Sram Rival 22 vs Ultegra 6800

[Grimpeur]

Yet another groupset comparison thread..

Am in need of new shifters and derailleurs, therefore looking into buying either a Rival 22 or Ultegra 6800 groupset without crankset and selling the brakes.

Strange comparison maybe, but pricewise Ultegra and Rival are closest over here, and I find Force too expensive.

So the Rival is $100 cheaper, and the shifters are lighter. I like the feel of Sram shifters, but had some bad experiences with older Rival shifter paddles snapping off. Are those problems all in the past?
The Ultegra shifters fit my hands a little less, but other than that you can't really go with Ultegra, right?

Looking forward to reading experiences with either groupset

[davidalone]

as far as i can tell, base construvtion internals of the rivl lever have not changed. the lever snapping off problem is liekly to continue.

[Frankie - B]

Indeed, you can't really go with ultegra. Please use the Sram setup.

[Grimpeur]

Haha I meant can't go wrong with Ultegra offcourse, but maybe this typo says enough about what I'm leaning towards .

But is it really true the internal shifter design for Rival is still the same as a couple of years back? Had the right shifter paddle break 3 times in 1 year time and then decided to call it quits, so this is the only thing holding me back..

[Svetty]

Having had both I can say that the current iteration of Ultegra is way ahead of Rival. Brakes, shifting - esp front shift - are way better. No brainer. .....

[btompkins0112]

^ +1. I came to 6800 from SRAM Red and wouldn't go back for anything.

[Rick]

I vote "Ultegra".

[campbellrae]

Yep, the current generation of Ultegra is fantastic.

[cfr]

I've got a cx bike with Rival, a road bike with dura ace 7900, and have been demoing an Addict with ultegra 6800. No question, Ultegra 6800 will be on my next bike.

[petepeterson]

I've had Chorus, Rival, Force, Red, and 6800 in recent years.

The 6800 shifting is the best of the lot although I'm curious to try the 2015 campy with the new derailleurs.

[davidalone]

Sorry for the typo. I was writing it on my phone.

if you look at the SRAM technical manuals , yes, rival construction does not look to have changed. have not had the chance to open up a rival 22 set though. I took apart two sets of older sram rivals when I had the shift lever fail. ( I'm a mechanical engineer). Until they change that design it is likely to continue.

failure point of the brake lever- their connection to the brake hood body is not robust enough. you can knock it out of alignment with your hand with a good whack ( and also put it back in, but you probably need a screwdriver for this) . if you crash and scrape the thermoplastic hood body on the ground, there is a good chance you are going to widen the hole enough such that the pin attaching the body to the lever will be loosened and you can simply push it out. the 'flare' of the lever towards the outside, and the fact that there is no allowance for the lever to move inward execercbates this problem.

failure point of the shift lever: the shift lever is held internally by 4 thin aluminium arms in a 'box' configuration abut 1mm thick each. when upshifting, especially if you overshift slightly, those 4 tiny aluminium arms undergo quite abit of torsion. over time that develops small cracks in the aluminium and these cracks will grow. Solution? well either use less force when upshifting, or keep your gears perfectly tuned all the time. seems trivial but I'd prefer a shift lever where I didnt have to think about such things.

my vote goes to ultegra.

[finnrambo]

Ultegra! If you were comparing this to 6700 I would go with Sram but the new 6800 is something special, it feels almost as good as my DA9000... the new 105 looks to be really good value as well.

[Grimpeur]

Thank guys, you all convinced me, despite liking the Sram shifter shape better I went with the 6800. Can't wait to try it out and see if it's really THAT good

[stormur]

No, it's not … what says also how "good" is DA9000 if it's so close to 6800.

I've had Chorus, Rival, Force, Red, and 6800 in recent years.

The 6800 shifting is the best of the lot although I'm curious to try the 2015 campy with the new derailleurs.

If your Chorus ( internally same as Record ) and Red worked worse than Ultegra, it means only that you should never ever use mechanic which set up Chorus & Red for you.

6800 shifting is not even close to Force 22, and not even in same ballpark as Chorus.

6800 brakes are way better than Sram ( force & modulation) , in pair with Campagnolo. Hood shape is very OK , Sram ( for me ) less ergo from the 3.

But shifting… no . Big NO.

If someone want to argue , lets start from FD - how much and why so much cable pull it needs to shift ( and why it's so close to lever limit ), and why "pull range" is so tiny that it MUST rub or on highest or on lowest cog - doesn't matter the frame ( made it on few, incl "shimano friendly" )

In time need to setup one 6800 shifting I can do it for 1x Chorus and two Sram drivetrains…

For the money ( 500-600€ ) it's very good drivetrain, but without value for money - has no chance in comparison to f.e. Chorus. At any category ( brakes, shifing F &R , weight , ergonomy , service / adjustment needs ) .

I won't mention that 6800 is annoyingly noisy, and chain lifespan is ….1000km max. My 5700 was more quiet, Sram is more quiet, Campy in comparison to 6800 is noisless…

[Guerdi]

[...]

I won't mention that 6800 is annoyingly noisy, and chain lifespan is ….1000km max. My 5700 was more quiet, Sram is more quiet, Campy in comparison to 6800 is noisless…

As nicely put in your signature, you are wrong here. You've simply forgotten to add one aditionnal 0 there. 1000 km would be 2 weeks of training in a fairly busy schedule, I could not imagine I'd swapping my chain every 2 weeks or so.

Last year my CN-6800 lasted about 8000 km, with extra care obviously. And I've done a lot of dirt/gravel roads with it, it has seen a lot of mud too. So you might be doing something wrong with your drivetrain.