Road Cycling - question about rear shifting...

i've owned the bike for 3 weeks now and was just adjusting the rear drailler for the first time... i noticed that when i shift from higher to lower gear, the brake lever will click once (as it should)... if i push the brake lever more it will click a second time and the rear derailler will shift accordingly... i've never noticed the shifting do this before in all the time i had the bike... i was wondering if this is normal... the first time i noticed it is because i was going over a speed bump with my left pedal at the bottom... the pedal hit the bump and i noticed that downshifting felt different... i pulled over and looked at the derailler but it seemed fine... so i adjusted it when i got home and noticed the double downshift... the component is Sora...

Hi again Code,

- I just replied to your other post on upgrades....

To answer your question, I have the same system as you. Sora shifters allow you to make 1 or 2 steps in one go during a downshift. Shifts to higher gears are one at a time though. This makes sense when you need to downshift through multiple gears, say for the start of a climb. I believe that the Campagnolo Ergo shifters allow multiple shifts up or down.

Hope that helps - Cheers,

Ed

You should be able to make 3 with one push.

thanks for the replies... that made me feel better... i guess the speed bump shook something lose in there... cause i always remember having to click the brakes 3-4 times when coming to a stop light...

Interesting Feltup,

Perhaps the design has been changed, my bike is a 2000 model. I just checked the shifter, and it will definitely only make two clicks (max) per push before the lever reaches maximum travel.

Ed

Originally posted by Ed Holland
Perhaps the design has been changed, my bike is a 2000 model. I just checked the shifter, and it will definitely only make two clicks (max) per push before the lever reaches maximum travel.

I don't know about Sora but 105 through Dura-Ace (and I think Tiagra as well) all allow you to downshift the rear up to three times with a single throw. This is the same on the MTB side of the lineup (ever since around 1992/1993 when RapidFire+ came out) too... at least for LX (and probably Deore as well) through XTR.

Sora does two. The rest of the STI line do three.

RichC

I kinda like it. I see no need to do three up though. that is why road cassettes are so closely spaced in the first place.

Thanks for the info Rich - I wondered if there was some difference as you go up the STI food chain. A check on the the Shimano online catalogue confirms this - Sora shifts two speeds per push. Guess I'll just have to push the lever again!
Just for interest, my older bike was upgraded to 8 speeds (from 5) and I treated it to a set of Sora indexed downtube shifters. These have turned out to be excellent - shifting is very fast, accurate and reliable.

Ed