Ultegra 8170 Di2 vs Sram etap Force

[DJuice]

Hi Hubbers

Need some advice please which one is better for TT bike for Ironman racing?

Positives and negatives?

Personally leaning towards Ultegra although on aesthetics Sram takes it.

Question was posed to me, unfortunately I`m from the generation where RTC shifters was the bees knees.

 

Thanks for the input. 

[Furbz]

I'd say shift performance is better with the latest Ultegra Di2. and you get more buttons to play with on the STI shifter which is nice but not relevant for TT.

its also has a really intuitive gear setup using your phone compared to Srams more traditional mechanical type setup.

the latest Sram Force has addressed most of its flaws - the big one being the chainring flexing under load.

As its for iron man i'd say front shifting is minimal so the slower Force front shift is not an issue.

the other major issue the newer force addressed was the lack of larger chainrings for TT purposes - i stand to be corrected but i think you can now buy bigger blades whereas before they did not have anything bigger than a 50. so you were then forced to fork out for a red crank.

Be aware the ultegra crank scratches super easy and cannot be fixed. so you have to live with a silver scrach on a blackish crank.

the carbon force crank can get damaged and repaired with a little clear coat.

finally - good luck getting stock of the newer sram - its hens teeth. 

i personally am not a fan of Srams 10 tooth cog - when i turn my wheel on a bike stand you can definitely notice extra drag

 

Edited May 25, 2023 by Furbz

[MongooseMan]

The SRAM wireless blips are nice, so you could stick the on the aero bars, etc