First road bike purchase, I have the option of a full athena groupset or ultegra on the bike I’ve chosen.

Ultegra is £90 more and a 7 week wait as opposed to a 2. I think the athena is slightly lighter.

Never used either set so which should I go for? I’m leaning towards ultegra purely because I’m happy with Shimano’s mtb kit, but I would like the bike asap.

Anyone ridden both a give me a recommendation, from googling it seems people find camp a bit like marmite?

You are right, it’s subjective mostly, try getting your hands on some bikes to give it a spin.

I’ve had a ride on older (5-6 years old) shimano, dura ace I think, and fiddled with some sram force levers which seemed nice, but can’t seem to find anywhere that has a camp equipped bike.

(buying mail order so can’t try before I buy)

Given the amount of road riding it sounds like you’ve done, either would be an expensive punt.

Nowt wrong with Tiagra…

Like I said will be my first road bike, I want one to train better for mtb races, may even enter a few sportives to see what they are like.

I want to buy with decent kit so I don’t immediately start browsing the classifieds. I’ve had many mountain bikes and I know the expense of upgradeitus. Force/Ultegra/Athena seems to be about XT level from what I can tell and offers decent £ per weight. Any lower groupset and I can imagine within 6 months I’ve shelled out £150 or so for a bargain secondhand crankset, and so it begins….after a while all I will have enough spare bits lying around that if I find a cheap frame I can have a winter trainer….

I bought a road bike a few months back; part of acknowledging that with family commitments, I don’t get out as much on the MTB as I would like and a road bike is very convenient (2hours from your front door rather than 3.5 horus including travel time).

I ended up going Ultegra just because I built the bike from parts with a Genesis steel frame. I think you could have either and be happy but I heard a useful quote as to the difference between Shimano and Campag:

Shimano wear out whereas Campag wears in 😆

Which means that Shimano works a better out of the box, but Campag lasts quite a bit longer.

What frame are you going for?

Nowt wrong with Tiagra…

+1

I’ve DA on my bike, but thats just becasue I wanted to upgrade to 10speed when my chain/cassette wore out and someone on here was selling a previous generation DA groupset for pocketmoney. Before that I had tiagra and it was flawless. OK the shifting feels like your pushing arround bits of plastic rather than steel (ultegra) or aluminium (Dura ace) internals, but it never failed and I sold them to my neighbour for his winter bike, so he’s probably putting another 150miles a week on them in crappy conditions.

If you’r budgets £2k+ (assume it is if your looking at ultegra) then cycling plus had its annual bike of the year grouptest (25 bikes all £1500-£2000) this/last month if you can get a hold of a copy.

Summary:
Cannondale super 6 handles the best, but has a poor spec
Trek Madone 3.5 is the most comfortable
Focus Izalco pro 3 wins for being almost as good as both of the above, with a lighter frame and having a full ultegra groupset to boot.
Cube GTC is good, but not brilliant like the similar spec focus.
Raleigh is good, but looks mingin.
Rose and Canyon both have Di2 groupsets, Rose gets nicer wheels, canyon has it’s VCLS seatpost which is apparently the best thing since sliced bread (apparently it really does bend/absorb bumps rather than just being marketing)
Planet-X RT-57 is the best spec and the lightest but “unrefined”.
Van Nick is titanium and therefore gets 9/10 despite being noodley.
Dedacciai nerissimo – similar to cannondale, great race frame, but comprimised parts to get a build under £2k
Various other also ran’s getting 6’s and 7’s.

Campag would be my vote – no question.
Just find a proper road bike shop and have a fiddle.
Campag road bike in Brighton here if you are any way local..

Budget is £1500, have a copy of cycling plus thanks tinas have been researching roadies since xmas(!!)

And I’m almost 100% I’ll be buying canyon AL

http://www.canyon.com/_uk/roadbikes/bike.html?b=2506

For £1339 with 2 weeks lead time, all the other versions have longer lead times (unless I go with in your face white). The carbon versions are available immediately but are £350 more and from reading reviews I get the feeling there really isn’t much difference in ride between the AL and CF.

I’m not sure about di2 reviews read very well, I just can’t help thinking it’s first gen and will change alot over the next few years

If you ask the same question on a more road orientated forum you’ll start a religious war :).

They both come in at a similar ‘quality’ level. Key difference is in the way the shifters work and feel. FWIW I had Campag on my first modern road bike and Shimano on the next one. When I switched to Shimano there was a short learning curve but I soon got used to it.

As others have said try and find some in the flesh and see how they feel

I’m not sure about di2 reviews read very well, I just can’t help thinking it’s first gen and will change alot over the next few years

I want to buy with decent kit so I don’t immediately start browsing the classifieds.

The ultegra is 2nd gen, they’ve ditched the complicated wiring of the old DA already (there’ve been a few ‘new’ parts for DA over the years that have later been droped, 2 different cassette standards for a start), they seem to be hinting that this setups here to stay. I’ve got to say I’m really tempted, especialy as my front mech is having ‘issues’ at the moment.

