Description If you haven't already seen or heard of it, let us introduce you to the Force gruppo. Force is the pinnacle: a cost-be-damned collection of components, led by our revolutionary Double Tap Controls, de...
Bike Setup: Cervelo RS, SRAM Force, Kyserium SL with Fusion 2 tubeless tires.
Summary: ordered a Cervelo RS with the 2009 Sram Force hardware. I love the group set. The rear shifts easly and directly. the front shifts, one click one shift. Very nice. The break levers are WAY cool and fit your hand real well. the hoods work so well that I now ride with gloves with very litte padding. The shifting took about 5 minutes to get used to and after just two rides, I dont even have to think about it at all. The brakes work very well. the front chain ring shifts very easily both up and down.
What is most interesting is how easy it shifts under load. Climbing a hill while standing up and shifting is real easy. The shifting occurs without any jump in the pedals. All around, this is a very nice setup.
Strengths: Just buy it, you wont regret it.
Weaknesses: It is worth some time to setup both the front and rear as speced by SRAM. the bike shop did as crappy job adjusting both the front and rear. But once properly set up, it works great.
Similar Products Used: Ultegra
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Bike Setup: 2007 Orbea Orca started with Sram Force and moved back to Campy, Fulcrum Zero
Summary: Sram force SCAM FARCE Terrible quality control, had to send replacement parts back to get replaced. I am a large,strong very experienced rider who rides ten to fifteen thousand km a season. Bought the Sram to give a new kid a chance. Big mistake for me. The groupo does not have the ability to make trim adjustments and the set up has to be so tight to even use all the gears that a change in temperature of more than ten or fifteen degrees means readjusting set screws. The crosschaining aspect renders one gear unusable, and two very noisy and rough. After one summer season I had to switch the groupo out after Sram refused to deal with me after so many warranty issues. Im not a whiny pain in the ass kind of guy but the stuff I was getting was unusable and very poorly made for a high end groupo. Lots of factory rounded nuts and spots where an allen key had slipped out and torn metal causing rust at almost every factory installed nut and bolt. The groupo went on a smaller friends bike and was much better but still unacceptable for what it was advertised to be. Buy the other stuff.
Strengths: looks good
Weaknesses: Sram Force The crank was replaced three times. Out of the new box the chain rings were so badly made that we had to file the burrs off the chain rings. Once installed the crank had a 3MM warp. The replacement was slightly better untill I had about 1500km on it and then the bonding at the carbon crank arm to metal failed. Time number three was a different year model that was made to solve some of the problems. The front derailluer was also replaced due to manufactoring faults. The groupo never shifted well and the ten speed was actually nine because of the lack of adjustment. The crosschaining was so bad in any adjustment pattern tried buy several good bike wrenches that the bike would only run seven gears well with two being noisy and causing excesive wear and one unusable. Fed up after 6000km and four chains and repacement chain rings. The stuff is junk on a large frame with a big strong rider. Smaller frames have done better with this groupo on a friends bike but even he switched back to 105 after a while due to adjustment problems. Its in a Box in my shop. The Campy was worth the extra.
Similar Products Used: Campy Record, Chorus Dura Ace, Ultegra
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Bike Setup: Time Edge Racer, Aksium wheels, SRAM Force, Fizik Aliante (by far my favorite saddle EVER).
Summary: I've put about 500 miles on this groupo. I started to do the bike build myself, but found an excellent LBS that did it for a great price. I highly recommend this, they made all the professional adjustments and it rides precisely and smoothly. There's a mechanical precision that's different than what I think is shimano's soft almost mushy smoothness. I still have my Shimano 105 which I love and is going on my rain bike, but I prefer and LOVE my SRAM. I never miss shifts, they are immediate, and the shifting mechanism took about 1 minute for me to figure out and get used to. I love the stealth cable set up too. The brakes stop on a DIME. Actually I had to get used to the exacting nature of the very precise stopping that the cables and calipers provided. I don't regret spending the cash at all. I never got any of the front derailleur or chain noise problems that so many others have complained about. I contribute that all to the professional bike build done by B1 Bikes in Columbus, OH. The price point and weight balance, I think less than 200 grams heavier than SRAM Red, and definitely lighter than anything Shimano has, at least as of summer 08.
Strengths: Precision
Weight
Design
Shifting mechanism
BRAKES are incredibly STRONG
Weaknesses: Availability, I had to go to ebay to get the set up. I would have paid more to get my hands on it at my LBS, to support them as well as for warranty issues if they arise.
Similar Products Used: Shimano 105, Ultegra, SRAM rival
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Bike Setup: Cannondale CAAD8, Neuvation R28SL3, Vredestein TriComp, Cinelli tape, Force Group, Specialized Toupe saddle, Giant carbon post, Easton EA50 bar/stem, FSA carbon headset.
