Quick Question on Sram To Shimano Compatibilty.

[Shortsocks]

Hey Folks.

After reading this Thread:

http://forums.thepaceline.net/showthread.php?t=173047

:on "Whats your Fav Brakes, I came to the conclusion that I want new brakes. I run SRAM (please excuse me, I know the SRAM is not liked here on PACE) and I was wanting to Run Shimano Brakes. From what a lot of people suggested on that Thread, They said that Shimano 6800/7800 are pretty much the GOLD standard in Brakes. Ive ridden both 7800 and Campy Chorus and loved both of them. So I was wanting to give my SRAM Levers a shot with Shimano 7800 Brakes.

I know that 7900 wont work well with SRAM. But does anyone here have any Exp running 7800 with SRAM shifters?

Any Experiences or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks in Advance.

[thegunner]

not rehashing the other thread, but someone mentioned TRP970s, +1 on those.

I've run shimano brakes with SRAM before, it's more or less the same (old gen 7800 and 10s SRAM). i think there might be actuation ratio changes in the newer stuff.

[Shortsocks]

not rehashing the other thread, but someone mentioned TRP970s, +1 on those.

I've run shimano brakes with SRAM before, it's more or less the same (old gen 7800 and 10s SRAM). i think there might be actuation ratio changes in the newer stuff.

Hey Gunner!

I looked at the TRP970's and damn those are $$. A Hundred bucks, more or less, and I can pick up the EE Cycleworks. The only reason I was looking at the 7800's is I can generally find those for 50-70 bucks a pair which for just wanting to try them out seemed okay.

What do you mean by "More or less the same"? Did you like it?

[ergott]

I have Sram Force on one bike. Nothing at all wrong with the braking. I would skip the fetish talk and stick with what you already have.

You can upgrade the housing if you really want to experiment. It's cheaper. Jagwire and Yokozuna make great compressionless housing.

[thegunner]

I have Sram Force on one bike. Nothing at all wrong with the braking. I would skip the fetish talk and stick with what you already have.

You can upgrade the housing if you really want to experiment. It's cheaper. Jagwire and Yokozuna make great compressionless housing.

i actually agree with this, all my bikes are SRAM red 10s now and i don't feel any worse off on braking. FWIW, i bought a set of 970s for $100 so... i don't know what they actually go for.

[bikerboy337]

....or try some different pads...

I found that kool stop salmon pads make a world of difference from stock pads...

[benb]

The worst thing you can do is end up with a set of levers and brakes which each have a different idea about the correct mechanical advantage. Easy to do with Shimano constantly changing the lever mechanical advantage, and really annoying if you're on a bike that uses STI levers but needs a type of brake that Shimano doesn't really think is important.

My experience was SRAM brakes worked fine.. most of the hate here is about shifting & reliability.

[guru]

Running Sram Red brakes with 7800. Works great.

[djg21]

....or try some different pads...

I found that kool stop salmon pads make a world of difference from stock pads...

Always! IME, these cure most braking problems.

[Big Dan]

Try the cables, housings and pads. Nothing wrong with Sram.

[54ny77]

SRAM brakes work pretty darned well there's absolutely nothing wrong with 'em with SRAM levers. No need to get rid of 'em. Get rid of the stock SRAM cables and put some good aftermarket cable like Yokozuna Reaction and you will feel the difference. It's a marked difference. Thicker cable and housing is ridiculously stiff.

Only downside to that housing I've experienced is that while performance doesn't degrade, moisture somehow finds its way inside and you can see little bits of rust eventually start to form on the steel "loops" in some places. Not visually appealing if you are super particular about that kind of thing.

But other than that, Red brakes, for example, have monstrous clamping force. I've never had an issue and I'm a big kid sometimes (although rarely) zooming downhill.

[George Ab]

I have a Sram Red setup on one bike and Shimano Ultegra on another. I like them both.