It means I will have to buy a new free hub (£60). Or stick with 10.
I’ve got some old mixed up stuff at the moment, so this will be super luxury anyway.
It’s going on my ultimate bike build, but on a budget (I know, I know).

My dad’s just got it.

The brake hoods are a different shape and the front shifting is amazing. Brakes are good too.

Whether it’s worth it is down to you.

Nope stick to what you have.. I had dura ace 9000 on my tcr advanced sl(now sold) looks gorgeous and is silky smooth in operation !!!

I had new dura ace polymer 9000 cables fitted to my now best best bike sporting dura ace 7700(9 speed) and it too is silky smooth and gets me round the same roads 🙂

Yes, you know you want to…

Yes,
It’s worth it if your stuff is old and tired.
Moved to it from some old Dura ace 9speed stuff.
It was 9 years old and no matter what I did,New cables etc it was vague and noisy.
Mite be worth selling the old stuff on EBay to offset some cost.
I had Hope hubs so a change of freehub was all that was needed.
Great smooth shifting,solid brakes just lovely!
The only thing I am not to keen on is the colour.
Much prefer the look of Dura ace in that respect.
Couldn’t justify the cost of that though just for the colour though!
From what I have been told a lot of the technology of Dura-ace has transfered over nicely.
Thanx,
Max

Don’t do it for the number of cogs, do it for the improvement in shifting, and the better hoods.

Don’t do it for the number of cogs, do it for the improvement in shifting, and the better hoods.

Agreed

Which I find damned annoying, as I hate that 11spd is being forced upon us all. On a road bike, you really don’t need that many cogs out back, you just need to choose your cassette carefully. 10spd chains are short lived enough (but at least they’re cheaper now too), 11spd chains seem to be wearing out faster from my view point, and they’re a lot more money too!

Ultegra 6700 is still very nice, but it can be a lot more susceptible to cable wear than 6800 seems to be. Run good quality polymer coated inners and SP41 outer and change when the shift gets a bit lazy and it’s still superb though.

That said, I’ve gone the way of SRAM now, since I realised just how good it can be when setup with good cables (SRAM really doesn’t suffer poor cables gladly) and I’m very happy right now. Bastard mix of Force/Red on my road bike shifts effortlessly and the shifts are so instant going down the block it makes Shimano feel lethargic by comparison!

Hmm I have a set if Ultegra 10 spd unused from new.

Do I use it or sell it?

I still use 9 spd on my winter bike!

Love it as long as it has a double ring.

If the OP said ‘I have Tiagra should I’?

I could understand.

This. No. Unless you are an amazing talented amateur.

Cheap leap yes. Increment over already good? = waste

Hmm I have a set if Ultegra 10 spd unused from new.

Do I use it or sell it?

I still use 9 spd on my winter bike!

Love it as long as it has a double ring.

Use it…

In reality, it works very well still, but has been devalued by the the introduction of 11spd so if you sold it, it would cost you a couple of hundred quid to upgrade to 11spd.

If you’re used to 9spd, Ultegra 6700 is going to feel like a massive step forward anyway. That said, there’s good merit in running 9spd on a winter bike, the chains and cassettes are MUCH cheaper than 10 or 11spd. This is what annoyed me about Tiagra going 10spd, and now 105 going 11spd. It’s fine the top tier or two being expensive to maintain, but who’s thinking of those who keep riding through the winter? As it is, Sora is now a good winter bike proposition as it’s pretty much Tiagra 4500 but painted black.

Sure, if you’re a racer and someone else is picking up the bills (or even if you’re paying yourself and you just must have the best), 11spd gives you very close ratio gears as well as maintaining a decent spread. But 9 out of 10 of us would rather have decent quality, but cheaper replacement parts (such as 9spd) chains and cassettes on our road bikes!

Sorry, just read my original post.
I have nine speed campy mirage on my existing (old) road bike and am building a new bike from the frame up.
I’ve decided to go ultegra, but don’t know whether to go for ten speed and keep the free hub, or go full Monty 11.
I’m not bothered about the extra cog, but if it shifts better.

If you’re going from campy to Shimano won’t you need a different freehub anyway?

10spd chains are short lived enough (but at least they’re cheaper now too)

Really? I get about 5000 miles out of mine, that’ll do me…

If you’re going from campy to Shimano won’t you need a different freehub anyway?

Think that’s his point – we all assumed he’s talking 10 speed Ultegra to 11 speed. The question is really “old Campy to new Shimano”, and for my money you’d be rude not to. But frankly Campag/Shimano is personal.

Isn’t 10 to 11 speed a whole new drive train and shifters?

But he’s got 9 speed Campy, so it’s a whole new drivetrain either way, and if you’re doing it, I’d go 11 speed.

Upgrading perfectly good 10 speed to 11 is harder to justify certainly.

Yes, looking at a new bike build so I need everything.
I am only using my old wheels which have a tiagra cassette.

