Australian Cycling Forums - Bicycles Network Australia

Aside from weight savings (which I'll need to investigate more), are there significant performance differences between SRAM Force and Rival that would make paying the price premium for the Force a worthwhile investment.

I've used c.2013 era Rival briefly, and it works just as well as the 5700/5800 105 10s gear it was scheduled to replace. But then I got a hold of a used Force 10s groupset of the same age. I would rate it a step or two above the 105 gear. Is it worth the extra cost for the weight saving? Honestly, probably not, but that's a purely personal opinion.

Jim

I can't comment on the SRAM Force gear, but I have just completed the upgrade of my SRAM Apex up to SRAM Rival. The main changes I got there were that the Rival shifters have Carbon brake levers, and the shifting is somewhat less clunky. However, I never really had any issues with the Apex shifters, other than the shift paddles snapping off (one replaced under warranty, the other one broke well outside warranty so I just replaced it with an older SRAM Rival shifter).

My R5 has SRAM Red22, which is a big step up in weight savings from the Rival gear, so given that Force sits in between the two I'd say the gains are most likely going to manifest in weight savings rather than any major differences in performance. Ultimately what it comes down to is how much of a bargain you can snag on the Force group. Is it a worthwhile "investment"? Well, only you can be the judge of that

Cheers guys.

This is for a '2nd bike' with an ageing Campag Centaur gruppo on it. My newer bike has 2009 SRAM Red, still in good condition and still riding well. I'm happy with either shifting system but not wanting to pay the premium to use on a bike which is likely to be a spare for much of the year and used primarily in poorer weather conditions. The Campag is too expensive so unless the Force is being sold off ridiculously cheap, sounds like the Rival will fit my use at as minimal a cost as possible.

The differences are really just in materials to make Force a bit lighter; there is no ground-shattering performance difference between the two.

Cmon Top Bhoy, Just ditch both of those and go Shimano mate. 11 speed 105 or ultegra is such a nice bit of kit over SRAM (Campy is another matter I guess, can't comment there).
Well someone had to say it

rodneycc wrote:Well someone had to say it

+1, the answer to Force or Rival is Ultegra.

Top_Bhoy wrote:Aside from weight savings (which I'll need to investigate more), are there significant performance differences between SRAM Force and Rival that would make paying the price premium for the Force a worthwhile investment.

I have a groupset combination of both Force and Rival (2x10 speed) There's no discernible difference for most people except less dollars in your bank account. I will never go back to Shimano since I've gotten used to double tap... never in a million years even if you paid me to switch unless it was for sponsorship reasons of course... and then I don't give a f*ck "free bike stuff time..."

I'm still not sure what a Shimano rider is doing in a SRAM forum though however?

Kronos wrote:

Top_Bhoy wrote:Aside from weight savings (which I'll need to investigate more), are there significant performance differences between SRAM Force and Rival that would make paying the price premium for the Force a worthwhile investment.

I have a groupset combination of both Force and Rival (2x10 speed) There's no discernible difference for most people except less dollars in your bank account. I will never go back to Shimano since I've gotten used to double tap... never in a million years even if you paid me to switch unless it was for sponsorship reasons of course... and then I don't give a f*ck "free bike stuff time..."

I'm still not sure what a Shimano rider is doing in a SRAM forum though however?

I've got a foot in both camps. Two bikes with SRAM, one with Shimano, and a new frameset coming which will be all Shimano.

I dabbled with going SRAM on the new build, as I also like Double-Tap. However, what killed it was SRAM restricting the supply of components online. I am not a charity and won't pay Australia tax, so SRAM lost.

I haven't had to buy new components recently all be it I'm still using a 2x10 groupset (with not much plan of changing any time soon pardon the pun). All be it I'm never going back to single tap shifters or split up/down shifters like Shimano has. I saw the light so to speak.

Kronos wrote:I haven't had to buy new components recently all be it I'm still using a 2x10 groupset (with not much plan of changing any time soon pardon the pun). All be it I'm never going back to single tap shifters or split up/down shifters like Shimano has. I saw the light so to speak.

Same. My Rival setup is a 2x10, and I am not planning to go 11-sp on that bike. For commuting use, I find the ability to shift and brake at the same time is much safer. On my other bikes it's not a huge issue as I tend to ride those in low traffic situations.

SRAM haters go back to the paddock with the other sheep.