Cheapest way to upgrade Road 10 speed hateful SRAM Apex?

I’ve got a 2011 Boardman CX Team with SRAM Apex double tap shifters. One already broke a few years back and sourcing a lever was difficult then.

Its setup as a winter bike, but I dont tend to use it as the shifters are just so hateful to use ie they are knackered.

My thought is to go Shimano, but all I can see 10 speed is Shimano Tiagra for around the £200 mark for shifters alone !

But then front and rea mech would be quite cheap.

Are there other routes I am missing?

Also can a 10 speed freehub take 11 speed?

Edit : To answer my last question myself – “£239.99 1 x Kinesis Crosslight Disc V3 Road/CX Wheelset Shimano/Sram 10/11sp Black”

So my hubs would take 11 speed, so maybe I should just go to 11 speed as all my other road bikes are 11 speed ?!?

Yep, that’s going to have an HG freehub, which will go up to Shimano/SRAM Road 11 speed no problem.

Road shifter units are Just Expensive, sadly; always have been, always will be. Mechs will be cheap, you might even be able to get away with your current chainset – don’t know what’s going on there.

What are your brakes? Rim, mechanical disk, hydro? If they’re mechanical, that will bring the brifter cost down a bit. I can see a good number of Shimano R7000 shifters (latest 105 11 speed / mechanical brakes) around the £100 mark on ebay (I’d look for R7000 or previous gen R5800). You could probably get 105 mechs for around £40-50 all in secondhand. A long-cage R7000 mech will go up to 11-34, but 11-32 are pretty typical, and what I’d look for. With some canny purchasing, you can get it to around £200-250, I reckon.

If you’re not into the SRAM lifestyle, go Shimano, and don’t mess around, go straight to 105, it’ll last ages, it’s well made, road 11 speed is super common and well supported. I can think of ways to save tens of pounds here/there but I don’t think they pay out in the long term (Microshift, Chinese stuff like Sensah).

What are your brakes? Rim, mechanical disk, hydro?

Mechanical disk -which is handy and keeps the faff down

I’ve been wary of ebay in case its not genuine stuff, the ones I see around the £100 mark are 2nd hand or from China

I had 10 speed Microshift Advent on my last gravel bike – seemed to work well, and you can get Brifters, mech and cassette for around £250. Might be an alternative to Shimano/SRAM.

This is a slightly left-field option but, if you want to do it cheaply, another option is get the SRAM bar-end shifter. I had one as an interim measure on one of my bikes but liked it so much that I kept it. Also, it is possible to remove the shifting gubbins from SRAM shifters (look at Ratio Technology for details) so they just end up as brake levers. You end up with a very low maintenance efficient system which is really helpful on a winter bike.

Thanks OP, same bike and problem here. Just wondering if it’s worth updating, or just get a new (second hand) bike.

@FunkyDunc I wouldn’t buy the Chinese ones, agreed, but most of the S/H ones I am pretty sure are usually genuine, albeit with stated amounts of wear.

If you want to buy new: yeah, road stuff is expensive, and the OEM discounts new manufacturers get is real, but there’s a genuinely healthy secondhand market. LFGSS classifieds usually have a regular flow of perfectly good quality Shimano parts flowing through.

I bought the Microshift Sword groupset for c.£200 a few months ago for my commuter. Assuming you have cable brakes then I’ve been very impressed with it. Few reviews out there for it as well.

Go second hand on FB marketplace. Lots of sets of ultegra etc for sale at cheap prices if you go looking!

10 Speed Tiagra uses it’s own pull ratio, so avoid unless getting the mech as well.

Yep, that’s going to have an HG freehub, which will go up to Shimano/SRAM Road 11 speed no problem.

As long as it’s recent-ish.  10s freehubs are narrower than 11s so there’s backwards compatibility but not forwards. So it’s probably fine as long as the wheels are newer than the groupset.

Are there other routes I am missing?

2nd hand ~2005 Shimano groupsets? The era with exposed cables has much better shifting than later hidden cables and is probably peanuts now.

