SRAM Force Groupset is EXPENSIVE!!

Welcome to the wonderful world of marketing hype. If its more expensive, then the signal SRAM wants to send you is that it is BETTER or the BEST. How many suckers have fallen for this in the past? LOTS!!! For this reason its good to just wait it out a bit. I am sure they will be on eBay in three months just in time for Christmas. 🙄

Tech72 said:

I've been thinking of maybe upgrading to a new groupset lately. So I've been looking around for prices on different groupsets.....to my surprise, the SRAM Force groupset is consistently listed for more than Campy Record!! Dura-Ace is the least expensive (relatively speaking of course). Force is nice, but not D-A nice and nowhere near Record level. What's the deal? Is it just because Force is new? My money's on D-A or Record......

You also have to wait for the tooling and other related research costs to be absorbed. Eventually it will drop in price. Also if the group does well, SRAM may release a lower end group like Campy and Shimano did. SRAM isn't new to the shifting game, but they are new to road (levers anyway). The technology is sound and the grouppo has been race proven. I usually stay away from first time release to let all the bugs get worked out, but I believe that SRAM did a good job with their single lever shifter. I am a bit biased because I like their single lever shifters for MTB. Nothing beats a full carbon Record though...[img]cyclingforums.comwink.gifOpen ↗[/img]

graphixgeek said:

You also have to wait for the tooling and other related research costs to be absorbed. Eventually it will drop in price. Also if the group does well, SRAM may release a lower end group like Campy and Shimano did. SRAM isn't new to the shifting game, but they are new to road (levers anyway). The technology is sound and the grouppo has been race proven. I usually stay away from first time release to let all the bugs get worked out, but I believe that SRAM did a good job with their single lever shifter. I am a bit biased because I like their single lever shifters for MTB. Nothing beats a full carbon Record though...[img]cyclingforums.comwink.gifOpen ↗[/img]

SRAM did release a lower end groupset: SRAM Rival. Even that groupset is priced higher than a comparable Ultegra or Centaur groupsets.....I'm sure SRAM's new road stuff is good, but to price it higher than comparable (or even higher grade - debatable I suppose - stuff from established brands seems crazy). If anything, the SRAM stuff should costs less to attract customers and a potential loyal following thereafter.....Like they do in the car world. As good as the cars were, Lexus (and the like) didn't start out pricing their cars higher than their target German brands.....

Of course, I'm no marketing guru so I could be out to lunch on all this....

Big majority of initial shipment seems to be taken up by the original bike makers. Many stores are lucky to have them as a replacement component. What would you do if you were the store owner who got only a set of group? I would sell it to a person willing to pay the top price, wouldn't you?

I think the best bet is to buy a new bike already equipped with it. Most bike makers selling the '07 bikes with SRAM Force priced above the Campy Record version. I have seen only one or two priced Campy higher.

Like some others said, the price will come down and the lower models will be introduced in a few years. For the SRAM, they have to recover the R&D cost as soon as possible, so it's a good strategy to sell the image that they are not cheap.

To SRAM people, they see this thread as success of their strategy. The original poster is actually saying, "It's expensive (but I want one, I want one, I want one.)." Who would be posting a thread like this if one thinks it's expensive but has no interest in getting one?

"To SRAM people, they see this thread as success of their strategy. The original poster is actually saying, "It's expensive (but I want one, I want one, I want one.)." Who would be posting a thread like this if one thinks it's expensive but has no interest in getting one?"

Actually, the original poster (ME) was thinking, "What the hell? Force is nice but definitely not nicer than Record or Dura-Ace (in his opinion). So the higher price is not worth it. Not interested in SRAM anymore. I'm going with either Campy or Shimano instead....". That's what the original poster was thinking and now saying.

Tech72 said:

So the higher price is not worth it. Not interested in SRAM anymore. I'm going with either Campy or Shimano instead....".

That's what most normal people do, without saying or complaining to anyone.

So, what was your original intention of this thread? You thought SRAM would lower their price because of your post?

allgoo19 said:

That's what most normal people do, without saying or complaining to anyone.

So, what was your original intention of this thread? You thought SRAM would lower their price because of your post?

My mistake, I thought this was the cycling equipment thread of a cycling forum. A free, entirely open forum where one can make personal comments and observations about said cycling equipment and all matters related to all parts great and small on a two-wheeled bicycle. If those personal comments and observations happen to pertain to the manufacturer and marketers of said cycling equipment, so be it. That's the whole point of the forum. Yes? Damn, wrong turn again 🙄

It appears someone might be a thread nazi and on the SRAM payroll.....

I was meaning a groupset lower than the two currently offered. Probably built up with more plastic and cheaper metal, similar to Tiagra/Sora. Prices do come down, I remember the stratopheric prices that the Shimano groups were going for just 10 years ago. It's all relative to time, manufacturing, and recovering the costs of research and development. Then again, maybe SRAM will push the high prices to make the groups look superior to Shimano and Campy, but looking at how they have done with their MTB line, I doubt it.So the price to quality/function comparison is subjective. You'll have people who don't want to pay the price of Campy when they can get Shimano or vice versa. It's just now SRAM has thrown something into the mix.

The latest issue of "Buycycling" Magazine compared Force to DA and the table they published indicates that SRAM Force is cheaper and lighter than Shimano DA.

SRAM is going down the saem road that Shimano has chosen. They are offering their groupsets to bike companies for a fraction of the retail price. The costs may be as little as 1/3 of retail. The number of groupsets bought by individuals is tiny and not really relevant. The price for them is just set so that people will think they are getting a good deal when they buy a complete bike with a SRAM group. If the customer thinks he is getting a bargain then the bike companies can increase their prices somewhat and increase their profit margins, thus giving them an incentive to use SRAM instead of Campy.

Anyone who actually pays more money for SRAM than Campy Record is getting ripped off. Wait for the SRAM equiped bargain bikes to be offered just like they are for Dura Ace.