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Our test mech gave trouble-free gear changes and required no adjustment, despite several wheel removals and different riders
Expensive but very long-lasting - now in carbon trim!
Shimano's Ultegra SL rear derailleur purely enjoys all the trappings of the vaunted Dura-Ace, for a less money, making it an ideal choice for cyclosportive riders buying new or upgrading their drivetrain.At 200g, the US$110 SL gear mech packs all the wallop found in its pedigreed brother, Dura-Ace, including sealed bearing guide pulley and flouric coated link bushing for smooth shifts and a long life.TechnologyMuch has been written and reported on the sexier, more visible components like cranks and wheels, but as many have experienced, the drivetrain's the thing, and a reliable, durable and quiet rear derailleur plays an important role. Shimano's Ultegra SL rear mech ranges comfortably between 11 and 27 teeth cogs, and the short cage that I tested worked right our of the box. The set screws were easily accesible and smooth to turn, while the threaded boss attached to the deraiileur hanger as expected, a credit to Shimano's forging mastery and command of aluminium.RideI've run three different 10-speed chains through the SL rear mech: the Shimano CN-6600, SRAM PC-1090, and the FSA SL-K. All rolled smoothly (FSA felt like a belt it was so smooth), and performance was flawless. A clean and lubed shifter cable and properly-trimmed cable housing aids considerably, and Shimano's stock stuff always works.VerdictThe Ultegra SL rear mech performed as promised in all conditions, and handled three different chains with aplomb. Again, for those Shimano fans looking to upgrade, this rear mech comes highly recommended.
The Ultegra SL rear mech performed as promised in all conditions, and handled three different chains with aplomb.
These glass-fibre reinforced jockey wheels have ceramic bearings that are tougher and lighter than stock steel ones and, with less friction, are faster running.You won't notice a massive difference in performance, but if you're looking for every little edge then these are a simple upgrade, and they're certainly durable.
Durability booster
By using carbon fibre composite cage plates and jockey pulleys that spin on ceramic bearings, Shimano are clearly looking for more stiffness and less weight.More weight is saved by the titanium main pivot bolt and cable clamp bolts - bringing the overall weight down to 165g - and the four pivot pins in the mech main body are fluorine-coated to reduce friction and increase durability.And although that front plate pivot body (the bit that the mech cage fits into) looks like alloy, it isn't - it's a resin-reinforced thermoplastic.The Shimano mech was slightly slower than its Campagnolo Record rival when it came to shifting but out on the road it felt quicker due to the smooth and near silent manner of those shifts.It has a whopping 33-tooth capacity, which means it handles all of the available gear combinations in the Dura-Ace range with ease.
Functional and incredibly well made
There are a couple of big changes out back. First, you get a carbon pulley plate that brings down the weight (16g overall). Second, the new rear mech is compatible with cassettes up to 28T. The total capacity (the tooth difference between the two chainrings plus the tooth difference between the biggest and smallest sprockets) is now 33T - so you're unlikely to feel the need for a triple.Once set up and bedded in, we had no troubles at all with shifting either up or down the cassette - all very precise and very definite in both directions with no need for any tweaking during the test period. What more can you ask for?
The increased capacity and precise shifting make it hard to beat
"A solution to a problem that doesn't exist." "Unnecessary." "A marketing gimmick." Those are lines offered time and again by armchair critics of Shimano's new Dura-Ace Di2 electronic drivetrain, yet few of those pundits have spent any time on the stuff. After our initial sampling last summer in Japan and now two solid months of near-continuous use on a proper test group, we can confidently say that shifting-by-wire doesn't just work; it's flat-out awesome.Shifting performance that's second to none.For the full review please view Bike Radar
Incredibly smooth, precise and reliable shift performance that cable-actuated systems can't match, but hugely expensive and multiple shift performance could be better
Although it's great to look at new and shiny Dura Ace (and Di2) kit, it's always the announcement of the new Ultegra groupsets that generates the most excitement here at road.cc towers. Ultegra has always been the smart choice in the Shimano range: affordable enough to be a serious consideration with first dibs on all that innovation trickling down from the top.Dura Ace 7900 was a fairly big leap in a market that mostly makes incremental changes, and Ultegra 6700 has stepped up a notch too, taking on plenty of the new technology at a price point that's much more within the reach of the keen amateur cyclist.Ultegra now has the hollowglide chainring of Dura Ace. It also shares the internal lever cable routing, the Carbon lever blade, redesigned hood shape and repositioned pivots on lever and brake. In fact there's not much that it doesn't have, really only the no-trim shifting of the front mech. So what's the performance difference between the two groupsets?Hand on heart I'd have to say that blindfolded I'd be very hard pressed to tell the difference between the two. There's no real performance advantage to be had by buying Dura Ace kit over the new Ultegra, not one you'll notice out on the road at least. The new Ultegra kit is excellent: shifts are crisp, braking is noticeably better, power transmission is near faultless.In the end it all comes down to weight: Dura Ace 7900 is about 300g lighter than Ultegra 6700. If you can honestly say you'd notice half a pound more kit hanging from your frame then you need to consider the top-of-the-line groupset. For everyone else, myself very much included, the smart money's with Ultegra. Forget the RRPs for a minute: In the real world 7900 is going to cost you a grand, and 6700 can be had for less than £600. For me it's a no-brainer: if you're a Shimano fan then Ultegra 6700 is definitely the groupset that gives you the most bangs per buck. Here's how we rate the components...The Rear mech comes in short- or mid-cage flavours, the latter for the triple chainset. The main change from last year is that the outside link plate is a bit wider to stiffen up the structure. It's an all-alloy unit with an Aluminium pulley cage and it's finished to match the chainset. At 190g it's giving away ten grams to Dura Ace and Record but I doubt you'd notice. Performance is excellent: tidy shifts and very few problems. It's possible to make the chain jump a bit if you really try, but in the normal course of riding you can go for hours without missing a single shift. I suspect that the new mech is more sensitive to misalignment than in previous years; a quarter of a turn on the barrel was the difference between perfect shifting and a bit of searching at the rear. However, when it's dialled it is, for the most part, perfect.
Ultegra is the new amateur rider's benchmark for performance and price. Almost indistinguishable from Dura Ace in terms of performance, it only loses out on weight – but more than makes up for that in value for money.
In contrast to some other parts of the groupset, there haven't been that many changes between the 2009 Force rear mech and 2010's.The outer pulley cage is now made from unidirectional carbon fibre, which trims a few grams compared with last year's - while a magnesium inner parallelogram link also helps to keep things svelte.It weighs about 30g more than SRAM's top-end Red rear mech, but is still lighter than that from Shimano's second string Ultegra groupset.And whereas we had a few shifting hiccups with the Red rear mech when we tested it, the Force mech behaved very well; even under race and climbing conditions we were unable to get it to mis-shift.
Light, and a consistent performer