I’ve just moved country and am looking at something reasonably priced to commute on in order to save my Quintana Roo from abuse and theft. Which means relaxed geometry, alloy frame, disc brakes, and lower price. Which brings me into aforementioned groupset territory…
What do I lose by going down? Having not ridden a bike with less than 105 in the last few years, I’m totally out of touch with the lower groupsets. Tiagra seems reasonable, but the others seem horrific. Are they really that bad?
I bought a Bmc tm02 105, actually was equipped with a tiagra FD. Was a little surprised but honestly it works just fine, shifts very nicely.
Can’t speak for Sora or Claris.
I built a bike using the new 4700 Tiagra and was impressed of how good it is. It is much better than the Tiagra of old.
Tiagra 4700 would fit my needs on most bikes. I’d go with it again if it suit my constraints.
I went from Ultegra to 105 and can’t say I’ve noticed a massive difference. I’m sure Tiagra would be OK. That said, my MTB has a high end groupset and in 7 years I’ve never had an issue despite thrashing the $hit out of it. I would speculate that a much cheaper groupset could have have given me a few more problems.
I recently bought a low end cross bike for commutting. It’s got tiagra on it and it works just fine for its purposes.
I can’t speak for Claris, but would seriously have no problems recommending either Sora or Tiagra for commuting - or anything other than serious/competitive use for that matter. It’s true that you get what you pay for, but in my experience all of Shimano’s groupsets are well made and reliable these days.
Unless spending the extra cash is of no consequence to you, get one of those two.
but the others seem horrific. Are they really that bad?
I have a 2009 road bike with Sora and it works fine.
Had 9 speed Sora on my road bike for years, move to Ultegra and there’s very little difference, Shifter is smoother but the shift itself is pretty much the same.
Yep, I commuted on Tiagra for a while; a very solid group.
I’ve got Tiagra in my cross bike. I’m not the best bike mechanic in the world, so that may have a lot to do with it, but I have to adjust the derailleurs more often than my DA bike (which I bring in to my LBS to work on since it’s free). Other than that, they aren’t horrible at all.
I have Tiagra on my cross bike, which I never raced cross, but rode the sh*t out of it for years in the mountains on fire roads, rutted, gullied, single track, crashed it many times, several on the road, and… it still shifts fine. I’m probably a Rival, Ultegra, Force level guy generally, but the new stuff is just so good, even Tiagra, that I don’t think you’d be disappointed with it ever. In fact, while I’ll never find it, I’d buy a new tri-bike with Tiagra if it had 11 speed, (it doesn’t). I’d save the $100-200 and get some kit or something.
My only other complaint is on the road shifters, the derailleur cables exit the side of the shifter instead of under the bar tape. Looks busy up there.
Ran Tiagra 4600 for 3 years on a specialized roubaix: worked perfectly.
For a training/commuting bike perfectly good enough.
Have tiagra on my road bike. No issues whatsoever.
Had 9 speed Sora on my road bike for years, move to Ultegra and there’s very little difference, Shifter is smoother but the shift itself is pretty much the same.
This, except I still have it! Not quite 9 years, I bought my road bike in 2009, but the rear derailleur is going strong and I’ve done all sorts of stuff on that bike. I did eventually replace the rear brake/shifter but that was my own fault for riding into something hard, but I put Tiagra on there instead. The only thing I didn’t like about the Sora shifter was the thumb button for shifting down rather than the little hidden lever behind the brake lever. Have they changed that? Tiagra totally fine. I have Ultegra on my TT bike but I can’t say that it does a better job of pushing the chain up or down the cassette.
The road bike I now keep on the trainer has a Tiagra gruppo, and I’ve never had any issues with it.
They’ve sorted that on 4700 now I think.
If / when they move tiagra to 11 speed I’d be more than happy to run that on anything. Don’t think I’ll ever go above 105 now after owning everythingfrom Sora to Dura Ace. You just don’t get much more for the huge price increase.
I had a Claris group on my new Allez for a very short time (trainer only) and upgraded to an Ultegra set I had. I didn’t see/feel a ton of difference in regards to the overall shifting. The components have a “newbie” look to them with the shift gauges in the shifters, but overall felt like the group was pretty solid. I just wanted a 10 speed over an 8 speed.
Had 8sp Sora on a Tandem I rode with my kids 15 years ago. It worked just fine.
Yeah, I think nowadays you can go in any direction and it’ll be good. I think Tiagra is sort of the sweet spot at this point (my opinion, doubt it’s widely held), although a lot of people hold on to this dogmatic notion that if it isn’t 105 or better it’s crap. I have a 20 year old road bike with 8 speed 105 and I don’t really feel limited by the number of cogs (sometimes I’d like tighter spacing but I have a couple of different cassettes if I need something for more climbing). I was at a shop recently and the employee (looked like a mechanic who was also working the main floor) and I had made a comment about getting the defy 5 with claris and he said that 8 speed was on its way out and I shouldn’t get it because you can’t get good parts anymore. I don’t completely buy it, I think 8 speed will be entry level for the foreseeable future and I’m always able to find parts, which are a heck of a lot less expensive than 11 speed. But I think if you go Tiagra you’ll be quite good to go for a while.
I’ve just moved country and am looking at something reasonably priced to commute on in order to save my Quintana Roo from abuse and theft. Which means relaxed geometry, alloy frame, disc brakes, and lower price. Which brings me into aforementioned groupset territory…
What do I lose by going down? Having not ridden a bike with less than 105 in the last few years, I’m totally out of touch with the lower groupsets. Tiagra seems reasonable, but the others seem horrific. Are they really that bad?
There’s nothing horrific about them. They are functionally capable.
I used last gen Tiagra (4600 IIRC?) for a few years and was very happy with it. I think current Sora is pretty similar.
I’m not up to date on the current lower cost Shimano groups but in the last iteration Sora and Tiagra were both 9 speed, Tiagra worked pretty much as well as 6700 Ultegra (never tried 105 5700) but was only 9 speed and weighed a bit more. I wouldn’t have gotten Sora because instead of the shifting via the brake lever and sub-lever as with Tiagra and above, there was a thumb lever for shifting down and the brake lever for up. Otherwise it seemed fine. Don’t know much about Claris but I’m sure it works fine.
Generally speaking as you move down the Shimano range the weight goes up, the cosmetics are a little less appealing and you may have fewer sprockets. However, I’ve never used a Shimano set in recent years that did not function perfectly useably. I think the main reason most of us, myself included, buy 105, Ultegra and Dura-Ace is snobbery…if you’ve already spent a couple of grand on the bike you don’t like to feel you’ve compromised on the groupset.
I noticed a difference when I went from a 5 year old Tiagra (4600?) groupset to Ultegra 6800 on my new bike in 2014 but while I was very impressed with 6800 and I do still like it a lot, it did not transform my cycling experience. Until recently I still used the old bike on occasion and even going back to old Tiagra after being used to Ultegra 6800, it never felt horrific. I’m sure current Tiagra is better again so the gap would be even smaller (it’s 10 speed for starters).
I suspect the current Sora is essentially the same as the Tiagra I used. The thumb lever is gone which was my only real misgiving. I wouldn’t hesitate to use it. If I was getting a commuting specific bike I’d probably get this.