loimpact

Forgive me if argued before, I couldn't find much at all on the matter.......so here goes....

First...........I've got two previous gen Supersix Evo's. They ride fine......BUT......Both are fitted with Ultegra 6800 and I've never been in love with the way they shift.

Second......We recently had a Cannondale demo & I got to ride the new bikes with the DA 9100 on them. WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The shifting was absolutely the most quick/instantaneous and smoothly reeedonkulous kind of shifting I've EVER experienced! I mean, I'd ditch Di2 in a heartbeat for this. (I've ridden Di2, Etap, etc. and NOTHING was as awesome as this)

So.......I"m currently replacing piece by piece on my best 6800 bike in an effort to make better (so far, not much to tell) and I doubt I'm going to get any combination of new parts to make it feel like the 9100 felt.

Anybody gone from 6800 to 8000 & noticed such a change?? (Or anyone own/ride 8000 & 9100 & consider 9100 as awesome as I felt it to be???)

Thanks for listening!

redlude97

The front Dr is a bit better to set up. Rear is a bit better protected from crashes but aesthetically a downgrade imo. Otherwise shifting performance is excellent for both

loimpact

The 6800 front, imho, is just as easy as any to setup. (and I can speak to a different in chainrings in shifting with one of mine running Ultegra and the other running FSA KLite. The FSA chainrings shift nicely. The Shimano.....not so much)

Rear is just a bit of old MTB tech but I agree the 6800 rear looks quite nice in that carbon grey!

Shifting....I just have to strongly disagree. I can't speak to 8000 yet (though I may purposely borrow an 8000 bike this weekend) but 9100 is something to behold......ESPECIALLY in comparison to 6800.

redlude97

That sounds like a setup problem. 6800 shifting is perfection

Dean V

+1
As you mentioned front mech set up is the only negative.
Seems to need quite a bit of preload and only just has enough travel.
Don't think anything shifts better than Shimano chainrings either.

deacon mark

I have 6800 and it shifts incredible you have something wrong in the set up. I have full 6800 and while I have not tried 8000 or the 9100 I am sure it could not be any better other than weighing less. I would consider going with die drawn cables and avoid the coated ones. Get the Shimano sp 41 housing and make sure all the housing is smooth and without kinks.

Racing Dan

Proper cables and wear do make a lot of difference. Lots of bikes are impaired from needlessly using questionable 3rd party cables. Also comparing a worn drive train, no matter if its ultegra or not, is not "fair" if its compared to something brand new. From that perspective Tiagra might be better than Ultegra .. ;-)

The devil is in the detail, as they say.

loimpact

Remember......I have two Evos, both running 6800. I've run coated cables, plain cables, SP41 tubing, Jagwire tubing, etc.

Perfection (or closest to it) is 9100.

I've ridden several 6800 bikes (and 9000) and nothing I've ridden has shifted like 9100. At least not as it sits on the 2020 Evo....(though I wouldn't consider the bike an important part of that equation)

Next step in my testing is completely new rear deraileur. (cable, then chain, then cassette, then just jockey wheels and now whole deraileur later today) The last thing I intend to do (admittedly important) is to check deraileur alignment, though I know I'm very close at worst and I'd be surprised if both of my 6800's were off as they were built up entirely differently.

loimpact

If you have not ridden 9100 (I can't speak to 8000 yet), then you really should. You might be surprised!

(And I'm not a Dura Ace fan....in fact, I'd probably go 105 on my next build after my history with Shimano so far.)

dmanthree

I guess I find this odd, as well. My bike, with Ultegra Di2 6800 has never missed a shift. Works perfectly.

redlude97

I've ridden 5800, 6800, 9000, r7000, r8000, and r9100. They all shift essentially the same. 5800/r7000 have slightly slower front shifting from the small ring to the big ring due not having some of the shift ramps 6800/r8000 do. I've mixed and match derailleurs, shifters and cranksets between the various iterations and they all work together flawlessly. If you can't get them to shift well then there is something wrong with your setup.

ingo

I have all three, 6800, 8000, and 9100. More than 25,000 km total. The difference between 6800 and 8000 is noticeable but not nearly enough to say that 6800 is bad. The 6800 is now on my Zwift bike and gets a new rear derailleur cable every 3000 km and that improves shifting. The 8000 and 9100 on my road and gravel bikes have not needed new cables yet, up to 5000 km on each groupset. Shifting on the 8000 and 9100 groupsets is the same, though the 8000 on the gravel bike is long cage and wide ratio, so the rear shifting is slower as expected. I have also ridden Campy Record extensively and the shifting performance lies between the 6800 and 8000. So yes, the 9100 is the best shifting mechanical groupset of all that I have tried.

loimpact

Di2 is also another animal. (Usually shifts well no matter what DA or Ultegra)

However, I can't say I've missed shifts.....I just have not seen as beautifully crisp a shift as I've seen on the 9100. In comparison, it's just a significantly nicer sequence of shifting!

ridingfool

Same for me shifts so good in the front sometimes I look down to see if it even shifted it's so smooth.But if 9100 seems to be this good I'm intrigued gotta take one for a text ride too see how good it is.