Edonis13

a girl i work with has been looking at getting into cycling and im going to a couple shops with her tomorrow so she cant test ride a few bikes. the ones shes looking at are Sora equiped or a Sora/Tiagra mix. i know its not the best stuff in the world, but i would like opinions on it from people that have actually used the groupset. thanx BF.

jrobe

I took a trip out to Banff this summer and rented a bike for a week with mostly Sora components (my Cervelo has mostly Ultegra and my prior bike had 105/Tiagra). I was surprised at how bad the Sora stuff was. Even if I was on a tight budget, I would not buy a bike with Sora components. There seems to be a fairly big jump in quality when you get up to at least Tiagra.

ruppster

I had a 2005 Trek 1000 with Sora. It was functional, I put a lot of miles on the bike. I built a 1986 Trek 400 with 9 speed Tiagra stuff. I have to say the Tiagra is better. I just put a new Tiagra compact on it yesterday & rode 57 miles on it. It is a great crank, especially for the money.
If you can afford it, it is worth the upgrade.

maddyfish

I rode a new Trek 1000 with Sora. It was functional. The thumb levers felt like they were for temporary use only.

palesaint

Can you be more specific? I have full Sora 8 speed on my bike and have ridden it for 18 months, with ~ 5000 miles on it. I have never experienced a missed gear or any problem at all. It took a ride or two to dial in the front derailleur, but it's been rock solid ever since. I get fairly quick, accurate shifts with my Sora stuff. Now, does it shift as nice or weigh as little as just about any other shifter out there? Probably not. But, it gets the job done.

Some people give a little grief about the placement of the thumb shifter (hard to get at in the drops) but, again, it works for me.

MrCrassic 

I have a 2000 Trek 1000 with an all-Sora grouppo. Personally, if you are not racing and are just riding for training or recreation, they are a great money saver and will be a nice transition into cycling. This is especially the case if her previous experiences with the sport were from lower-end "mountain bikes" normally sold in department stores, which are known for shifters and derailleurs that misfire and get out of sync easily.

As one person told me earlier (Metro Bicycles, New York), she will know when its time to look for upgrades. I found this out when I actually started to appreciate hill climbing, a weak point in Sora groupsets (more clunkiness and loud shifting).

In short, she should be fine with Soras.

Forgot to address: The shifting mechanism in the Sora Flight Deck is a bit awkward, while all other shifters (I think, maybe not Tiagra) have easier-to-use thumb shifters. The skinny is that the thumb shifter is not aligned with where her hand will be (near the brake shifter). However, I've gotten use to it and it hasn't slowed me down too much.

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maddyfish

---EDIT---- ruppster and I said almost the same thing at the nearly the same time.

Frunkin

I rode about 2.5k miles on a sora equipped bike. Personally I didn't think it was terrible. It was a pain to set up, but as long as I kept the chain clean, and replaced the cables occasionally it worked fine. I did races on it as well, and while I could only use 6 gears (Junior gearing- Had to block out 12 and 13t) I didn't feel like it slowed me down a whole lot. That being said - If given the chance I would have spent the extra $ on tiagra, I just feel like it is a much nicer group for a pretty small jump in price.

Edonis13

thanx for the info guys. sounds like it will get her by while shes learning and figuring out if this is a good sport for her.

i mainly just didnt want her to get a bike and be frustrated with it because of the drivetrain and end up losing interest in riding.

johnny99

My regular bike has Ultegra and Dura-Ace. I've rented Sora bikes a couple of times when traveling. Entry-level bikes are heavy, in part because of the components. 8-speed Sora also has fewer gears than the 10-speed groups. I never missed a shift with Sora. I wouldn't hesitate recommending Sora to someone on a limited budget. I'm sure that keeping Sora shifting smoothly does take some mechanical aptitude, but the same is true of any other group.

vic32amg

the best group you can buy.

MrCjolsen

Sora is fine. Especially since they make it in 9 speed now. I did two triathlons and 3 time trials on a Sora equipped Trek 1000c. Worked great.

Hammertoe

The call it...........Sorta............for a reason...





No just kidding it is a fine group...

DanielS

I had an OCR3 for 1.5 yrs with Sora. I would guess I did around 6000 kms in that time and didn't have a problem. I think maybe I took it in for a service once and they tuned it a bit, but aside from that it was great. Perfect for new riders... cheap enough that it doesn't matter if they lose interest, and good enough to last until they have saved up enough money for the next bike

barba

I think Sora is rather nice, actually. The 8 speed version also had an reach adjustment that may be nice if your friend has small hands. The thumb shifters are often easier for people that are new to STI or don't ride in the drops very much. Assuming that it is properly adjusted, the rear shifting works very well. The front shifting is a little less compelling, as the set I used lacked trim positions (I don't know about the new version).

kergin

Shimano should make, "Sora-Ace" an official group set name.

