Shimano’s Ultegra group was the first component group I ever lusted after. As a newly minted cyclist (not biker!), coveting Dura-Ace felt foolhardy, like trying to date Nicole Kidman (at any age), but Ultegra seemed to balance affordability and performance in a way that winked of money well-invested.
I installed a rear derailleur of what was then called Shimano 600 Ultegra on my touring bike and reveled in smoother, more precise … friction shifting. Once I began working in bike shops I fell in love with Ultegra-equipped rides because, yes, they were both affordable and offered terrific performance.
That said, there was for many years, a distinct difference in performance between Dura-Ace and Ultegra. Not only were Ultegra parts heavier, but the cassette spacing and chain were wider, making shifting a bit slower and not quite so precise. The brakes were heavier and didn’t offer the same stopping power as Dura-Ace—a performance degradation that never, ever made sense to me. The bearings weren’t as nice and the finish wasn’t quite so sexy.
With Ultegra the trick was just not to look at Dura-Ace, which is the consistent with all luxury items. You won’t hate your Honda if you don’t look at Acura.
A couple of generations back, Shimano finally ended the incompatibility between Dura-Ace and Ultegra, so that you could begin mixing longer-wearing Ultegra cassettes with Dura-Ace shifters. This change in spacing improved Ultegra shifting, shrinking the performance gap between the two. Still, with each new mechanical group, there was still a slight but perceptible difference in performance between Dura-Ace and Ultegra.
Which brings me to the 12-speed Di2 version of Ultegra (8120). Admittedly, my time on the latest iteration of Dura-Ace is limited, but I can no longer discern a difference in performance between the two groups. Ultegra is heavier, and I suspect, due to some of the materials it uses, it may last longer.
Fuggedaboutit
The trick with any great bike is to make it disappear beneath the rider. Not all bikes will do it for all riders, but some factors make it more likely to happen. One of those factors is having a group of parts that doesn’t draw attention to itself. Shifting that is noisy or finicky will take the rider out of the moment. Similarly, the more powerful the brakes are, the more secure we feel.
I’ve got nearly 1000 miles in on the Ultegra Di2 12-speed group and for the TL;DR crowd (it’s a little late for that, I know) what I can say is this: Unless you are still a self-avowed weenie of weight, buying Ultegra comes with no appreciable downside. They have closed the performance gap.
One of the biggest, most obvious knocks against Ultegra when comparing it to Dura-Ace has been that there’s tended to be more plastic, particularly at the control levers and that the fit and finish simply wasn’t as elegant as you find with Dura-Ace. Shimano did a terrific job of communicating the higher quality of Dura-Ace over Ultegra. This Ultegra group is nice enough that had they marked everything Dura-Ace, I wouldn’t have had any reason to doubt that it was. The levers no longer feature plastic trim that undercuts the user’s perception of quality, among other touches.
Drivetrain
Shimano offers Ultegra cassettes in two sizes: 11-30 and 11-34. The cranks come in three configurations: 52/36, 50/34 and a 46/36 option; the choices in lengths run 160, 165, 170, 172.5 and 175mm. I chose an 11-34 cassette and the 50/34 crank in the 172.5mm length, but if I had it to do again, I think I might go with the 46/36 option given that I no longer climb at the speeds that used to feel routine. Also, to have electronic front shifting and a 10-tooth jump between chainrings makes my nerdy little heart go pitter and patter. I’d like to see Shimano offer a cassette that begins with a 12 rather than an 11; granted, the 46/36 chainring configuration solves that problem in a different way, but I’ve yet to see any product manager spec those rings on a bike.
Setting up the front derailleur not to rub when in the smaller cogs and the little ring and the bigger cogs when in the big ring took some experimentation and patience, but I was able to do it; the way the front derailleur overshifts and then corrects continues to wow me, but it can also make adjusting the front shifting more challenging than you might expect. Ultimately, it’s a real help.
