Pay extra for better groupset on first bike?

eudjinn

Hi everyone, been lurking for a while here.

Ive almost certainly decided on a cannondale caad 8 for my first road bike over a specialized allez. I initially was going to go with the sora groupset as my budget was about $1000. However, I keep having these thoughts that I will feel limited by the sora and will regret not dishing out the extra $$$ up front and going for 105 groupset to begin with.i am the type of person who, if hooked by a hobby, will quickly excel at it and feel limited by poor equipment.

I have never owned a road bike prior to this and have not ridden a bike consistently for probably 15 years.

Any thoughts and advice is welcome. Thanks!

rick_chasey

Firstly, the kit, whether 105 or sora will do the job fine. So it's not really a case of 'limiting' you. It's just not as nice.

I rode sora and tiagra for 8 years and it was fine - it really didn't hinder me much - but then I wasn't picky about kit, as long as it did the job!

Consider how much you value having something that feels like it works better and feels like it has a bit more quality.

105 is a serious piece of kit, despite being considered ' middle'.

Ultimately if you decide you want the pricier one, having gone for the cheaper one, it will be much more expensive to upgrade.

But 105 won't make you go any quicker, despite what the salesman tells you.

night_porter

I 100% agree with what Rick has said but I will add that if you are "hankering" after 105 then you will not be happy with Sora until you change it and work out for yourself that there really is no performance benefit.

Probably best to go with the higher priced (Note: I didn't say better) groupset from the start and be happy than to worry about "what if..." you had paid more in the beginning.

Pituophis

In the 12 months I've been riding on the road, I've gone from a mixture of Sora and Tiagra to all Tiagra. Then on to all 105. The cabling on the 105 looks much neater, but as for performance, if I'm honest can I tell the difference? Not really :oops:
I am quicker, but this is because I've been doing a lot of riding and nothing to do with my group set.
Do I ever need to upgrade again? No.
Would I upgrade again. Probably :roll:

16mm

What about an actual upgrade to campagnolo.........(runs away)

rolf_f

With the revised cabling, does current Sora look much different to 105 anyway? Given that all Shimano looks ugly to my eyes anyway (!), I'd spend the money on a better frame and worry about groupset upgrades in the future.

marcusjb

eudjinn wrote:

i am the type of person who, if hooked by a hobby, will quickly excel at it and feel limited by poor equipment.

Luckily for you, cycling takes quite a while to truly excel at for the vast majority of people new to the sport. (even those of us who've been doing it a while struggle to excel! ).

Equipment is rarely the limiting factor in cycling.

Get the best you can afford today and worry about changing things to suit your needs once you've got some miles on the bike. Tyres/wheels etc. are where to think about splashing the cash in the future, rather than worrying about the slight differences between groupsets.

markhewitt1978

You need to get the best frame you can afford first. So if spending more would get you a better frame, but still with Sora, then you should get that. On the other hand if the better frame is out of reach and you can afford it, by all means get 105.

But the fact remains that unless you have full Dura Ace Di2 you'll still feel limited whatever you have

night_porter

markhewitt1978 wrote:

You need to get the best frame you can afford first. So if spending more would get you a better frame, but still with Sora, then you should get that. On the other hand if the better frame is out of reach and you can afford it, by all means get 105.

But the fact remains that unless you have full Dura Ace Di2 you'll still feel limited whatever you have

I have had bikes with everything from 2200 through to Red and not once have I ever felt limited by the groupset but hey I don't believe the marketing hype.

edhornby

bear in mind that the current sora was sold as tiagra until they updated this year and the tiagra is the same as 105 that I have on my current bike; Armstrong won his first tour de france with a bike with one STI shifter and one down tube shifter for the front gears...

sora is fine for a first bike

drlodge

markhewitt1978 wrote:

You need to get the best frame you can afford first. So if spending more would get you a better frame, but still with Sora, then you should get that. On the other hand if the better frame is out of reach and you can afford it, by all means get 105.

