Refresco

Back for help..... I can't seem to find any info on this, I got a Jamis Coda Sport and am loving it, except for the upright bars. So a friend who owns a bike shop gave me a drop bar to get me started. I managed to get the trigger shifters on the bottom of the bar with a really goofy looking setup, but its working. (Finally) My question is can I get a pair of sora shifters (9by3) and have it work with a shimano deore derrailer? not sure about the spacing...... Thanks guys

desertdork

The Deore rear derailleur is compatible and will work fine with Shimano STI shifters. However, Shimano MTB front derailleurs (including your Deore) require a different amount of cable pull and are not compatible with Shimano STI. You'll need to replace the front derailleur with a "road" FD to make this happen.

Since your bike has a Deore FD, I guess it's a recent model with 48/36/26 chainrings. Shimano road FDs are ideally designed to function with the slightly larger rings common to road drivetrains, so your selection won't be broad to choose from. Many people have been happy with a Tiagra (the previous generation - #FD-4503) on the same chainrings as yours. Another option is an IRD Alpina-D which is made to function ideally with those same ring sizes.

For a bit less money, you can get a set of bar end shifters (either indexed/friction or friction only) and a set of conventional brake levers. This setup won't require changing the FD, since shifting up front is friction with all bar end shifters.

fstshrk

why not get the 9x3 tiagra shifters instead? They actually work like any other STI shifter from the Shimano family and they don't have the small lever that the Sora-s have.

Refresco

Well, tiaga's are usually more expensive and don't last very long, from what I hear. Probably going to go with the dura ace bar ends. Seem like a good deal. Anyway, It's only my commuter to school, don't need anything fancy

MrMorrill

Look into Microshift components. You can find decent 10 speed group sets on ebay for 150-200.

redlude97

If you are okay with only using 2 of the rings on the crankset, you can get shimano MTB FD's to work fine with STI's. I'm currently using 5503 105 9 speed shifters with a shimano c100 FD and a Deore RD with a 2x8 setup for my commuter. Took a little bit of time to dial in that frankenstein setup but it works well now.

Refresco

does microshift have 3X9 road shifters? (sti like) and would they work with the deore? Didn't know about Microshift. Learn something every day