Groupset

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A groupset or gruppo (from the Italian for "group", often misspelled grouppo) is a bicycle component manufacturer's organized collection of mechanical parts. It generally refers to all of the components that make up a bicycle excluding the bicycle frame, fork, stem, wheels, tires, and rider contact points, such as the saddle and handlebars.

These parts typically include the following:

  • 2 gear levers or shifters and

  • 2 brake levers or

  • 2 integrated brake levers/shifters

  • 2 brakes, front and rear

  • 2 derailleurs, front and rear

  • 1 bottom bracket

  • 1 crankset

  • 1 chain

  • 1 cogset, freewheel or cassette
With the following forming part of some groupsets:

  • 1 headset (more commonly included with vintage groupsets)

  • 1 seatpost

  • 2 hubs, front and rear (although, most manufacturers now offer groupset-branded pre-built wheels)

  • Pair of pedals

  • assorted cables and cable housing  
Except for special commemorative versions, manufacturers do not actually package the various component together to be sold by retailers as a complete groupset. Therefore when a modern road groupset is bought after-market (as an upgrade for an older bike, or for someone building their own bike), the customer can choose which parts they require, the price of the groupset is just the individual prices of the chosen parts added together.



The major groupset manufacturers are Campagnolo for road bicycles and Shimano and SRAM for both road and mountain bikes.

Manufacturers typically offer a range of several groupsets, each targeted at a different budget or use. For instance, Dura-Ace, Super Record and Red are the top-of-the-line road racing groupsets for Shimano, Campagnolo and SRAM respectively while Claris, Veloce and Apex are their entry level road racing group sets, respectively.

List of Groupsets

Below is a list of the three largest manufacturer's groupsets for Road and MTB applications. Each manufacturer's offering is arranged in descending price/quality. The number of sprockets of the cassette in each groupset is shown in brackets. The total number of gears is determined by this number multiplied by the number of chainrings, for example a bike that has a double chainring and a 10-speed cassette has 20 gears, although some of them overlap. Please see the article on bicycle gearing for more information.

Road groupsets

For 2013, Shimano road bicycle groupsets include:

  • Dura-Ace Di2 [9070] (11 speed electronic)

  • Dura-Ace [9000] (11 speed)

  • Dura-Ace Track [7710] (NJS-approved, which is a requirement of all bicycle components used in professional Keirin racing in Japan)

  • Ultegra Di2 [6870] (11 speed electronic)

  • Ultegra Di2 [6770] (10 speed electronic)

  • Ultegra [6800] (11 speed)

  • Ultegra [6700] (10 speed)

  • 105 [5700] (10 speed)

  • Tiagra [4600] (10 speed)

  • Sora [3500] (9 speed)

  • Claris [2400] (8 speed)
Campagnolo

  • Super Record EPS (11 speed electronic)

  • Record EPS (11 speed electronic)

  • Athena EPS (11 speed electronic)

  • Super Record (11 speed)

  • Record (11 speed)

  • Chorus (11 speed)

  • Athena (11 speed)

  • Centaur (10 speed)

  • Veloce (10 speed)
Older Campagnolo groupsets that were discontinued from 2009 are the lower-end:

  • Mirage (10)

  • Xenon (10)
Campagnolo also offers 3 triple chainring offerings for steep hill-climbing:

  • Comp Triple (10)

  • Race Triple (10)

  • Champ Triple (9)
SRAM - 2010 In 2006, SRAM released two groupsets for racing bicycles, aimed at competing with Shimano and Campagnolo's offerings. SRAM currently has 7 road bike groupsets (in descending order of price/quality) that all use the SRAM Double Tap shifting technology:

  • SRAM Red22 (11 speed)

  • SRAM Red 2012 (10 speed)

  • SRAM Black Red (Introduced 2011) (10 speed)

  • SRAM Force22 (11 speed)

  • SRAM Force (10 speed)

  • SRAM Rival (10 speed)

  • SRAM Apex (Introduced for 2010) (10 speed)
MTB/General

Shimano - 2011

  • XTR (10)

  • Saint (9)

  • Deore XT (9/10)

  • SLX (9/10)

  • Zee (10)

  • Hone (9)

  • Deore LX (8/9)

  • Deore (9/10)

  • Alivio (8/9)

  • Acera (8)

  • Altus (8)

  • Tourney (8)
SRAM

  • XX1 (11)

  • XO1 (11)

  • XX (10)

  • X0 (10)

  • X9 (10)

  • X7 (10)

  • X5 (9/10)

  • X4 (8/9)

  • X3 (7)
SRAM also offer parts under several different marques as they've slowly bought out several smaller, specialist bike part manufacturers. These include:

  • Brake systems - Avid

  • Cranksets - Truvativ

  • Mountain Bike Suspension - Rock Shox
SRAM are phasing out 3 ring front chainrings in their MTB range for a 2 front chainring, 10 sprocket rear cassette setup, commonly found on road bikes.

Specialist

There are some groupsets which are designed for a specific purpose (track cycling, downhill etc.). Some are just partial groupsets which are intended to be used with other groupsets.

  • Shimano Dura-Ace Di2 7970 - (10) - electronic shifters and derailleurs intended to be used with regular Dura-Ace 7900 parts (cranks, cassette, chain, bottom bracket etc.)

  • Shimano Dura-Ace (track) - (1) - Track bikes

  • Campagnolo Pista - (1) - Track bikes

  • Campagnolo Time Trial - (N/A) - Time Trial components with bar-end controls, chainrings with oversized toothing and super-light brake levers in composite material.

  • Shimano Hone - (9) - Enduro and Freeride applications

  • Shimano Saint - (9) - Downhill and heavy-duty applications
The Shimano Nexus began as an internal hub only and has slowly grown into its own groupset including a higher end internal hub (Alfine, previously Nexus 'Redline'), chain, shifters, cranks, brakes and calipers.

  • Shimano Alfine - (8) - Internal (planetary) hub gearing, hydraulic disc brakes or mechanical calipers

  • Shimano Nexus - (8) - Internal (planetary) hub gearing, drum brakes or calipers




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