Summary: I have had the SRAM Force road group for about a month now and have put about 200 miles on. I think that the group is awesome looking. I love the graphite weave finish on all of the components. The shifting is quick and snappy. Unlike Shimano, the levers are stiffer and give you an awesome feel for the components. It is also a lot more fun to ride than shimano. The group is also light. Going back to the shifters, they have shorter reach than the shimano products and also are more comfortable. I dont know what people are saying about the finish being bad. I dont have one abrasion or scratch on the group yet. Another thing, other people have been complaining about the lack of trim on the front derailleur. That is a load of crap! When the front derailleur s properly adjusted there is no cross chain rub. Also, there is trim when shifting into the direction of the big ring.
Another huge pro to the group is its cost. I got the group for $1000. An equally good group (Campy Chorus of Dura-Ace) would have cost me $300 to a $1000 more dollars. Best group for the money.
Summary: This is a follow-up to my previous initial review of SRAM Force. I've now put over 1000 miles on the Force group and have a more well-informed opinion.
The basic function of any group is to shift and brake effectively. For the sake of this discussion, I'll leave Braking as one topic and split shifting into Front and Rear...
1)Braking is fantastic. I don't understand how anyone can claim Shimano brakes are more powerful or have better modulation. The SRAM Force brakes/levers are the best road brakes I've ever used and are far superior to Ultegra. This may simply be due to the Force brake lever being a single pivot lever (making the brakes feel much more positive and consistent), but I think it's more than just that. Kudos to SRAM.
2)The rear shifting is very good, but not great. It shifts fast and aggressively with a very positive and mechanical feel. But it requires too much hand force to shift the derailleur up the cog stack, which is probably due to the short shift lever (compared to Shimano) and the crazy cable housing routing of the hidden cables. And it's a very noisy system, with constant clacking and clicking even with everything on the rear perfectly aligned. Those complaints aside, it is still an effective shifting system that is lighter/simpler than Shimano, and the hoods are much more comfortable (once you get the hidden cables tucked away in the right place).
3. The front shifting is a disaster. SRAM should be embarrassed by it and should fire the designers/product managers who are responsible. The lever takes FAR to much pressure to shift the derailleur in either direction (even down!?) and it requires FAR too much throw to shift the derailleur up to big ring. But those are minor mistakes compared to the lack of big ring trim. STUPID STUPID STUPID STUPID STUPID STUPID. There is no way to keep the chain from grinding incessantly on the front derailleur in all situations. Either it grinds when in the small cog under hard efforts, or it grinds constantly on the 2 or 3 largest cogs. "No trim" might actually work in an ideal world, but every frame ever made has some degree of bottom bracket sway, no chainring ever made is perfectly straight, and no derailleur always ends up in the EXACT same position on every shift (especially given the high amount of cable drag caused by the sharp bends of the hidden cable routing). Sometimes the ring grinds in high gears, sometimes in low. Not to mention that my Force cranks are not perfectly straight as one of the 5 arms is out of alignment inboard by a fraction of a millimeter, so both chainrings have a little inboard wobble as that arm passes making alignment absolutely impossible. In my previous review I said the lack of trim might be a deal breaker. I have now concluded it is absolutely a deal breaker. DO NOT BUY SRAM ROAD PRODUCTS UNTIL THEY GET THEIR FRONT SHIFTING IRONED OUT. PERIOD. It amazes me that SRAM would release a product with such a glaring problem, and that they actually designed in the problem on purpose! It's very simple: put 4 positions in the shifter for the front derailleur just like Shimano (low, low-high, high-low, and high). There, problem solved. SRAM has a strange way of making a name for itself in the road group market: make riders HATE your product more and more with every pedal stroke. Genius! Honestly, the only way SRAM will ever be anything but a joke to me now is if they offer a no-cost or VERY low-cost trade-in front shifter upgrade to current Force/Rival owners. Unbelievable.
One more thing: earlier reviewers complained about cheap finish quality of the Force group (particularly the carbon parts). I 100% agree. After 3 rides my cranks looked like they were 3 years old. I have no idea where the scratches and gouges came from, but my OLD OLD OLD Ultegra cranks with tens-of-thousands of miles on them look better than my one-month-old Force cranks.
Weaknesses: Front shifting is an inexcusable, unmitigated, unbelievable disaster. If SRAM had to give back a nickel of their profits from last year every time their front shifting pissed off one of their customers, they would have declared bankruptcy by now (and they grossed over $300 million last year). And don't forget the cheap, fragile finish quality on the carbon parts.
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