Today, the front half of my new SRAM Force group arrived, and since I had to be home waiting for a Comcast technician, I decided to play around a bit. I didn’t actually intend to get as far as I did, but hey, I’m not complaining!

I stripped off the Dura Ace brifters and trade-boxed them and then studied the SRAM Force brifters for awhile. In a general sense, not much has changed. But boy, the details! SRAM’s Double Tap technology uses one inner lever under the brake to control both up and down shifting. You tap once to shift up, twice to shift down. It’s very cool. I’ve had Campy and Shimano but this is my first SRAM and it’s an interesting design. The brifters are adjustable to account for the different reach positions of riders with different hands, and the brifters also allow the shift cable to run along the inside or outside of the housing, depending on your preference.

Note the two tracks for shifter cable routing.

I decided on routing both cables to the inside track (shifter and brake) on each side, but only after I had previously taped them to be inside/outside. I redid it because I wanted to take better advantage of my bars’ cable valley along the underside.

One lever, two taps! It’s rule no. 2…

The Force brifters went on a lot easier than the Dura Ace brifters came off, I have to say. Granted there was a 13 year gap between the manufacture of these two systems, so I’m sure current DA 7900 brifters are much better. But these feel great and were easy to mount, adjust, set up the cabling etc.

Here I’ve routed the cables the way I wanted… in a Lovecraftian space madness of tentacled terror.

I didn’t intend to get very far, as I said, and didn’t really have an objective when I started today, so I was taking my time and going slow, imperative when exploring something you really don’t have much experience with anyway. Counting moving the DA stuff over format he other frame to this one, that makes… well, one pass at road bike component assembly for me so far. Heh. So yeah, I went slow.

I tried a few different ways to route the cables but settled on allowing them to spring out from the bundle under the bar and just find their best, least hassled paths.

I always tape the cables and the gel tightly before wrapping the bar.

Well, in for a penny, in for a pound, I says. I had a bit more time, so I thought I’d gel and tape the bars in preparation for wrapping them with the real tape later. I also noted a few things I wasn’t expecting, such as the fact that SRAM provides cables, housing, ferrules etc but they pre-size the cabling for you. I wasn’t expecting that, as I’m used to this all being bulk stock and in uniform lengths. So, the left and right brake cables were of different lengths, and of course reversed after I had installed them, so I had to switch them. No big deal, still interesting since you still have to cut each down.

Funny how Shimano is now providing the wrap for the brifter clamp to simulate electritole tape. For those that don’t already USE electritole tape. HA

The Comcast guy finally came and we took care of business really quickly, actually. However, not enough time to shoot back to work and my daughter was on her way back home from her Oma’s house, so I decided to work on this a little more. Wrap one side, I thought. Ok. Note that brake clamp wrap int he photo. Hilarious. Why not just provide some real electritole tape! Side note: I LOVE how you can hang your roll of elctritole tape on the bars ( or on top of your bike stand) as you work.

Oh, SWEET AS I says.

Before I knew it, I was done. That was unexpected! I only had to rewrap once, and for me that’s a record. I love this tape, too.. Took me awhile to find one I liked, since I’ve used Fizik black per on like three bikes in a row, and I hate most other tape. This is a black vinyl tape with perf, and it wrapped great. The perf pattern actually helped with spacing.

Anyway, one side is a bar end blinkie (yes, the car side) and the other, a video game upright button, a la 70s arcades. You may have seen me pull this on Crook as well.

Brakes are strung and adjusted, cables are in place for derailleurs. Seat is on. I’m good to go for the next phase.

Next up: derailleurs and cassette!

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