Adjusting Reach of Levers on Shimano Sora STI

Dunedin397

Hello Everyone,

My partner has a Trek 1000 with Shimano Sora ( 8 speed with a Tiagra rear mech), it's the regular model from 2007, not the WSD design.

Is it possible to change the reach of the STI brake levers so that they're a little closer to the bars? She's having trouble reaching the levers from the drops, so I thought this would be the normal way to solve the problem as you would with standard brake levers.

I've seen some documentation that says the levers are adjustable, but that may not be the case for Sora, but the levers further up the range. We did tilt the bars slightly up as she was new to road bikes, so I'll place them back level. If the levers aren't adjustable I guess we'd need to move the location of the levels slightly further down the drops and maybe change the pistol grip bars to the rounder bars.

I'd appreciated hearing from anyone who's come across this and what you did to solve it.

Cheers,

Dunedin

ut_och_cykla

Home made wedges can be glued at top wherebrake lever 'opens'). Some readjustment of the cable might be necessary but its an easy bodge which makes quite a big difference.
Specialized also make wedges for other classes of Shimano - I bought these and cut them to fit my tiagra stuff.
Failing that other bars might help but that's perhaps not so cheap wuick and easy
Good luck!

notsoracy rich

The Sora STI levers on my Giant SCR have adjustable reach.If you look on top of the hoods where your hands go there is a hole, and inside that hole is the slotted head of a screw-turn this and it moves the lever closer to the bars-it a bit of a crude adjustment as the screw is in effect an adjustable backstop,but it works.

andy_wrx

Like Rich says - Sora are designed to be adjustable without any messy shims or spacers, just adjust that screw (and obviously the cables, when you've done it)

Dunedin397

ut_och_cykla wrote:

Home made wedges can be glued at top wherebrake lever 'opens'). Some readjustment of the cable might be necessary but its an easy bodge which makes quite a big difference.
Specialized also make wedges for other classes of Shimano - I bought these and cut them to fit my tiagra stuff.
Failing that other bars might help but that's perhaps not so cheap wuick and easy
Good luck!

Thanks for that. I did see the shims but they seemed to be for the Tiagra groupset and above. I'll see if I can adjust the levers via the screw before trying shims. In either case, I expect the brake cable will need adjusting as the level is effectively permanently in a pulled state, so the brakes will need to be adjusted to suit.

Thanks again.

Dunedin

Dunedin397

notsoracy rich wrote:

The Sora STI levers on my Giant SCR have adjustable reach.If you look on top of the hoods where your hands go there is a hole, and inside that hole is the slotted head of a screw-turn this and it moves the lever closer to the bars-it a bit of a crude adjustment as the screw is in effect an adjustable backstop,but it works.

Thanks guys. I did see a review of the Giant SCR and it did mention that the Sora levers were adjustable, so was hoping that would apply to the Sora groupset in general and wasn't a special product for Giant.

I'll give this a try on Tuesday. I expect I'll need to loosen the brakes with the cable adjuster to counter the new default position of the lever, but I did this with my son's bike that had regular brakes so it's a good thing to know.

Cheers,

Dunedin

Dunedin397

Hi Guys,

I did manage to adjust the levers with the screw you described. There's a small fixed cover underneath the top of the level so we've moved the levers to sit just at the edge of that. I then adjusted the cables to suit and it looks good.

My partner hasn't ridden the bike since we adjusted the levers, but I'm hoping it's done the trick.

Thanks again.

Dunedin

redvee

I had Sora STIs on my MTB!! and ditched the adjuster screws as they stood proud of the hoods as my mitts are big enough to grab the levers from the drops and hoods.