From what I understand of Shimano and the way they trickle down technological improvements and gearing capacity, Sora, if properly adjusted, should shift no better or worse than any other Shimano group. So, if you're running properly adjusted Sora then the only tangible drawbacks are: 1) weight; 2) reduced gear capacity.

PhatRoadie

I run DA on my main bikes but I have a Sora bike that I use to commute on and as a rain bike. It shifts surprisingly well so long as you take a little extra time with your RD alignment. It snags and lags a bit when shifting under power but no big deal unless you're racing.

The main gripe I have with it is the FD shifting. With a triple the range of gears I could use on each ring before the chain started rubbing was very narrow. Also the mechanism had a very hard "snap" on the downshift sometimes causing my chain to drop, I fiddled with it for a while but could never dial it in to my satisfaction. I ended up installing a double crankset and now have no complaints.

My suggestion is swap out your friends triple crank for a compact double, it will save a lot of dropped chains, grinding noises and hassle.

Unagidon

I don't like the fact you can't shift in the drops. I say go for the new Tiagra - very nice looking.

Treker

^^^ +1

Rosso Corsa

Doesn't Campagnolo feature thumb shifters also? When people buy Record, thumb shifters is a plus, but with Sora it is a minus, or so it seems.

joejack951

I have something around 9000 miles on my Sora equipped Specialized Sequoia. I've cycled through way too much rain and on many a salted (either from the beach or for snow, sometimes both) road with it during that time. I have yet to replace the cables as everytime I've thought about it, I've decided to give them a little longer to see if shifting still holds up, and it always has. I did one major adjustment at around 400 miles and since then have only needed minor tweaks to keep the front shifting where it needs to be. The rear derailler (which is Tiagra though) has not been touched in thousands of miles.

The Sequoia has relatively long chainstays which have allowed me to adjust the front derailler such that I only get a tiny amount of chain rub in my lowest gear combination with a triple crank. I can use the full cassette with the other two chain rings without rubbing. The only reason I have the small rub in the little ring is because I was having issues with the chain dropping and dialing in the rub eliminated the problem.

In terms of the brifters, my only complaint is awkward rear upshifts from the drops. It can be done but it's not that easy. On the plus side, upshifts while standing up and holding the hoods are easier in my opinion than on my Ultegra 10 bike but admittedly, I've used that bike a lot less. Another plus is rear upshifts from the tops are possible with an extended pinky (anyone else do this?).

Basically, if you are on a budget, Sora will do you just fine unless you can't live with not being able to upshift from the drops (something a newbie won't really care about most likely). If you ruin a shifter in a fall, replacements are dirt cheap as are the rest of the components. In my experience, even though it is (relatively) cheap, Sora's durability should not be a concern.

I picked up a cheap steal Trek frame on Ebay for my then-fiancee and built it up with Sora for her. So far, she really likes the brifters. Now that we're married, we'll see if she's changed her mind (still too cold for her to want to be on a bike)

monk

My first road bike had Sora . . . but once I knew I was going to stick with cycling I quickly upgraded. I think I'd be more inclined to steer her toward a used bike with decent components. The price for the used bike and a new bike with lower-end components might be about the same.

Tunnelrat81

The gripe isn't about the fact that Sora has thumb shifters, but where the thumb shifter is located in relationship to your hand position. Campy stuff is well liked because it's ergonomically placed and easily reachable for shifting in the drops. Although the Sora shifter shares it's "rough" design characteristics with Campy's ergo levers, the placement of the thumb shifter is poor in comparison. So when people complain about Sora in this way, they're not complaining about thumb shifting in general, just Sora's specific use of it.

-Jeremy

maddyfish

I like the thumb shifters better. To bad shimano can't seem to design a decent one. Seems like Japanese with small hands would design shifters better.
The thimb shifters are SO poorly placed on Sora as to be difficult to use from any position. I would like the thumb shifters on Sora if somebody with a brain would re design them so I could reach them.

On my campy equipped bike, the thumb shifters are well placed and I can reach them from anywhere easily.

Tunnelrat81

In general I agree whole heartedly. However, sizing a girl to a used bike poses more challenges in comparison to the WSD frames you can get in stores these days. I encourage all my male friends to buy used if possible, but with the ability to finally get a "well fit" bike for women off the rack these days, it's much more of a compromise to go used. I should mention that I bought myself a used ' 05 Trek 2300 (full Ultegra) in perfect condition...and paid a bit more for my wife's Full 105 WSD bike. It's the downer about shopping for girls right now, not much of a used market for "middle of the size range" women specific bikes.

-Jeremy