Sramano

It is one of the greatest conflicts of ideology of our time, standing shoulder to shoulder with the great questions - Capitalism or Socialism? Theism or Atheism? To be, or not to be?

Shimano or SRAM?

At once, a clamour arises in the Blogosphere. Whistles are blown and bells rung as the footsoldiers arise from the fortified trenches of weight, action and reliability, with the Japanese and American sides matching shot for shot. In a glittering silver-and-carbon-fibre Armoured Personnel Carrier the Italian Campagnolo forces drink espresso under cover of an impenetrable but expensive barrier of Aesthetics. Magura, Rotor and Avid fire shells randomly onto the field, disrupting all sides as they evade and adapt. An underdeveloped lad named Microshift pulls the boots from the fallen.

Without the battlefield, the unbiased customer reaps the rewards of so much bloodshed with lighter, more beautiful, better-performing products, suffering only the uncertainty of which side to back with their next purchase. Having sampled both, it is time for me to deliver a verdict.

Riding Shimano 105 5700 last year was a joy for someone used to the slightly flexy sora and tiagra, groupsets that are admittedly reliable but view inputs as suggestions more than orders.

The Shimano action is indubitably excellent. Snapping up and down at the rear is positive and near-instant, and at the front the chain is shoved aside from the ring harder and faster than a compromised sport from a Dutch bank. This absolute certainty of execution is, however, tampered by doubt in control in some conditions. In thick gloves, from the drops, it is possible to catch both the downshift and upshift lever when only aiming to upshift, and on the return it is possible to catch loose ends of glove fingers between the levers.

You might argue that this is a criticism of the gloves, not the levers. I might reply that that means nothing to me when I wish to silently attack like an unseen assassin on a frozen moorland, and then announce that desire with a rapid traversal of half a dozen gears as my numb fingers cannot distinguish between the levers.

It isn't a common occurrence, but it is definitely worth thinking about if you ride a lot in bad weather.

By direct contrast, SRAM have gone for an idiot-proof single-lever system. By which I mean that there is a single lever with which to prove that you are an idiot, not that the system is in any way infalliable.

I run last-generation SRAM Force on my race bike now. Mentally, it does take some getting used to. On the back, as you probably know, clicking the shift lever once knocks you up a gear, and pushing it further pushes you up the cassette. When I say click, I do mean click, mind. For those used to the almost damped workings of a Shimano system, the dog-chewing-on-gristle crunch of the SRAM ratchet system sounds almost broken the first time you hear it. Wincing slightly, you accept it as the price you pay for some seriously lightweight shifters. Then you take it out for a ride, and have to rewire your brain.

The concept of the action is easy. Apart from the odd attempt to swing the brake lever at the start of rides, I never struggled with thinking what action to perform for what result. The differences come with your decision-making process.

Upshifting takes almost no motion, and happens as soon as you release the paddle. Downshifting might take up to a full rotation of the wheel, but starts as you start pulling cable, similar to Shimano. Like me, then, you may be used to "pre-tensioning" the cable coming into the base of climbs, where you hold the downshift lever ready so that you can shift as soon as your cadence drops. If you're comfortable just powering over, you just release and carry on.

Except on SRAM, you've just upshifted.

It's a simple matter of keeping your fingers away from the levers until you're ready to shift, but it has caught me out once or twice. Caveat Shiftor.

On the front, we see the first big compromise of SRAM. You really do have to "force" the chain outboard, and you're up shift creek without a paddle if you've forgotten that you were in the "trim" position. A full sweep should either fully release or fully tension the cable, and with a short hold at the end of the surprisingly long arc you can usually have faith in an upshift. If you knock it halfway, though, you shift the derailleur halfway inboard and full sweeps sometimes only seem to knock it back into "trim", when they should take it fully back out. Another half-click and you're fully released and can start afresh, and it is something that you can get used to, but it did cause me much aggro before I was comfortable with it. I guess it's lucky that I don't get much use out of anything other than the big ring.

The hoods are a matter of preference. Force feel more dainty to me, and fit well without gloves. 105 probably fits my gloved hands better, especially the space between the levers and the bars which I like wrapping two fingers around. Neither offer the larger nubbins of the top-end groups and Sora, which I like pushing my palm into when I'm trying to run my forearms flat, so I guess the cheap set wins this round. Consolation prize for Sora, for providing the most comfortable aerodynamic position on bikes that probably don't care.

The brakes honestly seem much-of-a-muchness, with only a better set of after-market cables on Force changing the feel at all. That being said, the stock pads on 105 are shocking in the wet, whereas the stock pads on Force are Swissstop greens. I have to give this one to SRAM, then.

What else is there? What elephants in the room am I missing?

Ah, aesthetics. Well, since I'm on BB30 I never had to suffer the ignomy of hideous Shimano cranks, and the rest of the group pretty much just works. I should add that I think the new Dura-Ace cranks show a step in the right direction, so I'm not against Shimano per se.

If the new DA is a step in the right direction, though, the new Red was a massive flying leap to become the best looking modern groupset on the market. My Force isn't such a joy to look at by comparison, but it ties in well and doesn't rub on my heels. Definite point to Force here.

Well, that about sums it up, doesn't it? Ok, so Force is about half as expensive again as 105, but you get a better-looking chainset, equal to better performance at the back with an unmistakable shift action, worse performance at the front with an easily mistakable shift action, equal or better brakes and YMMV ergonomics. I guess I'm done, then?

Wait? Wait for what?

Oh, weight!

Alright, so this isn't like-for-like. Force is supposed to rival Ultegra, not 105, after all. But it beats it, comfortably. In the upgrade, I dropped half a kilo from my race bike, making it only a set of wheels away from being a climber's dream in aluminium. If you're looking to upgrade from 105, then, and your options are Ultegra or Force, my verdict would be:

Read my review, ignore the weight and the price, and switch "Ultegra" for "105" whenever you see it.

If you really want an answer, from a personal point of view, I can only offer you this:

If Shimano makes kit that works this well,
And SRAM is so much leaner,
No logic on Earth could ever tell,
Why gentlemen prefer Athena.