Cannondale CAAD8 Sora - Tiagra Upgrade

tartanmartin
Posts: 90
Hello all!
I've decided to get my first road bike and have just come back from trying a couple of bikes, a 2012 Cannondale CAAD8 Sora and a Focus Culebro 4.0 with Tiagra 30 set.
Despite the shifters, the Cannondale was a much nicer bike to ride but to complicate things the shop have offered to upgrade the Sora 18 shifters to Tiagra 20's for £150 as a p/x for the Sora parts.
Does this seem worthwhile? How much would it cost to do it at a later time?
I'm now confused.....
I look forward to some advice.
Martin
I've decided to get my first road bike and have just come back from trying a couple of bikes, a 2012 Cannondale CAAD8 Sora and a Focus Culebro 4.0 with Tiagra 30 set.
Despite the shifters, the Cannondale was a much nicer bike to ride but to complicate things the shop have offered to upgrade the Sora 18 shifters to Tiagra 20's for £150 as a p/x for the Sora parts.
Does this seem worthwhile? How much would it cost to do it at a later time?
I'm now confused.....

I look forward to some advice.
Martin
0
Comments
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I'd go with Tiagra mainly because it's ten speed. You'll have a better choice of cassettes if you ever need to change. If you get nine speed then down the line you'll wish you'd gone for ten, upgrade fever will hit. Can't hurt to haggle on the price though!
As for upgrade costs I'd never do it with new parts. I put my CAAD5 up to Dura-Ace 7800 (excluding the brakes as yet) for about 250 and used it's 9 speed 105 bits to upgrade the old Sora on my tourer (which lasted 10,000 miles no problem).
The CAAD8 has a good frame that's worth upgrading, sensible buy.http://www.strathspey.co.uk - Quality Binoculars at a Sensible Price.
Specialized Roubaix SL3 Expert 2012, Cannondale CAAD5,
Marin Mount Vision (1997), Edinburgh Country tourer, 3 cats!0 -
Change to 105 shifter 5700 series with internal cable routing and cassette. Keep your chain set. Get tiagra front and rear mech. That should be good.Road - Cannondale CAAD 8 - 7.8kg
Road - Chinese Carbon Diablo - 6.4kg0 -
Please excuse my ignorance but by keeping my chain set does that comprise the chain and front crankset? Would it also be worth keeping the existing rear bottom bracket?
Looking at ebay there seems to be some cracking prices for parts and I suppose my parts would be worth something (albeit significantly less).0 -
you need to change the chains to a 10speed chain...KMC X10
the chainset should be fine. the cassette need to be 105 10speed (reason for 105...its made out of much better material than the tiagra and fair bit lighter)
new tiagra front & rear mech needs to be 10 speed which will be 4600 series and the 105 5700 series shifters will be compatible with these...reason for 5700 shifters is cos the internal routing otherwise go for a tiagra 4600 shifter or 105/ultegra 5600/6600 shifters from ebay...Road - Cannondale CAAD 8 - 7.8kg
Road - Chinese Carbon Diablo - 6.4kg0 -
Brilliant, thank you0
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ricky1980 wrote:
new tiagra front & rear mech needs to be 10 speed
This isn't true. There is no such thing as a 10 speed mech, they are just dictated by the shifters.
I'd get the 105 shifters though, much nicer!0 -
pitchshifter wrote:
This isn't true. There is no such thing as a 10 speed mech, they are just dictated by the shifters.
I'd get the 105 shifters though, much nicer!Road - Cannondale CAAD 8 - 7.8kg
Road - Chinese Carbon Diablo - 6.4kg0