Brakes
The two-piston Ultegra brakes offer remarkable stopping power. On steep descents the combination of hydraulic disc brakes and 30mm-wide tires pumped to 50 psi gives me a level of control that I was unable to dream of 10 years ago. And I can’t tell if my touch has changed or if modulation has improved, but my feeling with early hydraulic road brakes was that modulation was minimal; the brakes were very on/off, but modulation with these brakes is stellar. I can scarcely imagine what this would for my descending on the canyon roads of Malibu. Game changer for sure.
Ergonomics
For as far back as I can recall, Ultegra’s hood shape has offered a sleeker, more organic appearance and hand feel. The levers for this Ultegra group are arguably the most comfortable-feeling levers I’ve ever used. That they contain with them a reservoir with enough hydraulic fluid to operate the brakes wouldn’t have seemed possible when compared to the first hydraulic road levers I reviewed. Of course, this is made more possible by the fact that there isn’t a cable-actuating mechanism within the lever body, but rather, electronics.
I like these levers so much that on days when I haven’t been certain what bike I wanted to take out, I found myself on multiple occasions thinking about how comfortable my hands would be, resting on those hoods. Crazy, I know.
Assembly
This is the first generation of Ultegra that doesn’t require wires to run from the levers to a battery and then the derailleurs; there’s just a wire running to each derailleur; the levers are now wireless. Pairing is easier than I expected given how challenging I’ve found the E-Tube app to use previously, in part due to the QR code on the inside of each lever. The wireless levers offer riders (and mechanics) several benefits. First, assembly is easier and faster, much. Second, it’s now easier to move the levers on the bar for the sake of the rider’s fit. Charging is now accomplished with a port at the back of the rear derailleur, and while it seems like a small thing, the magnetic connection makes charging foolproof. Anyone who has ever plugged the charger into the handlebar and not made sure it seated just right could grab their bike the next day to find that the battery was still dead.
And while I there is anything substantively different from Shimano’s other drop-bar groups with hydraulic brakes, such as GRX, I found the Ultegra brakes to be quicker to bleed. It’s also possible that I’m just more efficient, but I’m disinclined to take the credit.
Shimano makes satellite shifters for climbing and/or sprinting, but the switches have such a light touch I have yet to find a way to wrap over them and I on the occasion I cut a hole in the tape to let the trigger peek out, my ADHD wouldn’t permit me to stop running my fingers over the hole and switch, resulting in a lot of unnecessary (unintended?) shifts. As it happens, complaining about the rear to the buttons on the control lever indicates a level of prima donna that I’d rather not have attached to my psyche.
Wheels
I’m riding the C60 Ultegra wheels. These are 60mm-deep carbon rims that arrive tubeless ready. The rims sport the rounded spoke beds first popularized by Zipp’s Firecrest and Enve’s SES rims which not only improved the wheels’ aerodynamics, but also made them handle infinitely better in a crosswind. The handling on these wheels is truly stellar, even on blustery spring days. Color me impressed. The wheels’ stiffness is impressive as well. I can also say that the bearing quality and the effectiveness of the seals is first-rate. I’ve done some serious rain mileage on this group and the wheels haven’t suffered a bit.
Road and tubeless are two terms that people seem to be increasingly deciding are mutually exclusive. I can say that these were very easy to set up and other than needing to add another ounce of sealant to the rear wheel to make sure it held pressure for longer than two days, I haven’t had a lick of trouble.
I’m running 30mm-wide tires on these wheels; the deeper the rim, the wider the tire you can run without tanking the wheels’ aerodynamics.
The noise
In my life, I’m increasingly looking at those things that result in what I call noise. By that I mean, stuff that isn’t buttoned up enough that I worry about it, such as a finicky brake that needs to be bled yet again or the electric toothbrush that won’t hold a charge for more than five days. I’m working to reduce the number of things in my life that result in noise in my head.
With Ultegra, I’m finding that this group is as noise-free as Deore XT. It works flawlessly and makes for a superlative riding experience. The truest test though is the fact that I’m not wondering what I’m giving up by not riding Dura-Ace—that’s it’s own kind of noise. Satisfaction can be undermined in a variety of ways and wondering about a better product can nag. With this Ultegra group, I’ve stopped worrying about how much better Dura-Ace might be.
Final thought: Dura-Ace, Shmura-Ace.