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Will You Make the Leap?

Imagine a viable third party in American politics, and you'll get a sense of how much impact SRAM's road groups have had on a market previously dominate by Shimano and Campagnolo.  

What's It Like?

Cycling journalism has focused on the SRAM Red group and the SRAM Force group, so we did an exhaustive test of SRAM Rival.  Here's why:

Shifters

Similar ergonomics to Campy Ergo Power.  Like Campy, the shifting is completely independent of the braking.  Unlike Campy, the shift lever both upshifts and downshifts:

The shifting is precise and fairly intuitive -- it won't take you long to get used to these levers.  Finally, the only shift levers on the market that are lighter than Rival are SRAM Red, SRAM Force, Campy Record Carbon/Ti, and Campy Chorus Carbon/Ti.

The rear is very quick and very precise.  The front is a little sluggish, but acceptable.  SRAM says they are aware of this and are working to improve their FD.

The Rival cassette is exceptionally light for all-steel.  On an 11-26, the 12-, 13-, 14-, 15-, and 17-tooth cogs each have a "missing tooth" (the 12 has 11 teeth and one gap, the 13 has 12 teeth and one gap, and so on).  

SRAM says this makes for smoother shifting, and we agree.  The SRAM cassette shifts under load better than Shimano 10spd cassettes, so we tried the SRAM cassette with a Shimano drive train and noticed an improvement.  SRAM's 11-26 is a great match with the 50-34 compact crank for rides over mountain passes, because it already has an 11 for descending -- you don't need to retro fit one, as you do with a Shimano 12-25 or 12-27.  For gearing that rivals a triple, try the Rival 11-12-13-14-15-17-19-22-25-28 cassette.

We've liked SRAM chains for years, but their 10spd version is no better than most other 10spd chains on the market.  The Power Link on SRAM's 8spd and 9spd chains can be used multiple times, but the Power Lock on the SRAM 10spd chains can only be used once.  When you remove the Power Lock, you need to replace it with a new one.  Shifting performance is on a par with Shimano 10spd chains, but not as good as KMC, which are the best-functioning non-Campy chains.

Brakes

Excellent modulation and stopping power.  SRAM falls in between Dura-Ace and Record for overall performance, with Dura-Ace the best of the three. At under 300gms per set, the SRAM Rival calipers are the third-lightest "standard brakes" on the market (we do not include exotics like Zero Gravity).  Comparing Shimano/Campy/SRAM, only the SRAM Red, SRAM Force, and Campy Record calipers are lighter.

We tested the SRAM Force Comp carbon crank instead of Rival.  We expect a few Rival purchasers will invest the money they save for the rest of the SRAM Rival group in the lightest, stiffest cranks they can afford (Dura-Ace cranks work fine with SRAM, as do any of the new Campy Hyper-Torque cranks). 

We continue to be impressed with the GXP external bearing bottom bracket, as long as it is mounted properly (torqued to specs, not just hand-tightened).  We were also impressed with the stiffness of the Force Comp cranks, not only of the crankset as a whole, but by the non-drive crank arm.  Forged aluminum cranks have never been able to make the non-drive arm as stiff as the drive side, but with carbon, SRAM comes very close. 

The Rival cranks look much nicer than Truvativ's previous road-specific alloy cranks, and retailing for under $200 complete with bottom bracket, they offer an exceptional value.  We carry the Rival 50-34 for budget riders who want to switch from a 53-39 to compact.

Force, Rival, or Red?

Don't look for a performance upgrade with Force, because both systems offer the same pro-level functionality.  What you get for Force's 50% price increase is:

What you get with Red is: