Yea, sorry - you'll need a Sram rear derailleur too. I believe the brakes and front derailleur will work fine thought. I don't think you'll find an Apex or Rival RD to be too expensive though.

Remember - you'll be able to sell your old shifters and RD. Probably not for much but you'll recoup some of it.

But if I were you, I'd give myself at least 10 hours of riding time before swapping parts. You might find that with just a minimum of time, it becomes a non issue. My wife is 5-1, very small hands and has ridden Sora equipped bikes a few times in rentals and never complains about the shifting. In fact she almost prefers the old style Sora to her Tiagra shifters because she likes the button shifter.

Given your circumstances, I'd definitely recommend bar end shifters. First, they work great and are easier to use (imo) than downtube shifters for someone who isn't totally comfortable with downtube shifters. You can leave your hands on the bars when you're shifting.

Second, if you can't use readily available downtube shifter hardware, I wouldn't mess with gluing, drilling or whatever. It's just a kludge, in my opinon. Especially considering the points I made above.


I can't really describe exactly how I mount them except that I like the drops to be horizontal or just slightly angled downward (kind of pointing at the rear brake). I then position the shifters on the ramps so they're comfortable, a mostly flat transition from the ramps, maybe angled up a little bit. When I mount new bars, I put them flat then adjust depending on how my wrists feel riding on the hoods.

I don't have the flexibility or core/back strength I used to so I set up my bikes with the bars only about an inch below the saddle, and go down to the drops and bend my elbows if I want too get my chin down to the stem for that pure speed aero position 8-)

Sram has adjustable reach on the levers so you can adjust them inward to get closer to the bars, which I like. I also like that the shift paddle does all the shifting and is hinged so you can hold it close to the bar when you're using it.

I like shimano gear too, it's excellent. Turns out that Sram just works better for me at this point. If my elbows and wrists get worse, I might bite the bullet and pay the big bucks for electronic shifting.