Zen or what?
as·cet·ic (-stk)
n.
A person who renounces material comforts and leads a life of austere self-discipline, especially as an act of religious devotion.
adj.
1. Leading a life of self-discipline and self-denial, especially for spiritual improvement.
2. Pertaining to or characteristic of an ascetic; self-denying and austere: an ascetic existence.
Am I the only one who marvels at Kanye’s spelling? Kid’s a guru 
Something Freudian going on there?
I chose Sram for the separated brake lever/shift lever, and the price.
My brand new road bike (one hour of riding!) is set up like this, following a bit of swapping at the shop etc:
Sram Force levers
Force derailleurs
Rival brakes (how the bike was supplied, saves money and they work fine)
Force cranks and 53/39 rings (possibly change to FSA ones if I wear them out)
Ultegra 10 speed 12-23 cassette (had a closer range than the stock Sram one. Sram don’t include an 18t sprocket!)
Rival? chain (probably buy cheap Shimano chains in the future)
After this short time I’m very happy with the Force. One issue is the bump in the hoods where they meet the bars, but I think I can sort it out.
My previous road bike (10 years ago) was like this, so it’s been a bit of a change for me:
Suntour bar end shifters
Superbe derailleurs
Superbe Pro brakes
Superbe cranks
7 speed cluster
Good bike is 10sp chorus~2007era, ultratorque
Everything else is mixed breed 9 and 10s
You reminded me Alex - I love my sram because when you’re sprinting, you can pull the shifter right back and throttle it as you go. My stubby chipolata fingers would never reach shimano shifters during a sprint, and my thumbs have no chance reaching campag down shifts from the drops.
im so hung over i just might die…
shame a little spin would be ace this afternoon but there is no way its going to happen
actually i’m completely the opposite 
You’d hope so wouldn’t you.
105 stock standard everything on the daily roadie. No problems except some cable stretch every now and then. Arabesque DT shifters, rear mech and DA front mech on the Pinny, the Sunday ride. Campag Chorus 8sp on the fair weather Eddie & Superbe Pro on the hardly ever used Perkins…mmm to many roadies.
5600 105/Jagwire on one, '08 Veloce/Clarks on the other. I have a trim issue on the Veloce, but I can sort that out in time, I just CBF for now. Both work well, both are sturdy, but not super light weight.
Same here, but Campag cables, which are fine. Got mine set up properly by Shifterbikes in the first place and never had a problem with it.
Replacing shifters is where the cost difference really kicks in. Shimano and SRAM want your first born there!
RIVAL $442
105 $331
VELOCE $132
I’ve stockpiled enough 10 speed Record to last 'til the apocalypse. i’m a fan.
Buy my campy cables when i see ‘em for ~ 50 bucks.
I have various remnants of Shimano.
My steelie has old DT shiftin’ 7 speed. If it ain’t broke…
The CX project has record 10 speed shifters with 7 speed Shimano MTB rear mech/freewheel/cluster. Seems to work fine with the trial fitted old campy cables, but deciding whether to drill the cable mounts to go full outer whilst it apart for paint.
7900 dura ace except shifters and front mech which are 6700 ultegra
105 or ultegra cassette, whichever is on special for the ratio i want at the time
7800 dura ace chain
i tried 7900 shifters and front mech but the shitty front trim setup sent me back to ultegra
What kind of problems you have? I love the fact you don’t need to trim when in the big chainring with 7900. I agree you need to fine-tune it quite precisely though.
cx - sram rival
road - campy c-record
29er - shimano slx
My current road bike (CAAD9) came with SRAM Rival brifters/deraillers and Sram Force cranks. I instantly fell in love with the SRAM interface and after about 2 years I have now upgraded the Rival bits to Force and am transferring the Rival bits to my On One Pompino to achieve a 1x10 setup.
I much prefer the DoubleTap system to Shimano’s STI system, but I believe that all comes down to personal preference. I’m yet to own Campy, but from riding SR11 I think I could be super dooper happy on that once the financial situation allows for it.
I am still running the Rival FD on the roadie and am looking to upgrade to the new Red FD once it drops, the new design sounds interesting.
Chain on the roadie is DA and the cassette is Rival spec, open to suggestions for when I next replace them, when it is time for new chain and cassette I’ll do new chainrings aswell and am thinking of getting something pretty trick, perhaps the cannondale rings that come on the hollowgram SL’s… (a set of Hollograms would be amazing but i doubt I could justify the price tag)
You can get the hollowgrams from evil bay pretty cheap
And check out the praxis chain rings from fairwheelbikes.com for super dooper chain rings
Oh yeah. Got a Shimano SLX gruppo for the 29er too.
Well, started as SLX with XT RD. Now have XT FD & shifters coming. Shimano cables.
Super commuter SLX FD, RD & shifters. XT hubs with Avid BB7 & FR7s and Gravity cranks. Clarke cables from LBS - seem ok but only just finished building.
on the carbon roadie full sram force with sram cables
steel roadie full 8spd campag record friction shift drive train with a 105 10sp chain so i can put the nice wheels on there. and whatever cables dan set it up with.
on the cx bike, i just finshed setting it up as 1x10 with full ultegra 6600 except for the sugino grand might track cranks up front(i will eventually change it over to 2x10 with matching 6600 cranks), and gore cabling
full suntour superb pro on the track bike, but i run “noca bles” on that one
Relevant to our interests: Red Kite Prayer is doing a series comparing high-end mechanical groups. First instalment.
full Ultegra 6600. (the 6600 crank is much more palatable for those put off by the 6700 :))
i can’t compare as it’s the only group i’ve ever ridden (well, except for low-end shit on various beaters i’ve ridden)
at any rate i love it, but yeah, my first good group. i still ride fixed way more