SRAM are/were hinting at not going electric, as Reds already a chunk lighter than the competition their USP would be a big drop in weight over the competition. So buying SRAM would at least mean it’s futureproof from upgrading as there’d be nowt to upgrade to!

Rose are doing Di2 groupsets and kysrium elites (canyon has cheeper equips but ‘that’ seatpost) on their £2k bikes when even online prices you can’t get the wheels and groupsets less than that!

If you’re not fussed over Di2 then look at cannondale CAAD10, my CAAD4’s brilliant so with 10 years development things can only be better!

I went from 20 years riding 105 equipped bikes to a Campag Centaur Van Nick two years ago. The decision was emotional, rather than rational: I’d always lusted after Campag for that lovely shiny intangible halo their stuff has. In day-to-day use, it feels very mechanical and solid rather than the slickness of Shimano. It’s dead easy to work on and replace spares within components, whereas Shimano seems to be chuck the whole unit and replace it.

The only element that you might not get along with is the placement of the downshift levers on the inside of the brake/shift levers, rather than in-line with the brakes on Shimano/SRAM. Everything else is standard.

The only frustration I have with it is the non-standard freehub spline pattern, so rear wheels aren’t interchangeable between Shimano/SRAM and Campag. There are ways around this, but they’re a bit of a faff, like swapping freehub bodies on 3rd-party wheels, or 3rd-party cassettes that have campag spacing but Shimano spine fittings.

I don’t have any research to point to, but my gut feeling is that Campag-equipped bikes probably keep a higher resale value than Shimano.

Good luck, whatever you choose.

I went for Athena a couple of years back when I had the same decision, although back then the Athena cost a wee bit more. It looks better, shifts faster (although not by a lot, and not enough to notice), and if its available sooner and cheaper then I’d go for it! To be fair though, you’d be best getting a try on both groupsets as you might prefer the Shimano STIs over the Campag Ergos and I know some people don’t get on with the Campag thumb shifters.

I borrowed a road bike to see if I’d enjoy it after 20 years away. Fitted with campag. Hated it, really agricultural feeling to the gears, nearly put me off road bikes full stop. Bought a bike with 105 and to me the difference is night and day, greater than between xtr and deore.

If you’re used to shimano mtb kit try campy before you buy, you might like it but for me it ruined the experience.

Quite a difference in shape of hoods, so definetely try to hold a few, even if only in a shop. Shimano/sram more rounded/bigger feeling, campag (modern ergo) angles slightly inwards with not such a large ‘knob’ to rest your hands on.
I run Campag chorus carbon 11 speed on my main bike and am very happy with it.
It was however an emotional choice rather than anything else as i wanted Campag whatever 🙂
I’ve used shimano and sram a few times and they all work fine, so you cant really go wrong. You do get 11 instead of 10 gears with Athena though, not that that really matters much.

Will definitely try to get my hands on the grips, will aim to get down to R&R sometime this week, they have a decent road selection

I’ve read -ve comments that the athena cranks are less stiff than ultegra (though I’ve ridden xtr, xt, lx and deus and despite claims they all felt exactly the same to me….)

The athena groupset is 11 speed… reckon I might give it a go.

What do people think about the ‘white’ billboard canyon colour scheme? I’m not sure, but if it looks ok in the real world it would mean I have more choice and potentially have it delivered sooner

I’ve got Athena 11 speed on my road bike and Ultegra 10 speed on my CX, they’re both fine but I do suffer with wrong gear selections at the start of a ride (if I haven’t ridden that bike for a while) and at the end of a ride when I’m tired. As said before the Shimano is more smooth and the Campag is more positive (clunky)but you get used to it and I think the Campag is getting smoother as it beds in.

What do people think about the ‘white’ billboard canyon colour scheme? I’m not sure, but if it looks ok in the real world it would mean I have more choice and potentially have it delivered sooner

I think canyon make the ugliest bikes going, but thats just my oppinion. But it’s probably the lack of swoopy hydroforming that makes them cheep. But even Rose mamage to look good, I think it’s the logo/typface/italic capitals that grate with me.

I have a well-used 2004 Ultegra groupset on my bike, which is still working flawlessly. So I don’t buy into the argument that Campag is more durable. Just go for whichever you like the look and feel of best.

Technically, there’s little in it and for the home mechanic it’s all a bit moot. However, if you are the sort that has their bike serviced in a shop or you think you might break a bit far from home, then just consider that whereas Shimano is almost ubiquitous, Campag experience and parts is “sketchy” by comparison.

Canyon’s are great value for money and were good enough for Evans and Gilbert so must assume they have their angles right.

Think it comes down to function. I cant get on with campy downshift being where it is. Especially when climbimng and changing gear.

Also, compatibility between SRAM and Shimano (freehubs, cassettes, front mech’s) is an added bonus. (often swap bits between cross and road bikes or when going abroad and need lower ratio’s)

Campag has a solid clunkier feel which is nice but ultimately depends on the type of shifter you want IMO.