But the fact remains that unless you have full Dura Ace Di2 you'll still feel limited whatever you have

This---^^^

Get the best frame you can, everything else can then be upgraded over time as things wear out. Given a choice, I would get fairly cheap wheels then upgrade to hand builts once they wear out, or if you want really good wheels from the off, get some popular wheels with the bike that you can easily sell on as new and then get the wheels you want separately.

Except the comment about Dura Ace Di2 is nonsense, you really need Campagnolo Super Record ;-)

night_porter

edhornby wrote:

Armstrong won his first tour de france

Lmao @ Armstrong won

Mr Will

I'd split the difference and go for Tiagra. Sora is 9 speed which will be limiting if you want to upgrade whereas Tiagra is 10 speed which makes it compatible with 105 and Ultegra 6700 parts.

markhewitt1978

Mr Will wrote:

I'd split the difference and go for Tiagra. Sora is 9 speed which will be limiting if you want to upgrade whereas Tiagra is 10 speed which makes it compatible with 105 and Ultegra 6700 parts.

That's a good point. Getting in at the Tiagra level means you can upgrade bit by bit.

CiB

If you've got the money go for what you want. Buying with a view to upgrading means buying twice, so save your money and spend it on what you want now rather than dithering over whether it's a bit much. Bikes is about bling as much as anything. If in your mind you've got the best bike you could hope to have you'll enjoy it more and ride it more.

Agree about Di2. You might as well start with that and save yourself the bother of anything else.

marcusjb

CiB wrote:

Agree about Di2. You might as well start with that and save yourself the bother of anything else.

But wait until next year, they'll be a newer, better version out then.

southdownswolf

save your money for better wheels, rather than a better groupset.

Daz555

southdownswolf wrote:

save your money for better wheels, rather than a better groupset.

I'd be tempted to go a bit higher and go for Tiagra but this comment about wheels is spot on - a much better place to spend your money - tyres as well.

Anonymous

If you have no problem with lower end Shimano groupsets in terms of what they look like or just the fact that they are lower in the range or that some are not 10 speed, then go for it.

Asking on here you will get some people saying aim higher, and some saying you are wasting your money if you do.

The odd thing is that some of those in the 2300 camp will insult those in the 105 and above gang, and this may mean that the later group will give up giving their opinion and the majority of advice would be to buy cheap.

Within reason I don't really get the whole 'first bike' thing (except for 5 year olds for whom it really is their first bike). Seems odd to be planning a second bike before buying your first.

will_85

I've had similar thoughts myself recently.... Been eyeing up the Ribble pro-evo carbon, upgrade to Tiagra from Sora will set me back £100, which is notably less money and work involved than if I decided to upgrade at a later date. Gotta be worth the pennies IMO.

markhewitt1978

Carbonator wrote:

Within reason I don't really get the whole 'first bike' thing (except for 5 year olds for whom it really is their first bike). Seems odd to be planning a second bike before buying your first.

It's not a really bad idea. But I'd say that if it really is your first bike then buying as cheap as possible is the best idea. But only because you aren't sure if you're going to like cycling at all. e.g. I bought a hybrid for £350 because I didn't know if I wanted to go road, MTB, or stick with the hybrid. In the end I bought a road bike.

keef66

As a general principle I'd support the 'buy the best frame you can afford' argument.* However, you do need to be honest about your attitude to "upgrading"

If you go with Sora expecting it to wear out quickly you may be disappointed. Will you be content to run it for 5 years and then bin it all? Or sell the Sora stuff while it's fairly new and replace with whatever you really want? Or as your title says, pay the extra for the groupset you know you'll want at the time of purchase?

*I did just that, thinking that at 50 years old it might be the last bike I bought. Now 6 years on, my first upgrade was to buy a better frame and transfer all the old kit across! The 105 I specced at the time of purchase is still going strong.