Shifter reach - Campy, Shim, Sram

R3awak3n · #1 11-23-2017, 08:23 AM

Yesterday I could not resist this crazy deal on ebay, brand new Shimano RS685. I was in the process of converting my gravel bike to jones bars but just could not resist this deal.

So now I am about to have 1 bike with shimano hydros, 1 bike with campy chorus and 1 bike with maybe etap (could be EPS, I dunno yet but kind of set on ETAP). Thats right, 1 of each.

Question for the group, what is up with the reach of shifters? I know that the Shimano hydros are huge (and ugly, sorry shimano, campy looks and feels better

) so what reach difference should I expect? My elephant has a 110mm stem, I may have to go down to a 100mm?

What about etap? how does it compare to campy? I read that sram has the least reach, do I need to go to a bigger stem?

All my handlebars are the same, all ritchey, all curve compact with the same reach.

Black Dog · #2 11-23-2017, 08:37 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by R3awak3n

Yesterday I could not resist this crazy deal on ebay, brand new Shimano RS685. I was in the process of converting my gravel bike to jones bars but just could not resist this deal.

So now I am about to have 1 bike with shimano hydros, 1 bike with campy chorus and 1 bike with maybe etap (could be EPS, I dunno yet but kind of set on ETAP). Thats right, 1 of each.

Question for the group, what is up with the reach of shifters? I know that the Shimano hydros are huge (and ugly, sorry shimano, campy looks and feels better

) so what reach difference should I expect? My elephant has a 110mm stem, I may have to go down to a 100mm?

What about etap? how does it compare to campy? I read that sram has the least reach, do I need to go to a bigger stem?

All my handlebars are the same, all ritchey, all curve compact with the same reach.

Umm, do you mean the reach from the bar to the brake lever? I.E. Are my fingers long enough to grab the lever when my hands are in the drops? There is no such a thing as needing to change the length of your stem because of different brake levers. They all have more or less the same distance from the bar to the up curve where you would rest your hand.

d_douglas · #3 11-23-2017, 09:13 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Black Dog

Umm, do you mean the reach from the bar to the brake lever? I.E. Are my fingers long enough to grab the lever when my hands are in the drops? There is no such a thing as needing to change the length of your stem because of different brake levers. They all have more or less the same distance from the bar to the up curve where you would rest your hand.

Not so! I experienced this myself when changing from Athena to RS685 levers - they definitely stretch out the cockpit. I went from a 110mm to a 90mm but will likely go back to a 100mm to meet middle ground. My last few rides have been more like MTB rides, so the shorter stem was great, but the 100mm will be better middle ground.

R3awak3n · #4 11-23-2017, 09:59 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by d_douglas

Not so! I experienced this myself when changing from Athena to RS685 levers - they definitely stretch out the cockpit. I went from a 110mm to a 90mm but will likely go back to a 100mm to meet middle ground. My last few rides have been more like MTB rides, so the shorter stem was great, but the 100mm will be better middle ground.

this is exactly what I mean. I know the RS685 stretch you out a bit but I was hoping to go from a 110 to a 100. Wondering if 90mm might be better (that kind of bike would be fine with a 90mm). I guess I should look into it when the levers arrive.

Black Dog · #5 11-23-2017, 10:20 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by d_douglas

Not so! I experienced this myself when changing from Athena to RS685 levers - they definitely stretch out the cockpit. I went from a 110mm to a 90mm but will likely go back to a 100mm to meet middle ground. My last few rides have been more like MTB rides, so the shorter stem was great, but the 100mm will be better middle ground.

Fair enough.

R3awak3n · #6 11-23-2017, 11:03 AM

also, anyone run 180mm rotors with RS685?

Reason i was running a 180 in the front was because elephant NFE, spyre and SP hub don't work so well together and with the 180 I got good clearance between the disc and the rotor.

I already have the caliper but with hydro it might be overkill...

bigbill · #7 11-23-2017, 11:05 AM

My Coconino gravel bike has 685 levers while all my other bikes are campy. The 685 levers do stretch me out a little if I'm "supermanning" the hoods, but the reach is adjustable and the setup procedure has you bring them all the way in to bleed and adjust the brakes. I set my bike up to ride in the drops with Salsa bars so I left them on short reach so I can two finger the brakes and shifting by sliding up from the drops. I like that feature.

The bike was set up much like my Serotta with a 58 top tube and a 120 stem. I'm considering a 110 stem to stretch out less because of the shifters.

R3awak3n · #8 11-23-2017, 11:14 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bigbill

My Coconino gravel bike has 685 levers while all my other bikes are campy. The 685 levers do stretch me out a little if I'm "supermanning" the hoods, but the reach is adjustable and the setup procedure has you bring them all the way in to bleed and adjust the brakes. I set my bike up to ride in the drops with Salsa bars so I left them on short reach so I can two finger the brakes and shifting by sliding up from the drops. I like that feature.

The bike was set up much like my Serotta with a 58 top tube and a 120 stem. I'm considering a 110 stem to stretch out less because of the shifters.

good to know and that is cool that you can set the reach of the levers. I will probably try to get the shortest reach I can. From what I have been reading it seems that I will definitely have to go down 1 stem size. I do have a 90mm so I will try that first, if too short I will go to the preferred 100

RyanH · #9 11-23-2017, 11:39 AM

I found Campy and Shimano to be pretty close to not need adjusting stem length. SRAM is something around 1.5cm less reach. It's a pretty big difference.

R3awak3n · #10 11-23-2017, 12:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rchman

I found Campy and Shimano to be pretty close to not need adjusting stem length. SRAM is something around 1.5cm less reach. It's a pretty big difference.

interesting, well I can go 100mm on that bike so that is ok.

skouri1 · #11 11-23-2017, 07:34 PM

The generation of levers also makes a difference ... noticeable difference between 7900 and 7800 for example

simonov · #12 11-24-2017, 05:15 AM

As another datapoint, I have R685 levers on my gravel bike and my road bikes are either mechanical sram, etap or campagnolo chorus. I can swap between the SRAM and Chorus without much difference in how they feel. The SRAM levers may feel a little shorter than the Chorus, but not by too much. The R685 levers are huge and clunky and much longer. You can easily lose a centimeter from your stem before they'll feel too close (assuming other bike measurements are fairly similar). I also swapped to bars with a deeper drop than what I usually use to balance out the shorter stem and not feel cramped in the drops.

R3awak3n · #13 11-24-2017, 05:47 AM

Thanks Simonov. I think I am going to start with a 100mm stem and go feom there.

FlashUNC · #14 11-24-2017, 08:08 AM

Fwiw, the hood length between Campy 11 and eTap is pretty comparable, but the Campy brake lever is much easier to each due to it's shape from the bar. Campy curves back a bit more while eTap levers are more straight. Had to take advantage of the SRAM reach adjustment built into their levers to grab the brake levers from the drops. Not a huge adjustment, but it was necessary.