Or the leftfield options, L-Twoo and Empire? They both do 2×12 ~105 level groupsets for not much more than a set of Tiagra shifters (depending on which bits you buy, I’d still get 105 cassette, chain and some decent chainrings elsewhere).  I’ve a couple of friends funning different chinese groupsets and they all seem to be working just fine. Personally I’ve suntour and microshift cassettes with KMC chains and they’re just not as clean shifting as shimano so I’d not skimp on those bits.

Agree with TINAS that it’s definitely worth checking your freehub is 11sp compatible.

Merlin has 105 11 speed mechanical brake for £150, I’d take that with a SH mech and new cassette over the Tiagra. If your wheels won’t take 11 speed road cassettes then the is the hg-700 which is 11-34t and fits on the MTB 11 speed freehub.

Planet X have outstandingly cheap mechanical brake sram shifters – Rival and Force. I picked up some rival shifters for peanuts to go on my turbo bike – you can pair up a mixture of Shimano and Sram 11 speed group components. I’ve ended up with 11 speed rival shifters and rear mech / force front mech / Shimano cassette / Shimano 105 cranks (Ribble bargain) and kmc x11 gold chain. Works really well for very little outlay.

Drop me a PM if you like, i’ll happily help you out with trade price on some of the older/cheaper Shimano groupsets we’ve got.

Not trying to make any money, or do a cheeky advert.. But very happy to try and help out.

@Gotama whereabouts did you buy the Sword group from?

Tiagra on the GF’s gravel bici…… Thousands of km and no dicking about with it. It just works.

10 Speed Tiagra uses it’s own pull ratio, so avoid unless getting the mech as well.

Current Tiagra 10 speed is different to older 105 and ultrega etc.

But it’s the same pull ratio as all shimano road 11 and grx. So lots of mech’ options

@cookeaa I picked it up from Amazon but just checking now it is £285 for shifters, mech and cassette. I wanted the range on the cassette and 1x so an old road group wasn’t an option for me. Can’t fault it though, shifts very well, hoods are comfy and the clutch seems pretty decent off road. It doesn’t look like a budget groupset to me either, bar maybe the brake levers.

Planet X have outstandingly cheap mechanical brake sram shifters – Rival and Force

Yep I had seen them, and the Shimano 105 for £150. My thought was that because the SRAM is double tap, the pull ratios/way mechs work is different to Shimano? If not then those. I beleive those SRAMs are 1:1 and Shimano is 2:1 ?

Not sure in terms of pull ratios – but I think the whole setup only cost about £200 or so with the cheap shifters / secondhand rival rear mech / bargain 105 cranks / 105 11 speed cassette – think it’s an 11-32 / discounted new force front mech / Amazon kmc chain etc.

Personally I don’t like mechanical Shimano gears – if you slightly catch the smaller inside gear shifter as you’re trying to do the shift where the brake lever moves inwards the whole thing just swings inwards not doing anything at all. Hated it. Happy with Shimano di2 as that doesn’t have the same issue. Double tap is my next favourite groupset I’ve used after the di2. I’ve had rival 10 speed and rival 11 speed and both just worked well and I didn’t have any issue with them.

Shimano and SRAM road pull ratios are all different. Pull ratios between different Shimano gear counts are different (apart from the special case of Tiagra 4700 and GRX400, which are 10-speed with 11-speed road pull ratios). Microshift, as mentioned as another option, have their own unique pull ratio compatible with neither.

Match shifters to mechs, it is not worth the hassle of not doing so.

I know you said you’d avoid chinese stuff but the 8 Speed “LTwoo” road shifters I got recently for c£30 have been great.  Clunky in operation, and quite a long swing to down-shift, bot functionally sound.  Though genreally Shimano compatible, so woudl need a rear mech too, at which point you may as well jus ipgrade to 11 or 12 speed an buy a whole drivetrain….

I think most of the chinese stuff runs of standard HG freehubs (so 8/9/10 speed freehubs) rather the the 11speed road-only freehub shimano introduced at some point.

10spd Tiagra can’t be expensive and it’s good.