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I’m doing a little survey on what type of gearing you lot are using. Every couple of days I see a Sram vs. Shimano thread on Mtbr, the problem is that most of the people who answer those threads are American which doesn’t really tell much about the rest of the cycling world. The other problem is that people who like Sram tend to be a bit like those who like Apple computers, very loyal and a bit louder in their support. So I thought I’d see what the people who visit this blog are using. I’ll be voting for 2 of them, Shimano and internal gear hubs. As always please feel free to comment on the subject or any other gearing subject, like the rumours of FSA’s new 11spd gearing system, electric shifting, hydraulic shifting and 10spd XTR.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

lurker no more.
in .au [my home] shimano has a bit of a monopoly and has done for a very long time. the majority of the bike builds for the last XX amount of years have been using shimano parts factory fitted.

shimano is almost a house hold name, or should i say a name very easily associated with bike gears/parts. sram is more likely only know to the "bikers" if you know what i mean.

i think a lot of the monopoly is due to our graphical location to asia.

i wish to one day fit/use a sram system but it just hasn't been fitted as the original build on any bikes i have purchased. the funny thing is a lot of the top end bikes are shram fitted... what does that tell us?

ps. keep doing what your doing, the blogs awesome

Johann S said...

Speaking up from .za here:

Personally I have both, my hardtail has Sram X7 and the Anthem has Shimano XT. I like both, actually. I think generally Shimano is more common in SA though.

LordOnOne said...

Thanks for the comments, after the poll is finished I’ll be posting my side of the Sram vs. Shimano topic and hopefully I’ll be in a position to comment on the SS side of things as I’m building one out of old parts to see if I like SS riding, after that I may get a slightly more impressive SS bike if I like it.

Anonymous said...

Let's see, I have one mtb with SRAM X.0, one with XT/XTR, one XT, one 1x9 XTR... I also have a road bike with Campagnolo Record and a cross bike with SRAM Red will get home tomorrow... One BMX and one vintage SS...

I like both SRAM and Shimano, most people choose because they prefer one type of shifter over the others. I get used to anything but I never liked triggers that much. If I could be given any mtb group, I'd pick X.0 with Grip Shifts.

My take is that Shimano seems tougher, more durable since they are pretty much made mostly of metal as SRAM use much more plastic/carbon/fake carbon, but SRAM perform very well and are easy to setup. Even though I give the notch to SRAM for my shifters and rear derailleur, their mtb front ones suck and I prefer Shimano cassettes and chains (Shimano cassettes shift well and are lighter, chains last longer and snap less often)...

So I guess I'm on the fence but I give the edge to SRAM, mtb and road. :)

And yeah, I use nothing but Apple computers too.

Anonymous said...

And by the way, the FSA 11sp group is not a rumor, to my knowledge, it's an official thing but it will only be for road bikes first though. When FSA announced they would join the group fight, they said they would introduce road and mountain bike groups but they since have put mountain groups on the ice so road only for now... soon to be now.

XTR 10 speed? Well it was certainly predictable but I (and many others) will question the need for an additional cog. Never on a ride did I thought to myself: "Man, I need another cog!" or "my gear ratios are not close enough!", 9 is enough IMO and the tighter cassette in the mud might be problematic... it's already quite cramped down there.

LordOnOne said...

Interesting, What Mountain Bike were pretty certain that there would be an 11spd groupset in the next couple of years, they didn’t say FSA but they said it wouldn’t be from Shimano and I just put it together with what others were saying about FSA, just have to wait and see.

I got the 10spd XTR story from another site, I think it’s absolutely pointless to add 1 more gear and I hope they don’t do anything that silly for the 2010 XTR grouppo.

Wouldn’t it be typical of the cycling industry if we ended up with Sram 9spd, Shimano 10spd and FSA 11spd all at the same time. The roadies have moved up to 11spd so I would expect MTB to follow.