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How did it end up on bikes at the £1000 price point?!? I would expect at least Tiagra for that!
Being in the market for another CX to replace the one just stolen, I have had to spend a lot of time on Wheelies (as well as other sites) looking and comparing, and can't believe how hard it is to find a CX/Adventure/Gravel bike with a decent spec and features that I would want.
disc brakes and large-name manufacturers is the usual way
there are £2500 bikes from the likes of cannondale with mavic aksiums on them
A variety of reasons, most of which boil down to price.
£1K is very much a target price point because of the C2W scheme so manufacturers are going to do what they can to make that price while still giving everyone in the chain some profit.
There have been some significant price hikes in recent years - my road bike with a 105 groupset cost £1600 in 2010, a year later the same bike with Tiagra cost £2200.
Currency fluctuations which depend on anything from brexit to whether the Prime Minister had cornflakes or porridge for breakfast
I really like the Sora triple on my old Triban. With fresh cables it shifts flawlessly and holds its trim.
And if it gets you a better frameset for your budget then you can always upgrade in the future.
Price, exchange rates, value perception
Take £1000 and add the best priced eyecatching bits you can then fill the rest from the parts bin, like picking a fantasy football team
Have you tried the latest Sora? You might be surprised by how good it is.
I ended up building my roadie up with the latest Sora and have been pleasantly surprised. I got the drivetrain dirt cheap and was only intending on running it as a stop-gap whilst i decided if i liked roadbiking or not, but it's been really good so far. The only thing i have an issue with is that because i run an 11-30 block the jumps between the climbing gears can be a bit jarring
CAADX tiagra is a grand, as is last year's 105.
Great bike. Race geometry but people ride them all over.
£1000 with Tiagra.
<span style="font-size: 0.8rem;">there are £2500 bikes from the likes of cannondale with mavic aksiums on them</span>
Slightly different in that any roadie who's been riding for a while will have a nice set of wheels. Road bike wheelsets are a bit like those plastic pedals bikes come with, you're not actually supposed to ride them, but there's no point the manufacturer wasting money on £200 pedals and £2000 wheel sets on a £2500 bike, because it would then be a £4700 bike. The askiums end up on eBay or their training bike (which is great for everyone else looking for cheap but decent wheels).
My cannondale road bike was £1200 new i think, in 2004, and cane with tiagra and an OEM chain set. With a bit of inflation sora for £1k isn't so bad.
If you want 105 then just buy a bike from halfords, planet x, pinnacle etc. Although even then you probably wont get a shimano chain set at that price point.
Depends on your size and what you want, but Ultegra bits for a grand: http://www.planetx.co.uk/i/q/CBPXFMR8000/planet-x-full-monty-shimano-ultegra-r8000-disc-gravel-bike
frame is pleasant to ride and handles nicely. Wheels weigh a ton though
I've done nearly 3,000km mostly off-road on a Sora groupset and I haven't even had to twiddle a barrel adjuster. It works flawlessly.
Theres also the cheeky build that comes with mechanical disc brakes, which you only find out when you read the spec in detail.
I really like the Sora on my bike. If you don't need 10/11 speed, it works really well and has the advantage of working with MTB rear derailleurs for touring or off road setups. I'd rather have a Sora equipped bike with decent wheels & brakes than vice versa.
Discs innit - getting to that significant price point means compromise. New Sora is rather nice though, but Tiagra is getting to be all you need now. 1000 is actually a bit too cheap for what you want.
I'd get the best TCX you can find. CAADX has BB30 and I loath my CAAD8 for that.
I got Sora to build a 25 year old frame up.
I bought a new steel frame and moved all the Sora across because it works very well indeed.
If you think you're going to get that much more out of a better level, go for it. However, if you're comparing new Sora with a few years old 105, you'll be happy enough.
I like the Sora on my Escapade (which was also a grand). Works great, chains and cassettes are cheap too.
Bikes are more expensive than they used to be - or conversely, you get less for your money at the same old price points. I paid less than a grand 8 years ago for a Kona Haole with 105 (admittedly on sale). Can't say the Sora kit is any worse to use and the weight difference probably marginal too.
sounds like the trickle down effect is actually the trickle up effect. Ah well, what's new! 😆
My only concern with getting something like Sora on a new bike (and I don't even know if it's a justified concern) is whether there would be any limitations in other components should I want to upgrade in the future. i.e. if I wanted to upgrade to an 11 speed groupset in the future, would I need to buy a new wheel to fit the 11-speed cassette?
