Review Shimano Ultegra 6700 or Dura Ace 7800
Shimano Ultegra looks good, but more importantly it performs and has borrowed from Dura Ace and the results are easy to see.
We’ve long been fans of shimano – the proof is that we’ve been riding and racing shimano dura ace for 20 years. Campy wins for elegance, but shimano wins for utility. It works, even when out of tune it still works and you can rely on it time and time again. The prices are fairly stable across retailers whereas Campy fluctuates about the same as air fares for the major US airlines.
For most of the 80s and 90s Shimano made quantum leaps in cycling technology. Indexed shifting – that probably doesn’t mean anything to most of our readers and customers, but for riders back in the days of “Breaking Away” it meant a lot. On downtube shifters a rider had to move the shifter to whatever cog they wanted without any indexing – you moved the shifter and the derailleur moved. Simple enough, problem is your tired and a fraction of a difference in the length of a given shift means an all together different gear and, as we all know, there is nothing worse when you’re tired than getting the wrong gear. Indexing changed that – for every click of the shifter, you got a different gear. Want one gear, move the shifter one click – want three, move it three clicks. Small change, big difference.
From there shimano gave us another huge change – STI shifting. No more did we have to take our hands off the bar and move it to the downtube to shift the bike. Shifting was incorporated into the hoods and brake levers. Were the shifters heavy? You bet. Did they make a difference? Huge. Imagine doing a crit and taking your hands off the bar and reaching the downtube shifter every time you wanted to shift. Get the picture? We know riders who don’t even take a drink during a crit, not cause they don’t want to or don’t have a bottle, but because they can’t take their hands off the bars. STI shifting was a big deal.
Both times Campy had to be dragged into these advancements kicking and screaming. Over the years Shimano made other improvements, but those were the big two until the recent release and real-world use of electronic dura ace (something we’ll review later).
Recently we put Ultegra 6700 on one of our winter bikes. Shimano made changes to both dura ace and ultegra since SRAM was grabbing market share on aftermarket grouppo sales. SRAM was reasonably priced, used by pro teams and looked good (we’ll review their products later). Were it not for SRAM we think the only changes to shimano might have been the introduction of electronic. Campy has hidden the shifter cables since they came out with ergo shifting in the 90s and shimano refused to make any changes. Shimano claimed the cables had to be exposed since wrapping them under the bars would create too much friction. They had a point – go use any old shimano STI system and the exposed cables make shifting easier. No question. It just doesn’t look good and it’s unsightly.
With these points understood we’re often asked “new ultegra 6700 or old dura ace 7800?” – if you want the short answer, go with the dura ace 7800. Here’s the long answer:
The Ultegra 6700 crank is a huge step up. It performs far better than the previous generation and is far stiffer. By far this was our favorite new upgrade.
Ultegra is a few steps forward and one giant step back. First, the progression: The updated crank is much better. A two piece system with hidden crank bolts. This is trickle down right from dura ace and the result is a crank that looks good and is stiff and light. Not much more one could want. The shifters have lost the exposed cables and therefore your bike wont look like an inspect anymore. So far so good, but that’s where it stops for improvements. The calipers are basically the same as is the bottom bracket and front and rear deraileurs, marketing material will tell you otherwise, but trust us, they’re effectively the same. Now for the bad news. First, yes, the finish is a step up from the old ultegra SL, but what’s up with matt grey? Message to campy, shimano and SRAM – any groupset around a thousand bucks should have a finish of either black or chrome. Everyone seems to get this BUT shimano. Now for the really bad news. Sure the shifters look better, but the hoods are huge and by huge we mean HUGE. One of is 6’4″ and in competitive bike racing that makes us a Goliath and these hoods are just too big. Your opinion might differ and we encourage you to try them out, but too big seems to be the collective opinion. Here is the biggest mistake though – for whatever reason on the upshift shimano changed it so ultegra 6700 only shifts two gears, not three. WTF?!? This is a horrible idea and we’re not sure what they were thinking. Where we live it’s hilly and hardly flat – you hit a rolling hill and you almost always shift two gears, take a few pedal strokes and decide if you need a third shift which more times than not you do – then you power over the rest. With all other 2nd tier groups (e.g., chorus or force) we can shift three gears in one motion of the lever, but not ultegra 6700. It stinks. You quickly notice how often you use this or better yet WOULD use this and you take your two shifts and then keep holding the lever out and take the third – or not. With ultegra do your two and then go through the motion again. Not the end of the world, by any stretch, but not well thought out either. Will this lack of feature slow you down? Probably not, but you will notice it, and you will really notice it if you’ve used other groupsets.
So what about new ultegra as compared to old dura ace 7800? Dura ace 7800 wins in every department except for the exposed cables and we’re not convinced that exposed cables are enough to negate the clear lead dura ace has. First, Dura Ace 7800 is lighter. Second, it looks nicer with it’s all polished finish. Third, it performs better. Fourth, it functions better – the shifting will perform better and you get three shifts in the upshift. Fifth, the hoods are a better fit (yea they might be a bit small for few, but the the converse is too big for most). In our mind it’s a no brainer – dura ace 7800 is the clear winner over ultegra 6700. Still, we know there are some of you out there that hate exposed cables that much – no worries, ultegra 6700 is a perfectly fine grouppo. The only drawbacks being the two gear upshift and the finish which might not be the most atheistically pleasing but is an improvement over previous iterations of ultegra.
In the end Ultegra 6700 is a fine groupset, but it does have some flaws that will leave you wanting more and in a way, perhaps that what shimano wanted, but not us.
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I’ve not found the two gear upshift limit to be an issue but have had a little trouble getting the shift to the big ring dialed in with my 7900. The 7900 hoods do have me stretched out more which is an issue with my short torso and long legs since I’m already running an 80 mm stem on a 58 cm bike with 828 mm seat to BB.
“Expert opinion” aside…here is a contrary review: 6700 Utegra is superb. Shimano may not have hit-one-out-of-the-park, but it’s damn close. The grey ‘composite’ color (and who gives a tear about color, anyway?) is great–it is unobstructive against composite frames, and even looks good on shiny steel frames. The black and chome look is best for retro and fixie builds…you need chrome components to look shiny next to your harley in the garage, then campy has you covered, easy-cheasy.
The two-shift limit is no-issue, and here’s why: the larger shift lever of the shimano makes multiple shifts so damn much faster, that two, short, quick whacks of the lever take faster than one long push of the SRAM lever…I own both and that the ticket.
The larger ‘brifter’ body is excellent: even with my small hands, it feels great…the brifters are, in essence, a bar-extension, anyway–that’s why bars have become shorter and shorter, in recent years. So, the larger body allows the heal of your palm to spread your weight over an amply-sized area. Much more support than SRAM.
Also, Shimano continues to hold it’s shifting adjustment better than SRAM…it’s just less ‘fussy’, in rear shifting, probably because Shimano continues to use an articulated (sliding) upper pivot pulley, while SRAM does not.
Shimano Ultegra is easier to live with than SRAM Force, but you won’t be able to convince the “experts” of that, so don’t try.