have to push it over, pause a sec, then slowly release. I found this irritating when I first started with the double and ultegra stuff (as opposed to Campy) and took the bike back to my LBS and griped about it. They adjusted and messed with it, but in the end told me to deal. I have, and now it is just a part of the shifting action. I don't spend much time on the smaller chainring unless I am on a big hill, so it is not a huge issue for me, since my shifting to the larger is fairly infrequent.
I have had bikes with Dura-Ace stuff (both MT and road) and thought its performance on both was subpar for anything more than tooling about town.