My road bike that has been reduced to turbo trainer duties is on 'old' Sora with the funny thumb button shifter thing, rather than the double paddles. It works, but I find it a bit clunky & agricultural.
I'm not really a SRAM fan, but my Militis has got SRAM Apex on it & that works really well & is a pleasure to use once you've got used to the double tap shifting (which takes about 5 mins).
Sora or tiagra will no doubt work well enough - but on anything other than a winter bike of commuter hack - then 105 is as low as I’d go.
Mooman - that's nothing to do with the quality of the parts, that's just cos you're a bike tart.
I've ridden regular 60/70/80 mile rides on my sora equipped planet x London road. I then bought a second hand tiagra group set and have continued with those distances and more. I did my first 100 miler the other weekend and the tiagra kit didn't miss a beat.
All this with mechanical disc brakes as well. Oh the horror!!!
Mate also rode the Tour of Wessex on sora equipped £500 vitus road bike.
It's a funny topic, because this stuff is getting so much better. So whilst it appears we're getting fleeced (and relatively speaking, maybe we are), we are probably getting just as good as (if not better) kit, than we did a few years ago.
And indeed, refusing to use anything less than 105 is just snobbery. By all means enjoy the better stuff, but there's nothing wrong with Sora, Tiagra, etc. I'm 15,000 miles into my Sora equipped bike and it does the job just fine. In fact I've just built a bike with Alivio, because I'm confident it will exceed my expectations.
I still concur that Sora on a 1k bike is a bit much mind.
I've Tiagra 4600 shifters and mech on my commuter, the only downside is the cable coming out of the side of the shifter rather than being routed so that it runs along the bars and you "hide" it using bar tape. The 4700 shifters now do that so no longer a problem.
If there's any "roughness" in gear changing it's more than likely due to me trying to change gear under load rather than anything fundamentally wrong with the kit.
I think there was a change in the shape of the hoods an iteration or two ago, can't see any difference in product shots now between Tiagra, 105, Ultegra and Dura-ace but that may just be the angle of the shots. Apart from that it's just making sure that the mech has the capacity for whatever setup you want to use - I'm not sure Sora is 10spd compatible for instance, I can only see 9spd versions.
Looking at the cost of components on Wiggle (just happened to be the first site that came up) there's not a lot of difference in cost between Tiagra and 105 shifters (£115 to £130) but a big jump to Ultegra at £200. When I bought my road bike I couldn't really feel a huge difference between 105 & Ultegra, certainly if I'd done a "blind" test I wouldn't have been certain of which was which. Durability might be different but then my 105 shifters have lasted 25,000km so quite how much better Ultegra have to be to justify the extra cost?
It's component flowdown isn't it. 2018 Tiagra is 2017's 105 and 2018 Sora is 2017's Tiagra and so it goes. Also if Shimano want to pump up the prices of their top end stuff like DA and Ultegra and make it more exclusive... then they've got to bump up their entire range.
Just bought a new bike with 105 when my outgoing bike had Ultegra...you now what, I think the 105 is just as good if not nicer than the Ultegra it replaced. OK comparing different years, the latest 105 vs. 2yr old Ultegra, but given the price difference between the 105 bike and the Ultegra bike was £500, with everything else being the same (frame, wheels, contact points) I'd have to have been an idiot to go for the Ultegra version. There is just zero benefit of spending the additional cash and going for Ultegra just for the Kudos of the name. If I really wanted to upgrade my groupset I'd rather put that £500 price difference towards eTap.
I really like the Sora on my bike. If you don’t need 10/11 speed, it works really well and has the advantage of working with MTB rear derailleurs for touring or off road setups. I’d rather have a Sora equipped bike with decent wheels & brakes than vice versa.
This.
The new stuff works really well and has a light, soft feel, despite shifting perfectly.
For loads and hills the triple is pretty much perfect.
It feels a bit plasticky, but has survived a few crashes and drops.
Suits the bike (wife's AWOL) really well.
Nicer to use than the Tiagra on her road bike.
Ultegra (and dura-ace and all the electronic stuff) is made in the R&D factory in japan, 105 and below are made in the manufacturing operation in Taiwan, which is probably the reason for the price difference. But I agree that 105 is good stuff, it is also true that the cannondale putting aksiums on a 2k+ bike is taking the urine as wheels are more important than gears.
same for XT in Japan and SLX in Taiwan
The current sora is probably the same design as the couple of iterations-ago 105 that I have on my road bike, the external cable shift makes for a nice shift action because some of the first under-bartape cable designs weren't that great (a problem now improved)