Road Groupset Decision

[Hacienda71]

Having broken the frame on my trusty Ribble, I have bitten the bullet and ordered a nice new carbon frame. The Ribble has a nine speed Tiagra triple setup. I am tempted to use this to upgrade my old chromoly Raleigh to make it a decent winter hack. So the question is what new groupset shall I go for? Initially in my mind the Microshift carbon Arsis looked excellent value gets good reviews, looks good and is as light as Dura Ace. Combined with a compact chainset it would give me decent climbing ratios. I do spend a lot of time in the Pennines. I then saw Sram Apex, better ratios than a standard triple and at £399 including cranks and brakes not a bad buy. Also asthetically a little cleaner than Microshift with the gear cables routed under the bar tape, I was also suprised by the weight. Has anyone any experience/views of either them?

Thanks in advance

 

[cyberknight]

+1 on apex if you like to use double tap, i found it very smooth and on the hills around dovedale/ashbourne i was flying up hills.

Microshift works fine but is a more positive feel to it with a definite clunk as you change gears , the hoods are a bit more angular.

 

[Hacienda71]

Thanks CK, definitely erring towards Apex. I haven't used Sram shifters or Microshift but have used Campag, Shimano from Sora upwards and down tube shifters back in the day so imagine the different types of shifting they entail becomes intuative like the other systems after using them for a while.

 

[smokeysmoo]

Shimano everytime for me. I decided to fit Campag on my winter bike when I built it, wish I hadn't! Don't like the thumb shifts, don't like the floaty shifters and don't like the long throw action either, but hey ho you live and learn I guess. I've just bought a new winter frame, and if I could afford it I'd get a Shimano groupset, but I can't so it'll have to be built with Campy
I've never used Sram on a road bike but a lot of people report it being noisy compared to others, which was what I found with Sram on an MTB I used to have, but I'm sure all the Sram fans will disagree
I can't comment on a Sram road group for the reasons above. My disappointment with Campy means I'm pretty unlikely to use anything other than Shimano in the future TBH, at least unless I can borrow a bike for a few weeks to test a groupset thoroughly before I commit my £££££'s to it.

 

[amnesia]

I had SRAM Rival on my old road bike, and have Shimano 105 on my current one... will definitely be going back to SRAM next time as I really like the double tap. The Apex groupset is lighter than any other brand in its class, too, I think.

 

[mattsccm]

Its down to personal taste for the big 3 and many people will only consider one of them. Might I suggest that you will be going out on limb with the Microshifts. Not much pedigree and bugger all resale value. I wish it was other wise. What about spares etc.