Replacing Sora with Tiagra

Stuster

Hi All

I have a 12 year old Trek 1000 (Blue & Yellow) with Sora components (21 speed triple).

After a recent crash I had planned to replace it with a nice new Defy 1, but money constraints have shelved this idea and I've managed to get it back on the road with a replacement carbon fork.

I'm now trying to make the most of what I have, but the one thing I'd love is to have shifters without the Sora style clicker requiring me to switch between the drops and the top bar to shift up and down.

What I need to know is whether I could replace my Sora shifters with Tiagra cheaply? I know Tiagra is now 10 speed, somebody at work mentioned I could probably use 8 speed shifters? I'm really clueless on this and don't know whether I'd have to replace loads of other stuff too.

Any helpful pointers much appreciated, on simplest and cheapest method!

Thanks

ugo.santalucia

If you want 10 speed, you need ten speed shifters, there is no way out...

All you need to replace is shifters, chain and cassette, the rest might well be compatible (including the rear derailleur, possibly), if still in good conditions...

However, the cost of a pair of shifters is probably half the cost of the all groupset, so maybe worth upgrading the lot.
Have you thought of Campagnolo Veloce? Same price and much better groupset... you can run it with a Marchisio Shimano splined campagnolo spaced cassette without changing your freehub...

Too technical?

nevman

Just swopped out a triple Sora/2300 for 10 speed Tiagra and very happy-wished done it last year now.Good price from Merlin Cycles last month.

Stuster

What I was hoping to do is just swap the shifters for Tiagra 7/8 speed and hopefully just keep the rest the same (ie stay with 21 gears - I've heard that 8 speed shifters would probably work with a 7 ring). Not sure if this is possible though?

Realistically replacing the whole lot for multiple hundreds of pounds is not feasible as it would be a fair chunk towards the cost of a new tiagra equipped bike. Was hoping what I'm thinking might be doable for less than £150 say?

petemadoc

Sounds like a botch job to me.

I reckon if you're patient and watch the classifieds and ebay you can do a proper 10 speed upgrade for under £150 by buying 2nd hand.

I'd want to replace the cassette, shifters, rear mech, chain. Get bargain hunting!

Stuster

PeteMadoc wrote:

Sounds like a botch job to me.

I reckon if you're patient and watch the classifieds and ebay you can do a proper 10 speed upgrade for under £150 by buying 2nd hand.

I'd want to replace the cassette, shifters, rear mech, chain. Get bargain hunting!

Sounds like sensible advice..............cheers!

slowondefy2

I think some of the replies are missing the point. My understanding is that the OP simply wants the Tiagra style shifter, without the Sora style thumb switch, and isn't necessarily looking to go to a full 10 speed setup.

Stuster wrote:

I know Tiagra is now 10 speed, somebody at work mentioned I could probably use 8 speed shifters

I don't understand the logic. If you used 8 speed shifters on a 9 speed cassette, you wouldn't be able to use one of the cogs, and the cable pull (/indexing) from the shifter would probably be wrong anyway. AFAIK, number of speeds on cassette must equal number of speeds on the shifter.

If all you want is the Tiagra shifter with your existing group set, then I think a Tiagra 9 speed shifter should work with your existing 9 speed Sora setup. There's a few Tiagra 9 speed/triple shifters available on eBay, it seems.

Stuster

slowondefy2 wrote:

I think some of the replies are missing the point. My understanding is that the OP simply wants the Tiagra style shifter, without the Sora style thumb switch, and isn't necessarily looking to go to a full 10 speed setup.

Stuster wrote:

I know Tiagra is now 10 speed, somebody at work mentioned I could probably use 8 speed shifters

I don't understand the logic. If you used 8 speed shifters on a 9 speed cassette, you wouldn't be able to use one of the cogs, and the cable pull (/indexing) from the shifter would probably be wrong anyway. AFAIK, number of speeds on cassette must equal number of speeds on the shifter.

If all you want is the Tiagra shifter with your existing group set, then I think a Tiagra 9 speed shifter should work with your existing 9 speed Sora setup. There's a few Tiagra 9 speed/triple shifters available on eBay, it seems.

Yes, you are right - the only reason I want to upgrade is to have all the shifting in the same place, so I can ride constantly on the drops without having to go on top to use the Sora thumb switch.

My reference to using 8 speed shifters was me being stupid and thinking my Sora is 7 speed - it's not, it's actually 8 speed. I'd heard that you can use as an example 8 speed shifters with a 7 cog, or a 9 with an 8 if you see what I mean? So that if now I couldn't get hold of a 8 speed Tiagra shifter, then a 9 speed would work.

Apologies or being unclear.

Stuster

I've been doing some routing around and found these:

http://www.wiggle.co.uk/shimano-r500-st ... lever-set/

By the sounds of it, I can replace my sora 8 speed shifters with these and I will then have all my shifting down on the drops. I don't think I'm missing anything here am I?

It seems very expensive given the age of the bike, but my current 8 speed setup works OK and is all setup with my flight deck computer, so it should at least give me a few more years decent useage until I can upgrade to a fancy 10 speed 105 level machine.

If you think I'm missing something obvious then please tell me!

slowondefy2

I know that you can't use 10 speed shifters on a 9 speed cassette - the indexing will be wrong (i.e. cogs are closer together with a narrower chain). I don't know about using a 9 speed shifter on an 8 speed cassette.

unixnerd

For what it's worth I recently upgraded my road bike to Dura-Ace. I used it's old 105 9 speed setup to replace the 10,000 mile Sora 8 speed groupo on my tourer. Now when I switch from one bike to the other I don't spend the first five minutes trying to change gear the wrong way :-)

Sora was nice and worked well, I liked it. Very reliable. But I prefer 105 shifters. Only down side is that with heavy winter gloves on Sora was easier to change gear with. They've recently announced the next generation Sora levers will look like Tiagra and ditch the thumb button.