Linda -

On your Shimano set you have 2 levers to shift. The brake lever (further from your body) and the smaller lever (closer to your body).

The same is there on SRAM. However, you do not use the brake lever to shift at all.

I have Shimano on my road bike and SRAM on my Bike Friday. Hands down, 100% X 1000000 it's harder to shift my SRAM. I feel I need to HEAVE the chain around manually, instead of the bike doing the work.

Basically, instead of using one lever to go up and another to go down, SRAM has you push the 1 lever to shift one way and the same lever pushed much further to shift the other way. Having spoken to a friend that works at the LBS, she tells me that men generally don't mind SRAM as they have larger hands. But women tend to feel that they have to really shove the levers because of the distance it must travel.

This is compared to Shimano of course.

I'll take some pictures for you of the differences. I won't say I hate SRAM, but I sure won't get them again.

Denise