Price Paid:  $1200.00 at eBay

Favorite Ride:
Anywhere without Cars

Bike Setup:
2008 TCR Advanced ISP Team edition, SRAM Red/Force group, Bont. Race X Lite wheels, Nokon Cables, Specialized Phenom SL 143

Summary:
Switched from Dura Ace to Force and Loved it so I decided to upgrade to RED. I upgraded to the RED Shifters, RD, Crank, and BB. I have never been happier; after about 2000 miles i LOVE this setup. The force front dérailleur shifts better than the RED in my opinion, and I love the )G10-70 Cassette. Had to drop the PC-1090 chain in favor of the more rigid PC-1070; being a 205 pound rider, the 1090 CREAKED bad! Only problem I have is the same as everyone else, a trim on the small ring would've been nice but isn't required. My RD stays adjusted without any problems but every one in a while my non drive side will slip when on the 11 gear and cannot find the problem (really doesn't inspire confidence when sprinting). Other than that, breaking is solid and smooth (I run compressionless nokon housings which seem to help a lot!), front shifting is precise and dead on with the force front derailleur, Rear derailleur is good but a bit questionable at times.

Overall, for best performance, I would recommend going with the RED Shifters, Crank and BB, then with force for the remainder (maybe upgrade to the ceramic pulleys on the force rear d?). Shifts great, for for the price you will pay, it leaves something to be desired....

Strengths:
Great shifting, smooth, looks great, great stopping power, Ceramic bearings make a noticeable difference after about 1000 miles. Favorite part is the Ergonomics of the shifters, Shimano is too skinny at the base and clunky at the top, campy is to small all the way around, almost fragile even, I thing SRAM got it just right! Who can forget, the group looks great! Also has very crisp shifting! really snaps into gear and i love the positive feel!

Weaknesses:
Expensive and requires tedious adjustments; rear dérailleur requires a drilling modification to fit the Nokon Cables.

Similar Products Used:
Dura Ace 7800, Ultegra 6600, Record Carbon/TI, Force, Rival

Price Paid:  $0.00

Bike Setup:
Parlee Z4, SRAM Red

Summary:
Have had SRAM Red for ~2 months and about 1k miles on it. Conclusion: everything else is great (brakes very powerful and crank is slick), but total POS derailleurs, both f&r. I don't care how light it is, I just want it to work and very rarely have to do adjustments. Problems include: no f. derail. trim on small ring is a joke (what were they thinking, 95% of time spent in big ring only?); rear derail. goes out of adjustment every 50-60 miles (including one time going right into the rear wheel while shifting into the 26, crazy as that sounds); can't ride the 12 & 13 cog in small chainring without front derail. rubbing, etc. etc. etc. Bike is brand new (a Parlee Z4) so it's not like I'm riding a clunker. Thought it would be a dream ride, felt patriotic getting parts from an American company (to go along with American frame and other U.S. compoents) but this stuff is turning into a nightmare. Tried everything that I (and a couple of very high end bike shops here in NYC) can think of, but long story short is constant adjustment on the f&r derail's. Just got another new rear derailleur (under warranty thanks to the shop that sold me the bike) as well as a new r. derail. hanger from Parlee, hopefully that solves it (will be installed shortly--I'll follow up if any improvement). Otherwise, I'll be looking to swap anyone for a new or slightly used Dura Ace group, straight up! My old 9spd. DA group required maybe a few adjustments on the derail's. over 5+ years. That's what I'm looking for with SRAM, but my SRAM derail's. require adjustments every 5+ hours...

If anyone from SRAM sees this, I'd love for you to contact me with tips and/or suggestions. Thanks.

Strengths:
Light.

Weaknesses:
F&R derail's are a nightmare.

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Price Paid:  $1200.00

Favorite Ride:
all my rides

Bike Setup:
Archon, calviculas, zero G's, tub 404's

Summary:
The hoods felt strange enough for me to have a look under the bar vise area, to see if the tech guy had bunched some bartape under it. The hoods feel thick at the back and tapered towards the front, making the hoods feel unusual in the palm. Shifting is crisp [borderline harsh] then DA/Ult and feels less refined. The RD reacts precisely and maybe a tad faster but noisily so and is quite jarring. There is a solid feel to all the mechs. The FD also shifts confidently.

Strengths:
Solid feel. Shifts confidently. Weight weenie attributes. Levers well designed

Weaknesses:
Chunky, unrefined feel. Not as smooth as DA/Ult. Chain whirr.

Similar Products Used:
DA 7700, 7800, Ult 6800

Price Paid:  $1500.00 at www

Favorite Ride:
Anything with hills

Bike Setup:
Canyon Ultimate CF Pro with SRAM Red, Campagnolo Shamal Ultra wheelset, FSA seatpost and bar, Syntach stem, Selle Italia Thoork saddle and Vittoria tyres.

Summary:
I must say i have mixed feelings about the red group. Yes, it shifts wonderfully, breaks wonderfully, looks wonderfully and is very comfortable. But it is just a bit loud. Yesterday i went up a 30 km long climb to a local hotspot for cyclists. I found myself successible to grinding because i just couldn't bear that sound of the chain scraping on the f/ derailleur. On inspection, it was not really scraping, but the chain was sitting between two cogs on the back in the three lowest gears. I adjusted the gear slightly, climbed back again, and the problem went away. I hope this happened because of cable strech, otherwise i could be adjustring the derailleur a lot.

On a positive note, the hoods are very comfortable. Even with a gash on my palm from a recent crash, i was comfortable. I love the adjustable reach and the shifting. Rating is like 4.5

Strengths:
- shifting
- looks
- comfort

Weaknesses:
- noisy/ easily goes out of adjustment.

Similar Products Used:
Shimano 105, tried Shimano DA but it was simply too smooth!

Price Paid:  $0.00

Favorite Ride:
any hill i can fly my Pino up

Bike Setup:
2007 Pinarello Prince, SRAM Red brake/shifter levers, Red crank, Red FD and RD, Zipp 404 tubs. Will now sell all Red components and switch back to smoother quieter DuraAce.

Summary:
after much debate over tried and true DuraAce or Sram i went with most sram group. Having only tested it for about 30mins on a test bike at my local high end bike store it felt ok. So i purchased the sram red group and brought my pinarello into the store and had them professionally install and tune it.
After a few rides with myself and with group rides i can say im throughly dissapointed. I dont care that the fact that it may be a few grams lighter than DA or Campy but it certainly aint smoother than the 2. And its noisy as hell.
When climbing im on the smaller front ring of course and when out of the saddle i like to be powering away. I dont need to be hearing the chain rub as i shift. With NO lower ring trim on the sram FD it soon becomes extremely annoying. The noise only causes me to shift to find a gear thats not rubbing. Psychologically it can be a big prob to some as they may think that the chain rub is causing friction and drag to pedal efforts. I had my bike shop look at it and see if they could tune it and they said thats the way srams are. SRAM Reds now for sale

Strengths:
crisp gear shifting, short throws
Minute lightness over others but all is negated by chain rub

Weaknesses:
noisy noisy noisy. Not near as smooth as DuraAce or campy record. No diff found in sram crank strength over DA or campy.

Similar Products Used:
Dura Ace groupo and Campy Record groupo