That front derailleur is a mid 1980s Suntour, not a good sign. Same with the rear derailleur. Those parts were never meant to be compatible with the SORA brifters. Nothing wrong with Suntour Cyclone, but I have had problems with them indexing with Shimano shifters.

Forget about Nashbar if you are thrifty. The low price new stuff is at Niagara Cycle, something in the Tourney product line. Niagara sells a Tourney RD for $13. Or go to fleabay and pick up some nice used derailleurs. I have had good luck picking up Shimano 105, RSX and RX100 derailleurs off ebay. They should all work fine. Make sure the clamp on the front derailleur is the right size.

Sounds like the former owner just came across those shifters, bolted them on and called it good. Its going to take more work and $$ to get them right. MAKE SURE the rear cassette is either Shimano or Shimano compatible, and not a Suntour cassette or freewheel. I can't see that well enough in your pics, and with the blue special effects, its even harder to pick out details. Given the derailleur situation, I would not be surprised if he has a Suntour freewheel on that bike. Suntour spacing is different than Shimano and will not index with Shimano.


You might be best served going to a shop and having them sort it out for you, or find a local flipper in your area to upgrade it for you. If you do it yourself and order parts on the internet, be prepared to buy some stuff you won't need. Its really part of the learning curve. No special tools will be required until/unless you need to change out your freewheel or cassette. They take a special tool, there are dozens of styles, a local shop can do the removal for you for just a few dollars.


Note, as others have mentioned, a switch to friction barcons would be a good solution as well. You should be able to find them on ebay or wherever pretty reasonably priced. Then you can sell those seven speed SORA brifters and have a little money left over. Making those brifters work is going to require some serious $$ as most of the rest of the drivetrain is not compatible.