If you had to pick both a drivetrain and a brake system from one brand – for life – would it be Shimano or SRAM?

 Shimano brakes actually stop, any derailleur will shift...

 is there any point in all these polls....

 well so far i only have tried my shimano saint brakes and i would stick with them.

 In all honesty, i love stam rear deraileurs, the high end ones, but their cassettes suck poo, but i hater sram cranks, as my zee's are spectacular. Ang sorry, but aside from performance, shimano brakes are just ugly as crap, so what i have done is just mixed and matched, each company has its strong suits, but neither is perfect in the end

 Brakes are far more important than derailleurs, so Shimano wins. Besides, I would hope it's not too much longer before gearboxes are in an derailleurs are history. I don't see brakes going anywhere however.

 Not this again. if you want the answer go to any good mechanic or workshop and ask!!!!! they know the answer. Shimano every day 100%. sorry plastic, over priced, fragile Sram. this goes for most of the SRAM family of products I'm afraid. It use to be good but the more you spend, the worst SRAM gets. Its all bling and not quality these days. The workshop never lies! When 100% of you brake repairs/problems come from one brand there has to be something wrong.

 Hope brakes, shimano gears and crank. Shimano hollowtech should teach other manufacturers a thing or two, they are easy to fit and remove with minimal tools. Derailleurs rarely fail in my experience as apposed to seam that don't seem as tough. Brakes however, im into hope and think I always will be. But even the bottom end shimano brakes are miles better than cheaper avids, that tend to fail under light use. I had a set of juicy 5 fail after 2 months whereas some shimano deore hydraulics that were cheaper lasted me years. Each to their own though.

 I do not have enough words against Shimano's 2013 SLX brakes, after using many years AVID, the second day of SLX usage, they failed bad. Hope it was just my set.

 XX1, XTR Trails. nuff said.

 Shimano brakes and SRAM drivetrain.

 Sram drivetrain and Formula brakes

 really dont give a toss...

 SRAM drivetrain, Formula brakes.

 Hope v4, SRAM xo,

 ya i run hope motos best brakes i have ever had

 What mfbeast12 said: XX1 and XTR trails

 Considering I already have an all SRAM gruppo, I vote SRAM.

 Sram drivetrain and Shimano or Formula brakes.