SRAM Group Tested; After 1000 meters

By Alex and Andy (in italics)

While the guys at Cyclingnews and Velonews are prudently waiting to ride 1000 miles before giving their verdict on this highly anticipated group, we decided to take advantage of the kind offer from our new friends at Altheus bike shop and review it ourselves. They lent us a couple of Orbea’s, an Opal built with the top of the line Force Group, and an Aqua equipped with the second tier Rival group (the Force is $1800 and the Rival $1100). We managed to make it up to the park and then complete two loops, skipping the hill on the second and stopping about eight times for water in the midst of triple digit temperatures. We were so dehydrated we pulled up to a Central Park vendor and bought two purple Gatorades on the NYVC expense account. When Schmalz finds out we went over budget this month, there’s gonna be hell to pay.

I just want to say a quick bwa ha ha since the Opal was in my size. I got to ride the better group on the better bike. Also, the Opal felt really really gooooood.

@##=#<7,L>@##=# The Shifters
The first things you notice are the shifters, which are cocked at an angle, pointing slightly away from the center of the bike (see illustration). It’s a bit strange at first but after shifting and braking a few times it makes a lot of sense: the shifters are more accessible and it’s easier to get leverage. I couldn’t see any downside besides the initial awkwardness. If you have smaller hands, I think it would be even more beneficial. On the minus side, the way that the cable is routed out of the shifters on to the tops, under the gummed hoods, is a bit uncomfortable. The shifters feel good to my hand resembling Shimano’s before Lance had them extended up in the last iteration (ST-7800).

I really like the ergonomics of the shifters. The lever faces are beveled to the outside, matching the angle of your fingers. The lever angle looks strange, but feels totally natural to me – on the bike you can’t tell they’re that crooked. I actually think these resemble the ‘Lance’ DA10 shifters. The bodies are thinner and easier to wrap your fingers around, and have no hidden sharp edges like DA9.

@##=#<8,R>@##=# Shifting gears
To shift, one pushes the shifters in a little to get into a smaller cog and more to get into a bigger one. I was warned it takes some getting used to but it really didn’t take long to do it without thinking twice, and it works quite well when using both shifters at the same time.

I was pleasantly surprised to find that there’s a very strong ‘stop’ between the two types of shifts. There’s little chance of upshifting when you intend to downshift. I got used to it right away, but on the way back downtown I did screw up many times while dodging traffic. I guess it’ll take a little longer for it to be totally second nature. Also, the action is quite a bit heavier than DA10, but it’s not as if my fingers were cramping up at the end of the ride. You can upshift one to three gears at once, but because of the heavier action, it’s harder to sense the clicks that let you know how many gears you’ve shifted. Front shifting was very solid and fast. The chain climbed up the big ring without having to press the chain against the big ring for a moment. The ‘sprint shifting’ technique (where you trap the shift lever to the bars while in the drops) has been highly touted, and it’s every bit as cool as they say. The amount of travel needed to drop down a gear is miniscule, so it’s really just a flick of the elbow and you’re in a harder gear.

@##=#<1,L>@##=# Trimming:
Here was a problem especially when crossing the chain, and even when you are just crossing your gears a little bit. You can’t trim the front derailleur when the chain’s on the big ring. The bike I rode was not set up by Altheus’ excellent mechanic Andy Cicero so it was a little off and that tiny error was exacerbated by the fact I couldn’t trim the front derailleur. There is a two position adjustment in the small ring so it isn’t as much of a problem.

I can sort of overlook this, because I never use the two biggest cogs in the big ring, and vice versa. My bike WAS set up by Andy C, and I didn’t get any chain rub if I stayed out of those crossover combinations. Campy users will crow about their multiple trim positions, though. Also, there are two mounting holes in the front derailleur (one above the other), which should help it accommodate compact rings, oval rings, and giant TT rings. A totally hidden but brilliant feature. One last thing. Alex dropped his chain and wasn’t able to shift it back on.

The cassette is called Open Glide which refers to the fact that there’s one missing tooth on the smaller cogs, to help the chain ease into the cog. Under normal shifting conditions it does work well, but I found that under a heavier load or a crossed chain, sometimes it was a slight disadvantage.

I couldn’t detect any difference in shifting due to the missing teeth. It appeared to be on par with DA10 – smooth if you do it right, clunky if you shift under load like an idiot.

@##=#<4,L>@##=# Design of the brakes and cranks
The cranks follow the now conventional outboard bearing design, with carbon on the Force group and Aluminum on the Ulterga level Rival. The brakes work well, too. The cables are a bit rough and to my mind resemble the ratchety feel of Campy more than the ultra smooth Shimano, but now I’m getting really picky.

I like the fact that the left crank bolt bottoms out, so you can’t screw up the preload adjustment on the BB bearings. Other than that, they felt like…cranks. I’d be talking out of my butt (even more than usual) if I said I could tell you anything about the brakes. I only notice brakes when they don’t work.

Hot or Not
Overall I was not impressed by the aesthetics. It’s not that I hated it, but for the most part it was simply too much like the competition, only a little more squarish. Perhaps they are thinking – to capture a larger market share it probably isn’t a good idea to try something radical as it might offend some, but I disagree. Their product is essentially a rider’s bold statement about choosing something different. The first Dura Ace 10 speed cranks are a great example of effective industrial design, the aesthetics purposefully called attention to the radical new two piece crank; love them or hate them they seemed to make all other look designs old fashioned as soon as you saw them. @##=#<6,R>@##=#

Well, I pick bikes on graphics and paint jobs, so far be it for me to scoff at aesthetics. I’d call this group ‘utilitarian’. The curves are less refined than Shimano or Campy. The hard bevels in the cranks and the straight buttressed arm on the brakes look more industrial than organic. I’m surprised the rear derailleur doesn’t incorporate their mountain version’s open body or direct cable routing/pulley system. Even though I love the ergonomics of the shifters, it does look like the designers just got tired when they got to the tops of the brake levers.

Our hasty conclusions
The first road groups from SRAM are off to a great start and worthy of serious consideration for your next bike. SRAM can always take heart in the example of Shimano’s Dura-Ace group, released in the late 70’s as a challenge to Campy’s iron clad grip on high end bikes. No one took them too seriously at the time, but by embracing innovation when Campy shied away it made up a little ground every year. Now Campy – the formerly undisputed leader – has been forced to play catch up, and often copies Shimano and then adds a bit of carbon to justify the cost difference. I know some Campy fans will complain and claim that Campy works better or lasts longer. Fair enough, but here are some things that Campy has copied from Shimano in the past twenty years: the freehub to replace thread on cassettes, indexed shifting, Hyperglide (shaped tooth profiles to help shifting), ramped and pinned front chainrings, road STI shifter/ brake levers, cartridge bottom brackets, dual pivot brake calipers, and now, finally, external bottom brackets.

SRAM has, of course, incorporated all of the latest innovations as well as trying out a few of their own that have migrated from their mtb bike componentry, but the true test will be if they can engineer something so original that the competition is forced to copy from them. If they do, I’m sure serious road cyclists, like you, will embrace them and the recreational rides will follow suit. If they do not they will end up in the trash heap of bicycle history next to Simplex and Suntour.

@##=#<3,L>@##=# You are what you ride
Do you think the two party system is too restrictive, so you vote independent? Think PC’s are boorish and common, and Macs just over-designed toys? You probably run Linux. My feeling is that many people will buy this group based on a deep rooted contrarian streak: you can make a whole bike without a shred of Campy or Shimano, and you don’t often see that, or perhaps you want to build an all American-made. Well, that’s as good a reason as any.