May I reopen a "SRAM or Shimano" discussion?

[Crankin]

I had no trouble when I went to Shimano from my mountain bike trigger shifters. It was totally intuitive and I never made any horrible errors. However, given my poor track record with even the most minute mechanical change, I decided against SRAM for my custom bike, despite the LBS pushing me for this. I am small and I have short arms and smaller hands, but I think my fingers are actually long for someone of my size. Anyway, I've never felt the hoods on my bike with Ultegra are too big. For me, the biggest thing that helped me was finding a bar with a short and shallow shape, along with the short reach brifters. Since Shimano no longer makes the short reach brifters in Ultegra, I went with 105s on the custom build, but the reach is about 2mm longer in the drops than on my other bike. I rarely use the drops anyway, but I doubt SRAM would make a difference. I think I made the right choice, because just getting used to a more relaxed geometry, the compact, and new pedals was enough. I was a wreck for 6 months.
My friend has a Ruby with the same compact double set up (mountain gears on the back), but with SRAM, as I have on my custom bike, with Shimano. Since I am probably going to be upgrading the bike I will be using on our trip next summer to a Ruby (the company gives this option), I want to try her bike out, as we are the same size. However, because she has SRAM and the bike I will be renting has Shimano, I told her I will test it on the trainer, as I don't want to crash her gorgeous bike!

[Miranda]

I've tried SRAM and had one component that came stock on my roadie...not a fan...Shimano girl here.

In comparison to Shimano imo I think it shifts rough. And the SRAM chain that came stock on my roadie for some reason with my Shimano groupo was just junk. It was rough and made the bizarre squeaking noise. Once I swaped it out for a Shimano chain I never had the problem again.

I am not sure if the LBS gets more of a profit margin with SRAM? Seems like I've read that before somewhere. But they seem to push it. No thanks!

As far as the hand issue that keeps being mentioned... I have thin lady hands, weak grip, but long fingers. A guys size small glove in full fingers works best for me fwiw. However, I have the Shimano short reach shifters and have never had a problem. There is a way to shim them too.

Good Luck with your shopping!

[Jo-n-NY]

I was also one of those gals and only used Shimano for all my years on the bike. Mainly Ultegra & Dure Ace. When I won the Dolce there was no choice as it came with Sram Apex and wasn't sure if I would like it. The sales lady in the shop said it is very intuitive. She certainly was right. I found it to be snappier than Sram. My Amira with Sram Red changes gears in a real snappy way and really with both Apex & Red there is less effort in going from the lower chain ring to the top. If I had a choice at first I would have chose Shimano because that was all I knew and was comfortable. In this case I am glad the choice was made for me as I am very happy with the Sram. I also have small hands and fingers at 5'2".

[IBrakeforPastry]

Here's something else I just noticed. The SRAM cassette is 11-32, the Shimano is 12-30. Because it's hilly around here, and the season is short, I like the idea of the lower gear. Will the 32 be a noticeable difference over the 30? And will the wider gear spread make shifting rougher?

See what you ladies have done to me? I never would have cared too much about this stuff, other than "high gears" and "low gears". Now I'm really learning the nitty gritty and enjoying it! It's giving my math/science oriented brain some much needed exercise

[Crankin]

I have a Shimano cassette with an 11-34! It's a mountain bike cassette and it's perfect with the compact up front. They are compatible The difference between a 30 and 32 isn't much, but with the 34, I certainly can feel the difference between it and my other road bike that has a triple and an 11-28 cassette. At first, the wider gear spread on the compact did bother me, but after a few months (3-4) I found my groove and I really love the combo. I've had secret thoughts of changing out my other bike to this combo.