Juan Foote

My bike is outfitted with the Sora front der, and brifters. I am not 100% happy with the shifting on the front. Given that I ride almost 100% of the time on the hoods, I actually like the brifters. It was an easy transition from my mtb STI as well. For what a new set of brifters cost, I have decided to keep these until I either have to have new ones, or I buy another "better" bike. For the cost of 9spd der it is cheap enough to upgrade those particulars as you have a few dollars put aside. Tiagra works nicely and can be found all over for @<$25 on the bay and whatnot.

MegaTom

My bike (Giant Defy 3) came outfitted with Sora.

I don't like the shifters because of their rather cheap appearance and the thumb shifting. I also dislike the crank (mine's a triple, and that probably has a lot to do with my dislike for it, but also compared to 105 and higher it does feel a bit mushy/not as rigid too). But other than that, all of the components do their job well enough, though not as elegantly in form or feel as 105, Ultegra, DA, etc..

The Sora stuff is ultimately coming off this summer when the new 105 becomes available.

jediphobic

I've got Sora, too. I've found nothing wrong with it except that it doesn't "feel" as good as the higher end stuff. It shifts plenty quickly and smoothly once you get it dialed in, it just looks and somehow feels cheap. Mechanically, it's just click, a spit second of dead time, and I'm in the next gear. No muss, no fuss.

roccobike

+1, That was my experience with Sora. I've had three Sora equipped bikes. A Bianchi Brava, 8X3 full Sora, a 3.0 Cannondale converted to 7X2Sora with RX100 derailers and a 03 Cannondale with 8X3 Sora but a Tiagra rear DR. The only one that really sucked was the Bianchi that had the Sora rear derailer. It was noisy, it clunked and was difficult to keep in tune. The shifters are not crisp, but they get the job done and IMHO, the beat downtube shifters.

alexvpaq

That's what usually happens... =D

Epicus07

[QUOTE=kayakdiver;10797372]Just giving you a hard time I have no doubt the Tiagra works well. The 09 Randonee i rode shifted just as well as my Roubaix w/ 105 group. It's a really cool bike i'm kind of sad that the 2010 might be the last run of that model. However i do LOVE the fact that REI is now officially selling surly

halfspeed

That might not be the case.

Dan The Man

I have about 12000 miles or so on two different Sora bikes. No probs with it. The thumb shifters are nice. I can grab them from the drops if I move my hands up and stretch my thumbs out. The front derailleur snapped right at the tab which holds the spring. That kind of pissed me off. Now I have a 105 double on my triple. It took some fiddling to get it just right but I can't tell the difference.

damnable

Why?

Are steel Lemonds in demand? Wanna buy one?

Brian Ratliff

You can't shift from the drops with Sora. Deal killer for me. Microshift/Nashbar/Forte (Performance) seems to get good reviews and is very cheap. Some Performance bikes come with the microshift group and it seems it's fully compatible with Shimano derailleurs and cassettes.

If it were me, I would buy the Sora bike, switch the drivetrain for your old Ultegra (shifters and derailleur), put the Sora drivetrain on the old bike and sell that. Old Ultegra is much better than new Sora, I suspect, and you still have the Sora drivetrain if you want it.

Irvent

My bike is sora equipped and, while I have never known any different, it doesn't seem to be a problem. Has to be adjusted every once in a while, sometimes more often sometimes less, but that's just for crispness. Mine is still working fine with ~2500 miles on in the last year.

skybono

With a little bit more money, you can buy tiagra. As what others say here in this thread, Tiagra is in the same "class" as the higher groups. I got an ultegra
and tiagra and both are fine.

halfspeed

Used bikes usually fetch more money parted out.