Well, after 3 days of racing and a couple of longer rides, here are my initial thoughts on the Rival stuff. For starters, I'll say it's been great so far.
Building it up, the stuff went right together, however, it's a bit tricky to get the shifter cable started because it takes a sharp upward bend. Feeding the brake cable in, however, I found to be easier than Shimano. Another note on the cable routing: the shift housing takes a sharp bend when exiting the shifter, though I'm not sure if it will cause any problems, it just made routing along the bar a bit more difficult because of the housing pulling on the electrical tape. The cassette has an interesting cutout on some of the cogs, where it looks like a whole tooth is missing; the splines for the freehub have excess material removed. Everything else went together like standard road attire.
Out on the road, the shifting Rival's(har har
) Shimano's offerings. The action is definitely more clickity-clackity(a la Campy). The double-tap took very little time to get used to. You move the lever over and you'll hear a click, (at which time a slight bit of cable is realeased, though not enough to initiate a shift) then you can either release to upshift(release cable), or push further to downshift up to 3 gears(pull on the cable). It kind of threw me for a trip because for one downshift you'll hear 2 clicks, unlike Shimano where there is only one. Like I said before, the action of the rear derailleur is on par with Shimano's offerings. Forcing shifts out of corners in the crit, it didn't wimper nor did it didn't skip once(if it actually wimpered I might have been worried 
).
The front derailleur, however, SRAM does lose a bit(well, I'm cheating, I have Raceface cranks and a 105 chain). Of course it may be an adjustment or equipment usage, but it doesn't shift under power as well as Dura-Ace or Ultegra. Also(I think Inbred pointed it out in another thread) it seems like you need to push the lever quite a ways to initiate an upshift. I remember reading in Cyclingnews or elsewhere that there were no FD trim adjustments to eliminate rubbing. For the small ring, it does have one when for you're in 39x11, but not one for the big ring(though it isn't needed).
The ergonomics of the hoods feel great. The hoods themselves are a bit shorter than Shimano's. I found the shift levers to be best operated by my middle finger. A cool little thing is the shift levers can be pulled back toward the bar independent of the brake lever. I've played with it, and think it will come in handy when sprinting in the drops, when you can put your hand around the lever and the bar, then upshift by a slight twist of the wrist
.
Speaking of brakes, these stand out as quite powerful. They're very solid, and adding to that I think is the fact that the lever only moves in only one plane(like Campy).
Overall, I'm very happy with this stuff, and time will tell how the longevity is. Fin
Building it up, the stuff went right together, however, it's a bit tricky to get the shifter cable started because it takes a sharp upward bend. Feeding the brake cable in, however, I found to be easier than Shimano. Another note on the cable routing: the shift housing takes a sharp bend when exiting the shifter, though I'm not sure if it will cause any problems, it just made routing along the bar a bit more difficult because of the housing pulling on the electrical tape. The cassette has an interesting cutout on some of the cogs, where it looks like a whole tooth is missing; the splines for the freehub have excess material removed. Everything else went together like standard road attire.
Out on the road, the shifting Rival's(har har
) Shimano's offerings. The action is definitely more clickity-clackity(a la Campy). The double-tap took very little time to get used to. You move the lever over and you'll hear a click, (at which time a slight bit of cable is realeased, though not enough to initiate a shift) then you can either release to upshift(release cable), or push further to downshift up to 3 gears(pull on the cable). It kind of threw me for a trip because for one downshift you'll hear 2 clicks, unlike Shimano where there is only one. Like I said before, the action of the rear derailleur is on par with Shimano's offerings. Forcing shifts out of corners in the crit, it didn't wimper nor did it didn't skip once(if it actually wimpered I might have been worried ). The front derailleur, however, SRAM does lose a bit(well, I'm cheating, I have Raceface cranks and a 105 chain). Of course it may be an adjustment or equipment usage, but it doesn't shift under power as well as Dura-Ace or Ultegra. Also(I think Inbred pointed it out in another thread) it seems like you need to push the lever quite a ways to initiate an upshift. I remember reading in Cyclingnews or elsewhere that there were no FD trim adjustments to eliminate rubbing. For the small ring, it does have one when for you're in 39x11, but not one for the big ring(though it isn't needed).
The ergonomics of the hoods feel great. The hoods themselves are a bit shorter than Shimano's. I found the shift levers to be best operated by my middle finger. A cool little thing is the shift levers can be pulled back toward the bar independent of the brake lever. I've played with it, and think it will come in handy when sprinting in the drops, when you can put your hand around the lever and the bar, then upshift by a slight twist of the wrist
. Speaking of brakes, these stand out as quite powerful. They're very solid, and adding to that I think is the fact that the lever only moves in only one plane(like Campy).
Overall, I'm very happy with this stuff, and time will tell how the longevity is. Fin
