How to Buy a Group Set

Jessica is a very kind person and wants to buy her special friend a Shimano Ultegra group set, her problem is she is not sure what to order. We give her some suggestions on what to look for and tell her that maybe it would be a good idea not to keep it as a surprise and get some help from her friend

Question: A good friend of mine, who has been bicycling for many years has decided he would like to build his own bike. He has shown interest in purchasing the Shimano Ultegra SL (2008) groupset. I would like to buy this set for him. I believe it can be found online for about 800USD. I also would like to keep it a surprise, so I cannot ask too many questions in the meantime — so I am here! I see that this groupset comes in different sizes and I am curious if you can provide any insight or information I need to know to figure out which size to purchase. Anything you can help me in my decision making would be useful. Thank you.

Hi Jessica,

Brake

I wish someone would buy me a Group set as a surprise!

What you need to know can be complicated, what you need to do is get a look at your friends bike and the frame that he is going to build up, when he or she isn’t around, then you can work out what you need to order.

Brake/gear levers are the same, as is the rear gear mechanism and the brake calipers should be Allen key bolt fitting and of a standard drop, unless he is buying a strange frame. You probably don’t need to look at the head set as you probably wont be buying it as it usually comes with the frame, if you do need to buy it then it will be one inch or one and an eighth inch and will be threaded, A-Head set, external or internal fitting.

The front gear has a few different ways of fitting; the easiest is if it fits a bracket on the frame, if not then it will clamp round the seat tube, in this case you need to find the size.

Chainset

The chain set could be double or triple and has different chain ring sizes and could be standard or compact size. The cranks can also be different lengths from 165 to 180 and the bottom bracket could be English or Italian fitting, occasionally it could be French, but unlikely.

The cassette will be 10 speed, but there is a choice of gear ratios, you need to find out what he uses, 12 tooth to 25 tooth or something like that.

It maybe a good idea to either ask your friend what he/she thinks they want or just come clean and say you want to buy the group set for them and get them to make a list, there would be nothing worse than getting the wrong stuff, especially on the internet as you cant change it as easily as buying it from a local bike shop. I hope I have helped and not put you off?

Cassette