Which Groupset?

the rear feels considerably more spongy

It will do, on account of the longer cable run.

i have to grip pretty hard to lock the rear wheel

Sounds good: being able to easily lock the rear wheel under braking, is not desirable.

i'm a bit unhappy with mechanical rim brakes given my first "road" bike had hydraulic discs.

No doubt. But if you want disc-brake-braking, then you need disc brakes: trying to make rim brakes perform like disc brakes is a fool's errand.

sram red hydro rim brake

A lack of a transfer of force, isn't why disc brakes and rim brakes differ.

Salmons are for alu, coated cables are seemingly all shit in my experience, decent slick stainless are plenty smooth enough and don't clog everything with shite. If they're not squealing then don't toe them in, get them to contact the rim as squarely as possible although it sounds a bit like internal routing woes. Are all the cable ends of the outer that should be sporting ferrules and are those ferrules sat properly on the outer and into the cable stops going into the frame? Squeeze everything dead hard and see if you can figure out where the squish is coming from, something might be moving or compressing. The rear will feel different without compressionless outer, but should be pretty similar to the front.

maybe not easily but lever effort is quite a bit more than i'm used to is all.

so you are saying the sram hydro rims are only marginally better than cable calipers?

and well yea isn't it? the big difference is that there is essentially no friction in pushing a fluid through a tube compared to a cable in housing.

ah cool, i'll look into those pads.

yea i believe i have the cables setup correctly. the insert in the frame has a little plastic ferrule type thing that fits in it and then the brake cable housing sits in that sans ferrule. the squish seems to come from the cable housing flexing a bit when i brake, mostly in the run from the shifter to the port behind the headtube. seems like it makes rather more sense to have the port on the headtube to me...

Double check it's sat properly in the lever and you've not taped it down without it being sat in fully. If that's fine then compressionless outer time for you, although I rarely find it's necessary with rim brakes unless there's a full housing run. Cannondale think it's better on the front of the headtube too, but they're wrong, leads to a lot of broken outers where they get bent right at that point.

Anyone upgraded from £500 R785 levers to the £550 R8070 Ultegra ones?

http://www.wiggle.co.uk/shimano-st-r785-hydraulic-di2-disc-brake-lever-set/

to

https://www.google.co.uk/shopping/product/2182190638642425815?dcr=0&q=R8070%20levers&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwidl-_g36rZAhXLWxQKHSVaA7YQkjAIBygB&prds=scoring:tps

obv the new stuff BUT there are R785's going cheap on here ..

I have R785. I want the new stuff. I want someone who's used both to 'splain any diffs.

I was seeking the same but then just bought the whole groupset yet to be made its way onto a bike. Shimano made a point about lever throw and hood shape so I assume its better not that I have had any issues with R785s.

@Dick has the R9170 levers but with old calipers so his experience doesent really count. Plus he has never had R785's

I want someone who has ridden R785 and the old flat mount calipers, SRAM hydro (etap HRD) and new Shimano

There’s a simple error in your statement.

I ran R9170 Shifters with the NEW RS785 Calipers - so they were a different design to R785 nameley by the fact they no longer used the banjo’s, plus I used the BH90 brake hose for higher pressures...

Well, I will be on the new Shimano before the year ends I'm fairly sure. SRAM can fuck the off though, unless someone else is paying for it.

I have the flat mount calipers so none of your kit is of any use to me. Rebuild your bike immediately and get back to me! ;)

unless you like hoods that look like a whales vagina

FTFY

Aw snap, too late, already sold it

I suppose the groupset comes with cranks and shit? What's that run?

I would love to fuck off my Rotor cranks but I don't know what powermeter to use.

I have both.

Only ridden the old ones. will report back when other bike is finished.

whales vagina

That's not a common sight where I'm from..

Good riddance!

What Ealing?

They're all the rage in north London.

Well anywhere I've been, ever.

Do I need whale vagina on my bike?

Mate it's the new danglecup.

Do you even bikepack bro?

danglecup

I... what... is that something to do with 2girls1... ?

What's a bikepack?

#pubey

Like a fannypack

We had bumbags in the 80s