[roscoe]

carbon seat stays are a strange issue, many say that they don't do anything some claim that they make the ride more comfortable

I think that regardless of if they do anything for comfort that I wouldn't want a bonding between two different materials to possibly age and become an issue

I think the Apex equipped new model would likely be lighter, I think the main thing you should decide is if you like how SRAM shifts compared to shimano, some like the double tap, and others don't

 

[roscoe]

I'm leaning towards the 11 but I have never ridden the Sram. How does the double tap work?
Also looking for a better deal.

I personally like the double tap, I'd have bought it but at the time SRAM bikes were more expensive and I didn't want to spend the extra $$$

the gear shift lever only moves in one direction, and the brake lever is fixed
if you move the lever a small amount (there's a click to let you know) it shifts to a smaller gear on the cassette, but if you push the lever farther it shifts up the cassette

the sram shifter can also be pulled in towards the bars to make it easier to shift in the drops (although it's not hard at all to do this with regular 105/tiagra...)

one other difference is the sram has "zero loss", which means there's no slop in the cable, if you move that lever the cable is being pulled, on my 105 you can move the lever a small bit and nothing happens

both work well, it's a matter of preference and price