Hey gang, I’ve got a Giant Propel Adv Pro 2 2019 which has a 105 group set. Today I almost bought the new Adv Pro 1 which has the SRAM eTap Rival AXS. Was £5500 and decided against it. Tbh I’d be happy to upgrade my groupset which is probably coming to the end of it life anyway. What exactly do I need? The Shimano route is too expensive, especially with the new 105 Di2 coming only with disc setup, I’m still on pads…
What are my options please? I’m getting a bit confused with some internet searches so I thought I’d ask on here. Thanks
SRAM AXS Rival = levers are disc break only
SRAM AXS Force or Red = can get disc or rim/mechanical break levers
So for example if you wanted to upgrade to Force AXS:
Levers (notice these say mechanical or rim), FD, RD, battery, and charger
Cassette
Crankset
Chain:
You should be able to use your current brake calipers. For your wheel you will need to get replace the freehub body with a SRAM XDR driver. The particular part you need will depend on what hubs/wheelset(s) you currently have. Here is an example of one for DT Swiss hubs:
How many miles on it? Being a Campagnolo rider I’ve never worn out a groupset. New cables, cassette, chain, and chainrings cures a lot. I’ve only worn put pulley wheels maybe once or twice.
Since I’ve gone to waxing, chains and cassettes are lasting four times as long.
Couldn’t tell you tbh. Id say quite a few thousand tbh. I live in the UK and where I’m from, its pretty flat and I probably spend 95% of the time in the big ring
Is there a reason you want to go from Shimano to Sram? Why not upgrade within the shimano world? If you change to sram, you’ll have to swap everything, including shifters, brake cables, and most likely BB.
As said above, the only parts that usually “wear out” are the chain, cassette, and chainrings. You could just replace those if they need it?
If you’re willing to do some legwork, there’s tons of used 11 speed di2 popping up for sale as people are getting their hands on 12 speed. I wouldn’t bother switching from shimano to sram on a bike that old, it’s gonna be a complete strip down. None of the parts are compatible with the other.
I don’t wanna turn this into a for sale thread, but if you go the di2 route, I’ve got a dura ace front and rear derailleur, I think 2 or 3 generations old, 11 speed, that I’d happily let go on the cheap
If I were you, I wouldn’t upgrade my groupset, I’d probably give my drivetrain a service and save up money for a nice pair of carbon wheels instead. Now is probably the last chance to pick up a carbon wheels for rim brakes for cheap, most of the market has already transitioned to disc brakes already and there is a flood of cheap new bikes.
The only thing I’d ask myself here: is it worth it? @NotYourAvgJoe wrote that his 105 groupset is EOL, but I have a hard time believing that (apart from consumables like cables, cassettes, chain and chainring).
And functionally, 105 is just as good as Ultegra and DuraAce mechanical.
It isn’t just Shimano, basically all new groupsets will be disc only. I reckon the last holdouts will be Shimano DuraAce Di2, but then it might make more sense to simply upgrade the entire bike.
Maybe I should have put more emphasis on that, but that’s what I meant when I wrote all new groupsets, i. e. starting with the next version of Ultegra or DuraAce.
… if you can afford it.
(I got an 11-speed XTR groupset on a used hardtail, and it is really nice.)
Well, these 12 speed groups are fairly new so who knows what comes next or how the sales of rim brake frames fair? At this point anyone is just guessing.
We already know how the sale of rim brake bikes fare: they are a dying breed. I see them only on low-end bikes and high-end niche bikes. This is not an opinion whether disc brakes are better than rim brakes, but just a fact about what is selling right now.
Have a look at e. g. what road bike frames The Pro’s Closet offers: at the time of writing only 19 of 85 frames are for rim brakes. Amongst all bike, 64 out of 167 bikes have rim brakes. The Pro’s Closet predominantly sells relatively recent, high-end bikes.
With new bikes there might be some exceptions, but even here it is necessary to look more closely. Around 2019/2020 BMC (going from memory) offered a rim brake version of their Teammachine. But that was still using last gen’s frame while the disc brake version used a new frame.
Regarding groupsets, also here we just have to look at what manufacturers do and extrapolate from there: SRAM’s last groupset that came as a rim brake version was first-gen 12-speed Force eTap AXS. Rival eTap AXS and 2nd-gen Force only come in hydraulic brakes. (You might hook that up to hydraulic rim brakes that SRAM made a while back, but I don’t don’t know whether this would work. And even if it does, you are jumping through some hoops while contorting yourself.) Shimano has not offered a rim brake version of 105 Di2 either. I think it is reasonable to expect that groupset manufacturers will continue doing what they are doing now — phasing out rim brakes by not releasing rim brake versions of new groupsets.
