Looking to upgrade from Tiagra shifters and cable discs on my Focus Mares.
Never used Sram shifters before and not sure how to double tap works.
Open to opinions on the merits of both makes.
I ride 80/20% road/off-road on the fell mine tracks.
Also got some Cowchipper bars coming too, excited about those.
Thanks for your thoughts in advance.

Got the same dilemma, but for a new build. Leaning towards Hylex RS brakes and a seperate bar end shifter as the other options seem incredible expensive and the set up seems to get good feedback from those that have it

I’d say bar end shifters could be a pain off road. Especially down shifting on a long climb on the hoods.
But yeah, they’re pricey for sure!

With the double tap lever you click once for a harder gear or keep pushing to downshift. I got used to it on my first ride.

I’ve got 11 speed Ultegra on my road bike and SRAM on my Fargo, I’ve used both for years so the shift action doesn’t bother me, SRAM feels more precise, Shimano is lighter.

The only issue is the Shimano levers rattle on bumpy road, SRAM doesn’t even offroad. Not sure if the issue has been fixed with the latest hoods.

If you’ve not used them before then do the sensible thing and organise a test ride/borrow of a bike with Sram, ditto Campag. The Sram shifters don’t take long to get used to but they may or may not be to your taste.

Really these days there is no one manufacturer that’s better than the other, they’re just different and it comes down to personal preference, especially in terms of good shapes and what works with your hands best.

No amount of internet explanations will be able to tell you what YOU prefer 😉

I hated Sram double-tap when I tried it on a turbo, rarely changed down to the gear I wanted, so ditched the idea of a Boardman CX Team. Bought Cube Attain GTC Pro Disc instead.

I use both shimano and sram having 2,cx bikes one sram hydro and the other shimano / Juin tech cable hydro and and a selection road bikes shifters and cable rim brakes with both. I don’t really notice much difference between the two shifting systems in use the only minor glitch that sometimes on the sram I’ll half think about changing down a gear and merely tap the shifter resulting in a change up, but that’s operator error. Mrs has shimano hydrous on her Cx bike and they have the really baggy lever hoods which are irritating but I think newer models may have sorted this. I also find the raised profile on the sram hyrdo road levers to be quite comfortable on the road.

One ride with SRAM and it seemed fine.

Are you planning to go 1×11? Which I think then means SRAM

I’d quite like not to have a front derailleur on my Arkose

Thanks for all your advice, I’ll be pestering my LBS to try out different models.
Not really considered 1×11, I live and ride around the Lakes, so may end up being either under/over geared?

Its worth looking at 1×11 for lower gearing. From what I can work out it’s quite hard with a road setup to get below 34 front and 36 rear but not impossible. 1×11 has a limited range but you can basically run what you want at the front and go as low as you like, at the cost of top end.

Hmm, yeah I suppose it could work.
I’ve got 36/32 at the moment and don’t struggle on the road. Get off-road and its chuffing hard work sometimes.
Even ragging down Warnell at 50mph I’m not spun out on a 50/11
So could probably go lower overall with the gearing.
1x could be a goer.

See Merlins offer currently on Ultegra…
Good list price then an additional 20% deduction at checkout 😉

Bar end shifters rule. No probs using them compared to STIs. And the levers are often more comfortable without the shifing gubbins in. TRP RRL rule, though you’re going hydro, so Hylex look good. Or TRP RRL with Hy-Rd Cable–>Hydro calipers.

Just recently changed from Shimano to SRAM, the shifters took one ride to get used to, and I’ve never used sram stuff before at all.
The sram hydro hoods look a bit weird but they’re perfectly comfortable.
Just changed from 2×11 to 1×11 as well, gained a few climbing gears at the expense of top end speed, but I can live with that 🙂

My xc bike is 1×11 ultegra with a 11-40 rear and works ok

I’d say bar end shifters could be a pain off road. Especially down shifting on a long climb on the hoods.

Nah they’re great. Turn off the indexing too.

Shifting the whole block in one sweep.

Hunt the right gear as you transition from down hill to up while all around you are clicking wildly to find something that works.

Great stuff.

I’ve got Shimano (RS685 levers + RS505 calipers) on one bike, and SRAM Force (was with Force 22 mech, now Rival 1).

For shifting Shimano beats SRAM hands down. SRAM Force is the only system I’ve ever struggled to get indexing working properly on, not helped by the idiotic cable routing on the SRAM hydro levers. Even when it’s working, I find Shimano levers much nicer to use. My Shimano levers suffered from slightly baggy hoods, but some crash damage inspired me to replace them and they’re now much better.

For 1x Shimano doesn’t have a good option.

For braking: when they’re working there’s not much to choose between them. My Shimano calipers are currently away under warranty for the dreaded seal leak.

Overall, if I was buying new, I’d go Shimano for 2x, and reluctantly go SRAM for 1x.