You were lucky getting the tiagra cassette to work with the campag stuff. What wheels do you have ? Check you can get a 11spd freehub, also the wheel might need a slight re dish.

I’ve decided to go ultegra, but don’t know whether to go for ten speed and keep the free hub, or go full Monty 11.

You can run a campag 11-speed cassette with Ultegra 6800, and keep the same freehub.

taxi25 – Member
You were lucky getting the tiagra cassette to work with the campag stuff

No, 9s shimano/campag is a known good shimergo mix – I’ve been on it for 10 years.

Needless to say I wouldn’t bother with 11s, I CBA with 10.

would recommend getting 6800 on a new bike

would recommend getting 6800 groupset for a used bike with a knackered groupset that needs replacement

would recommend getting 6800 if rebuilding an entry level bike where you wanted the frame and were planning to dump the Sora / Tiagra groupset that comes on

would not recommend 6800 if you are riding a bike with a 6700 groupset that works and is in good condition 😉

I am riding 6700 with the new cabling and it feels very slick compared to the older cabling system

They are Hope hubs, so I believe 11 speed is possible.
TBH I am now just looking at what’s in stock. Ribble don’t have braze on front in 6800 so might need to get a 105 one.
I would get 10 speed groupo if I could find it cheap.
What about cassette ratio? If I can’t get a compact chainset, would a 12-30 give a good range, but then I need a bigger rear cage.

Ultegra 10s was a bit crap in the “mmm this feels nice” department, the intenral cable routing meant the shifting was a long way from smooth.

Ultegra 11s is apparently a return to form.

So either search out an older external cable pair of 10s shifters, or go 11speed.

I’m still on 7800 and it’s still great. If it’s a nice bike you never intend to sell then it’s worth buying something both nice and future proof. Ultegra 10s was neither of those things.

I’m on compact and 13-27. Not very matcho, but it does mean that as a mear mortal I can sit in the big ring 95% of the time and use the middle of the cassette, where everyone else is either in the inner ring or has the chain going right accross big-big most of the time. 12-30 would be very low and quite big jumps, but if that’s what you need for local rides then fair enough.

FWIW I recently decided to buy 105 over Ultegra in any form as 105 is so cheap currently, and I figured I would want/be forced (mostly want) to go to discs in the not too distant future and would go 11 speed at that point.

If you’re better at resisting marketing than me, or wear out drivetrains quicker, this may not be a concern for you.

Hmm interesting chat. I’m sourcing 6700 second hand (including from the op) to replace 6600 ultegra and 105 mix. Mostly I’d prefer the newer shape but forgot it was internally routed.

I have 6700 Ultegra shifters on one bike and 5700 105 shifters just fitted on another bike. I don’t quite get what the chatter is about them feeling crap. To me, both sets of shifters feel solid and smooth.

I just recently bought the 105 shifters – didn’t want to go 11spd by either buying Ultegra 11s or waiting for 105 11s. 10 speed is fine functionally.

The one thing I hate about the 11sp Ultegra is the angle that the cable comes out of the rear derailleur (in front of the barrel adjuster) before getting clamped. Shimano have used s short piece of plastic tube to lessen the drag, which in the short term works fine, but I’d be interested to see how it lasts and whether one will be able to buy another piece in two years time. The rest of the groupset seems great (the crankset is an acquired taste!) but this seems like such a bodge.

Have 10 speed Tiagra, 6600 and 6700 on various bikes. I have also tested 6800. The new cables and shifters have returned shifting to the smoothness of the exposed cables of 6600 and Tiagra. Worth it for that if you want a new groupset, otherwise, not really.

Personally, I’m not unhappy with 6700, but my 6600 (and Tiagra) shifts better, lighter and smoother. I plan on going to 9000 eventually with groupo trickle down. The hoods on the newer groupsets do, however fit my small hands better. But I like the exposed cable because my Exposure Joystick can sit under the bars and out of the way 8)

I have 6700 Ultegra shifters on one bike and 5700 105 shifters just fitted on another bike. I don’t quite get what the chatter is about them feeling crap. To me, both sets of shifters feel solid and smooth.

A lot of people make a big issue over the internal cable routing on the 6700 STI’s, and them feeling crap in comparison to 6600 or other externally routed STI’s. In reality, they can, and often do, work very well indeed. They are just a bit less forgiving of poor quality or worn cables, so use top quality cables and replace when shifting starts to become lazy.

6700 is certainly no worse than SRAM in this respect, in fact it’s probably better. SRAM equipped bikes that get ridden through the winter often end up requiring herculean efforts to change gear from my experience as a mechanic. That’s not to say that with fresh, high quality cables, that SRAM doesn’t perform superbly (cos it does, in fact I’m running Force/Red myself happily), but just that you need to maintain the bike a bit more than you would with externally routed Shimano.

I actually prefer the slight resistance, feels more solid. I have 10spd Tiagra on the commuter and it feels almost too light, plastic-y and cheap.

Ordered. 6800 groupo.