spouses and campy/shimano/sram

[flydhest]

Any thoughts on the following. All three makers make great stuff. I am about to get the wife a road bike. My inclination is to build it up with Campy since that is what I ride. As a result, we could just swap wheels, if necessary. That seems logical to me, but I was wondering if others have things differently in their homes. For reference, all my bikes, (including the track bike) are Campy.

Shimano/SRAM have a wider market for wheels and such, so that might be a reason for my wife, who is not a gear head, to have that. Dunno really, just musing.

[firerescuefin]

Any thoughts on the following. All three makers make great stuff. I am about to get the wife a road bike. My inclination is to build it up with Campy since that is what I ride. As a result, we could just swap wheels, if necessary. That seems logical to me, but I was wondering if others have things differently in their homes. For reference, all my bikes, (including the track bike) are Campy.

Shimano/SRAM have a wider market for wheels and such, so that might be a reason for my wife, who is not a gear head, to have that. Dunno really, just musing.


Keep it the same...if for nothing else wheel interoperability and less tools to purchase and store.

[Mark McM]

While all three component manufacturers make quality equipment, they different somewhat in ergonomics - specifically, hood sizes and shapes, and lever placement and travel angles. In particular, women often have smaller hands then men, and some hoods/levers simply work better for smaller hands than others.

Does your wife already have a bike? Does she already have a prefered shifting system? If not, maybe she should go to a bike shop and test out a few systems first.

In the end, keeping the spouse happy with a system she is comfortable with may be more important than the convenience of parts commonality ...

[flydhest]

While all three component manufacturers make quality equipment, they different somewhat in ergonomics - specifically, hood sizes and shapes, and lever placement and travel angles. In particular, women often have smaller hands then men, and some hoods/levers simply work better for smaller hands than others.

Does your wife already have a bike? Does she already have a prefered shifting system? If not, maybe she should go to a bike shop and test out a few systems first.

In the end, keeping the spouse happy with a system she is comfortable with may be more important than the convenience of parts commonality ...

Totally agree. She does not have a road bike now, only a hybrid. She has ridden a friend's bike with Shimano, but since she has never used brifters before, everything is new.

She's 5'9, though, so she is tall for a woman and doesn't have especially small hands.

[christian]

My wife rides 571mm ERTRO wheels, so not much interchangeability there. She also rides 165mm cranks, so not much interchangeability there. So she rides Campagnolo not because of interchangeability, but because she has class!

[Ken Robb]

maybe she should try riding different brands to see which she prefers, especially noting relative comfort of the hoods.

[Smiley]

she is tall for a woman and doesn't have especially small hands.

BINGO I would then opt for the new Campy 11 brifters set up as 10 speed shifting as in Athena and then you can swap out all kinds of parts.

Why no Bedford in your or her future :)

[SPOKE]

Stay with the campy. That way you won't have to manage the wheel issue and slight differences in keeping the stuff working well.

[zap]

Stay with Campy.

My wife's Serotta is Campy but alas-650c wheels so no wheel swapping for us.

[norcalbiker]

I went through the same thing last year when I was looking for a bike for my wife. I was really thinking of Campy since I have two bikes with campy. Long story short, I endup getting her a Look 566 frame and built it with Sram force/XX. Meaning that everything is Sram Force but the rear der. and the cassette, they are Sram XX. Reason for it, is because we are surrounded with hills and i was able to mix sram force with 32 rear sram XX cassette. If that is not enough I can even go 34 or 36. You have to climb over 2000 ft just to do 20 miles ride in our area.

[gone]

I'm currently going through the process of ordering parts for a new bike for my wife. I really wanted to put Campy on it but she's small and Campy doesn't offer 165 mm crank arms in any current group :crap: Also, wheel interoperability is not possible since her new frame is designed around 650c wheels so I'll be building a set of those for her.

It'd be nice to only have to stock one set of spares (chains, cassettes, etc) but her bike is going to be built with Dura Ace 7900.

[Karin Kirk]

Here are some key issues I've seen with component choices for women, in order of importance:

- ability to comfortably brake from both the drops and the hoods
- throw of front shift lever such that she can comfortably shift from both drops and hoods
- shape of brake hoods being a good match ergonomically. (I am a similar size as your wife and for me this is the only one that is a factor.)

And you know this already, but the setup of the bike and the size/shape of the handlebars also have a large influence on the factors listed above.

All of these trump the ability to swap wheels if needed. So I like the idea of a little test riding on shop bikes or those of friends and teammates. For me the favorites were really obvious and I'm glad to be able to pick what works best.

Happy shopping!

[cassa]

- throw of front shift lever such that she can comfortably shift from both drops and hoods
This was a big deal for my wife, who had great trouble upshifting in the front with her Shimano triple. It really looked like she had to contort herself and put a lot of effort into it.

We ended up switching her to Campy because the lever doesn't have to be thrown as far, and she's very happy with it. But, I had no real problem having both Campy and Shimano in the house, and we made sure that she got to feel what the shifters would be like before we made the switch.

One minor advantage of switching her to Campy was that I've only ever used Campy, so I've gotten pretty good at setting it up and adjusting it. Adjusting her Shimano triple was always a huge hassle for me. I could do it, but it always took lots of tinkering.

[thwart]

Stay with Campy.

My wife's Serotta is Campy but alas-650c wheels so no wheel swapping for us.

Ditto.

But insert Waterford... maybe someday a Serotta. It's hilly here, but a 50/34 compact and a 29 rear cog work well.

[rugbysecondrow]

All else equal, stay with campy. Otherwise, go with what fits. That is what I did, or should I say my wife did as she made the decision.

[vqdriver]

let the missus decide what to get. the controls should be intuitive, whether the feel of the hoods or the mechanics of use. otherwise she may not get more deeply into the sport than she already is, and alas those wheels on her bike will indeed become your wheels.

[oldpotatoe]

Any thoughts on the following. All three makers make great stuff. I am about to get the wife a road bike. My inclination is to build it up with Campy since that is what I ride. As a result, we could just swap wheels, if necessary. That seems logical to me, but I was wondering if others have things differently in their homes. For reference, all my bikes, (including the track bike) are Campy.

Shimano/SRAM have a wider market for wheels and such, so that might be a reason for my wife, who is not a gear head, to have that. Dunno really, just musing.

Which shifter shape does her hands like?
Get that one. If she doesn't care, get Campagnolo...

[flydhest]

Sounds like campy. She doesn't have a road bike now, so anything will be new.