Originally Posted by
hks85
i made a mistake, the front is a sora. here is a review from someone else, perfectly annotates my problems.
"While it might be true that Sora shifts well when tuned up, Sora doesn't like to stay tuned. The rear derailleur never indexed completely accurately, even after multiple tunings by my LBS mechanic. This would lead to 'ghost shifts', or shifts that would happen whenever too much pedal pressure was applied. Sora's also low on features: the front derailleur only has three positions for a triple crankset, and the lack of a 'trim' means that many chain combinations result in deathly annoying chain-cage rub."
CAAD9 comes with SORA nowadays? That's amazing to me. I have a CAAD7 that I bought in in 2004; at the time it was the top of the Cannondale line (this was just before they rolled out Six13, their first foray into carbon). It is still a fantastic frame so I assume the CAAD9 is as well. I always appreciated that Cannondale offered high end frames with a much wider array of component options than other manufacturers in order to get to lower pricepoints -- as opposed to putting mid range components on lower quality frames.
Anyway, if you can't take the Sora, find a good deal on 105 or Ultegra shifters somewhere and you will have one fine quality bike. By the way, I rode Tiagra derailleurs and shifters for years and found them to be quite good for the price as well.