SRAM Chatter: Rival / Force

[Too Tall]

Let the good times roll. Talking about the road group. Tips, tricks, tuning, suggestions for future features etc. Pls. add your experiences here.

===================

Good guy InGobWeTrust facilitated an amazing deal for one of my Triathletes who plans to make the move to road racing next yr. We SCORED a new C'dale system 6 with SRAM grouppo. Bike arrived this eve....thank you very much Mr. generous...and I immed. began twizzling the bike..apologies to the REAL "Twizzler" but you get me YO.

SRAM everywhere! I had to change out the r. der. cable and that gave me a chance to appreciate and understand some fine points of SRAM brifters. The spec. says to use a 1.2 cable (?) Sooooo, a std. shimano should work right? Not really optimal in my HO. It "felt" d@mn tight passing into the receiver so tried a tighter spec. Had to use a campy tandem cable to make it right. These are rolled a bit tigher. Could have used an QBP cable as well, they also are on the skinny side. To thread the cable just peal the hood back from bar side and aim for the hole! Helps to shift back and forth gently to work the cable into the system.

SRAM cable attachment at the r. der. is SWEEEEET :) You'll have to try it to really appreciate the fact it make it easy to pretension the wire without having to grab it with a set of plyers or wrestle it with greasy fingers...a clever wrap around the der. body and a "U" turn over the bolt makes it duck soup. Kudos to SRAM for that nice bit :)

In the stand, I totally dig how it shifts and der. adjustment is bulletproof esp. compared to the ALREADY easy adjustment / setup for Campag and Shimano 10. No kidding, this is even easier. I really am impressed. The C'dale came with a DA 10 cassette btw. Fr. der. setup is easy. The fr. der. is designed perfect for RR gearing...heck I was even able to set it so that the fr. der. rubs in the 25 (reminds you to gtf outta that gear asap!!!!) and no rub in any other combo :) Nice, I am impresed. Shifting is snappy...I don't know where these reviews get off saying fr. shifiting is not great that's BS...but a real road test is the answer so I'll back off until that happens...in the stand it seems great.

Well, it's late...oh did I mention the bike weighs 15 lbs. and it has heavy wheels? Geesh. Lucky kid. Yeah it's carbon and some alum, yeah it's full of propietary bits and yeah it impresses me as a BA race bike. Hate that ;)

[sw3759]

thanks for the tips TooTall.i just picked up a Force group but have not had chance to install it yet.just took it out and played with it a bit.great finish,looks top quality and i'm anxious to try it out.i was bit intrigued by the rr der cable routing.curious how that cable ramp is going to wear..time will tell
Scott

[Too Tall]

They have a sim. r.der cable wrap for their mtn. grouppo so it's not a prob. In fact I have same darn thing on my F.Chance commuter for yrs. Perfect. that is really a pivot the cable does not slide.

Another thing...past reviews said there is not trim ability for the fr. der. and that's not what I am seeing. The fr. ring def. does have a trim "click" if you will but only if you set it up such that the cable starts pretty taught from the get go...thus the first push of the lever shifts it to the "trim" spot and it rests jus a weeeeee bit out twords the cranks...not that this bike needs it but it appears to be there...push gently and it "trims" inward a touch...a harder or a second push and you are in the big ring....pretty slick.

Something else I notice is that the brifters have slightly longer levers or perhaps are angled down closer to the bars than campag or shimano so crit riders and folks who ride drops alot will love these. You get a dead flat top position and levers close to the bar when hands are in the drops. Whoever said the brifters are designed for small hands is off the mark...my mitts like these just fine and the tops are flat and long...really really nice. WHO the HE!! are these reviewers anyway???? Crackheads or what?

CAN'T wait to get this stuff for myself...just have to wear out a ton of 9 spd. first...as if :rolleyes:

[Smiley]

I should have a Rival build kit here in a few days , will post my observations on the brifters once they get mounted on the size cycle and compared to 10 speed from S and C companies in 10 speed set up :)

[bcm119]

TT- so do the brifters shorten your reach compared to shimano 9?

[Too Tall]

Actually I forgot to measre...offhand if I were to guess they are the same. Dang it, "the kid" just took the c'dale for a spin...apparently he likes it. Derr.