rizz

Sora is the closest Shimano offering in the lineup to Campy and Campy is high end stuff, therefore, Sora is the best.

Over 3,000 miles and many criteriums on Sora 2200 so far this year and still going strong.

Pedaleur

Ouch.

superslomo

I don't know the exact number of miles, but I had tiagra shifters on my cannondale, and had no complaints about them.

I replaced them, but only because one of them busted up after a few years, and would only upshift... this on the way home from the MS ride here in New York. The Ultegras feel like they are perhaps made of better and more "substantial" materials, and are in a sense "smoother", but at first I missed the very positive feedback from the Tiagras that you had downshifted. The big lever sweep had more of a feeling like there was a detent/click in the action when you had moved far enough to switch gears.

Not a question of better or worse, just what I was used to.

climbhoser

I have Tiagra as a Front Der. and always will because it works well (chit, it only has to move the chain one ring over) and if you look you'll see it has a wider cage...know what that means? It means less fuggin' chain rub and less trimming!

I get really sick of constantly trimming the front to stay in tune with the chainline, and the Tiagra makes this a bit more palatable. Plus it lasts just as long, works just as well, and is barely heavier.

Now, for the rear I'm pretty biased...I won't go lower than 105 on my roadie or XT on my 'cross bike. Period. There is a difference. Period.

umd

No complaints, except that they stopped working. Kind of my point. Edit: It took a few years, but that is meaningless without some kind of notion of how much you rode in a year. Also, the kind of terrain you ride in will affect the life. If you live in the flatlands like Florida you probably don't shift as much as somewhere with a lot of steep but moderately short hills, where over the course of a medium length ride you will be constantly shifting. Same goes for the people that live in the mountain and just put their bike in the easiest gear and spin up.

climbhoser

Yeah, because we in the mountains never encounter anything except for an uphill, 8% grade whenever we're on the bike

umd

I'm not saying you never shift, I'm just saying it wouldn't wear out as fast in an environment where you are doing long sustained climbs vs. more shorter climbs. I do both, I can spend an hour in my lowest gear up a long climb, vs. shifting 100 times (ok, I just pulled the number out of my ass, but it's a lot) in the same hour in the foothills. For the same amount of time ridden, shifting frequently will cause more wear on the shifting components. I was just saying that is another factor that will affect their life...

Cautionless

Many are mentioning weight as a factor.
Dura Ace 7800 Double Crankset for example says 740g.
Cant find weight for Tiagra.
Anyone?
Thx

HillMut

I've ridden all the shimano groups, you will notice a large gap in performance from sora/tiagra to 105/ultegra/dura-ace. the jump in performance from 105 to dura-ace is much smaller (if all are 10spd), weight becomes the biggest part of the cost. if you've already spent $600+ on wheels my next investment would be a new group.

xfimpg

+1

Cdy291

I looked on weight weenies and some one said 976g.

Nachoman

I've ridden ultegra for many years and recently moved up to dura ace. When I recently set out to buy my son a tiagra equipped entry level bicycle, I gave up because I was so disappointed with the shifting on EVERY tiagra equipped bike that I tried. I ended up buying him a bicycle equipped with 105 instead.

Cdy291

One thing about most of the bikes that have Tiagra is that they don't have the full Tiagra group. Most of the have some uber cheap crank and brakes so that would make them seem to perform even worse.

Reynolds 

Nobody mentioned the most important factor: looks!

Except for 2200 and Sora, all Shimano groups look OK IMO.

Marinman

I have a Tiagra RD on one of my bikes, at one thousand miles it just got sloppy (do a lot of sprints and hills). I took it apart (becareful here, recommend one at a time taking off the pulleys) and found the bearing mech was worn noticibly. I replaced the pulleys with sealed pulleys from LBS ($16) (make sure you use the correct spacer-4 to choose from) and now it runs great. You need some float on the upper one so make sure to use the correct replacement pieces (labeled). 1600 miles since this year and still works great.