Quote Originally Posted by softthings View Post
@maxxie, what are the differences in shifting with the shimano v sram? thanks!
Basically, what Wahine said

When I was in the market for my road bike, I'd had a long history with flatbar bikes. Previously, the dropbar bike I'd had in high school had downtube shifters, so the concept of modern integrated shifters was foreign to me.

I found that on the Shimano bike, I had a tough time readily identifying which lever I was actually operating. Perhaps that's something that would've resolved itself with time and practice, but the test ride left me feeling very uninspired. I then test rode a SRAM bike (the 'dale), and shifting felt like second nature to me. There was no mental effort involved. It just shifted when I wanted it to shift, in the direction I wanted it to shift. This is particularly useful when struggling up a hill. The last thing you want to do is shift to a tougher gear just because you're too dumb to operate the damn shifter!!

My next bike will definitely be SRAM. I'm happy with the Rival groupset overall, though the FD leaves a little to be desired. My LBS swapped it out with a Force FD before it even left the shop, since it wouldn't change to the big ring at all (it kept flexing instead of actually shifting). My understanding of the differences between Rival, Force and Red is in line with what Wahine said - the differences are not in the engineering but in the materials. I'm not a weight weenie, so Rival is fine for me. That said, if a Red bike came along at a reasonable price, I'd go Red! I mean, if it's good enough for Lance, it's good enough for me, right?

Max