No need for a compelling reason to switch to Campy. Do it!

The first time you want to attack a group and realize you can pop down 2 or 3 gears with one flick of your thumb, you'll never go back. I love those surprise attacks.

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Long live the horizontal top tube, standard crankset, and Italian threaded bottom bracket.

I've had bad luck with SRAM stuff too. Got used Force on my cx bike. Worked for awhile, then the pawls stopped engaging. I bought a new Force right shifter. That broke as well. SRAM warrantied it, which was nice. And, no Force on hand so sent me Red. It worked really, really well for a month or so, now I'm busy monkeying with it, trying to get the right to shift properly. And "monkeying" is apt - I'll follow the set up instructions and it still won't work properly. I'll play around with it in the stand, it'll work, but I don't know what I changed.

I'm on 2012 Red. The paddle movement to send the chain in is pretty tough. Does it get easier with more use? I know Campa shifters tend to "break in" and on my road bikes, those are definitely smoother and easier to push.

Also, I was shifting some Red 22 shifters on a bike in a stand at the NAHBS on Saturday. VERY smooth. Is that just a new design feature? Or, might mine be that smooth and easy?

Also, my paddle gets harder to push as I get further in on the cassette. Is this normal or have I set something up incorrectly?

Thanks.

The pawls not engaging thing usually means that you've got a bunch of dirt/grime/whatever in there. Peel the hood forward and then there are 3 screws holding on a plastic cover. Undo those screws and it'll be pretty easy to clean under there. Especially considering this was on your CX bike, I'd look there first next time before buying a new shifter.

As far as getting your rear shifting correct, do you know if your hanger is straight? I'd check that first. Do you have someone that can show you how to properly adjust an RD? Really all you need to do is set the limits and then use the barrel adjuster to set the tension. There shouldn't really be any 'monkeying' involved.

As far as the ease of shift, that really depends on your cable routing like any other shifter. Do you have any tight bends in the housing like around the handle bars? Or perhaps some funky internal cable routing system? The paddle will get harder on any group as you get to the bigger cogs on the cassette because that's when the spring force in the RD is highest. As far as I can tell, SRAM shifter internals have been pretty much identical since they came out except for the whole 10/11 speed thing so your shifters are capable of being that easy.

From 10 speed Shimano/Sram to 11 speed Campy change is quite hard.
I decided to do the same a few years ago and only reasonable way was selling all the parts you have and buying new ones.

Because I wasn't able to afford all that part changes, I postponed my plans, and last year I did the same for Ultegra 6800 groupsets.


Now with new Sram/Shimano 11s groupsets, you are able to keep your 10 speed freehub body with a small modification (just rasp a few mm at the end of the body, if there is place of course) so you will be able to use 11s shimano/sram cassettes and it will save you from changing all wheelset / hub / freehub.

Fast forward ahead. Last month I mentioned zero issues with my 4 year old Red Shifters. Last Tuesday I was on a team ride and the right shifter stopped indexing. I had a choice of the 53, 11 or 39, 11. Cleaned out the shifter with brake cleaner and re-lubed with Slick Honey and it worked for a couple of shifts and then died again. With my team leaving on Thursday night for our team Spring training camp I bought a set of new Red shifters and had them overnighted swapping them out right before I was leaving.

I'm okay with the failure since I used to have to replace g-springs on Campy shifters every other year. The only part I'm not crazy about is the availability of replacement parts for Sram since I know I will have to wait. I will replace the shift assembly in the right shifter and then either keep them as back ups or sell them. The newer Red does seem to shift crisper or it could be just the fact that my old shifters were 4 years old and I didn't notice the performance of the shifters deteriorating.

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-For my next trick I will set myself on fire!
-This board and the world in general would be a much nicer place if everyone could just take themselves a little less seriously.
-Sticky Fingers John Rockefeller
-First one over the cliff wins!