I see there are so many names I was looking at some Claris STI on Ebay, just wondering

I thought Sora was lowest then Tiagra, 105, 600 what is now Ultegra then finally Dura Ace

on a used bike, I just bought it has DeorLX long cage rear derailer where does that rate

Claris, Sora, Tiagra, 105, Ultegra and Dura-Ace are the road bike models.


Deore is a completely separate line for mountain bikes (and sometimes on hybrids, or touring road bikes).

Deore LX would be the rough equivalent of Claris/Sora. Not to be confused with Deore XT, which is like Ultegra level. Almost like Shimano did that to be deliberately difficult.

Yeah, I just went to look up their mountain bike's hierarchy and the way they spread Deore around... ugh...

Current Shimano MTB hierarchy:
Acera
Alivio
Deore
SLX
Deore XT
Deore XTR

Zee and Saint are niche, DH specific groups at roughly the Deore XT and Deore XTR levels respectively.

Deore LX is an obsolete name for older 8/9 speed SLX-level gear. I think the Deore LX name makes a lot more sense than SLX and is consistent. I don't think Shimano has used that name for 20 years. They used to make a lower level group called Deore DX around that time as well, if memory serves. The OP's bike must be fairly old. Also, since the OP seems a bit surprised that 600 is now called Ultegra (and has been since the early 90s), I'd say he himself goes back a bit in cycling, like myself.

It rates good if it works, and bad if it does not

It's an 87 Connondale Dura Ace model ( no rust, aluminum ) but many parts have been switched, the Deore LX seems to shift very good
I guess they had the long cage so it would shift better with bigger gears.

Actually, I am just getting into cycling despite being 70 can't keep off my bike, I was talking to a wizened up old lady yesterday in her 80's she was locking up her bike
she rides 12 miles each way every day and I said there are a lot of hills where you live she said yes 18

I'd call Deore LX more equivalent to 105.

Deore LX began its life as a 7-speed group. At least at that time, it was great, solid stuff that I wouldn't hesitate to use again.

The Wikipedia page on Shimano has a useful chart for their road and MTB hierarchies, but could use some expansion on the latter: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shimano#Road_groupsets

Velobase is good for a lot of the older Shimano groups.

Claris is Shimano's current 8 speed road group. If you are on a budget and need 8 speed brifters, that is the way to go. It should work with and older 8 speed mountain derailleur.

Because Deore LX is so old, it is hard to say what the modern equivalent is. What I would say to OP is, if it works, keep it. If it doesn't, replace it with the least expensive modern replacement as functionally, something like an 8 speed Acera or Claris will work very well, and it makes no sense to spend big bucks upgrading to 10 or 11 speed as the bike is probably not worth much money.

How thinly can you slice the baloney?