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Unfortunately, my sram apex (1x11) shifter has chewed itself up and is no longer working. I can't post pictures on here however the cable has worn through the hole on the circular red cable end carrier, meaning it no longer holds the cable.
Looking to replace with either sram rival or force levers, to use with same rear derailleur and hydraulic brake callipers. I've only ever tried rival (on a mate's bike) briefly and know I preferred it to apex, I think I read somewhere that the rival and force internals are different/feel different in use. Would it be worth spending the extra on the force? Or is it like going from slx to xt and more about a weight saving? Thanks
I've Apex on my old bike and Force on my new bike, chosen over Rival as it was 'just' £200 more for the groupset and I fancied the carbon cranks etc.
I'd go for Force.
If I understand your description correctly the same thing happened to me. I put a big blob of aladite on the carrier and then redrilled the hole for the cable. It kept me going for several weeks and was still fine when the new lever arrived.
I use Apex on my Rondo and Force on my Cutthroat, and to be honest I can't feel any noticeable difference in performance between them.
Force is better finished, and I expect it may last longer, but both bikes have had plenty of use and aren't showing signs of packing in any time soon.
I guess this is similar to the 105/Ultegra/Dura-Ace question....
I think the main difference between group sets is weight these days and even then the difference is pretty tiny when you look at £ spent per grams lost.
The chainset feels and looks much nicer and is a lot lighter. Other than that I didn't feel much difference in performance.
I don't suppose the left lever is a 2x Apex is it?
I've had both SRAM force and SRAM rival shifters on my cyclocross bikes. I can't tell the difference between them with a SRAM rival rear mech. What I would say is that both are equally susceptible to muck in the cables (as in, having to replace cables close to every ride in the CX season), so if you can run full outer to the rear mech then I definitely would, even if it requires a bit of fettling.
So I looked for just a lever in the hopes that I could just use the apex calliper however there's no separate hydraulic brakes/shifters that I could find, only the cable type.
R2 bike was the only place I could find a decently priced brake and calliper, went for force as it was only another £15 over rival.
Regarding the full outer cables, I've just finished drilling out the chainstay cable guides. For some reason the cable wasn't a full outer just for this short part, so hopefully the shifting will be a bit better.