srestrepo

My commuter bike is a GT Grade - has mediocre disc brakes and it came with Shimano Sora. I've since added racks, lights, and fenders and have grown to enjoy it's ride quality, when it works. I absolutely hate the Sora front derailleur - seems to never hold an adjustment. Cable tension is either too tight or too loose. I've broken 4 spokes in my rear wheel and have had to adjust the cone tension and true the wheel a few times, too.

The question is this;
I would like to get better brakes - preferably hydraulic. I'm a heavy commuter at 255 lbs. I want to upgrade to tiagra 10 speed groupset that comes with hydraulic brakes for around 410 shipped.

Or...

I can spend the same money and have a bomb proof rear wheel built with a better hub so I can upgrade later.

I plan on riding through the winter being in Massachusetts, the second wheelset would be nice (not necessary) to switch back and forth between tires with studs or not. Also the new tiagra places the cables under the bar tape which would be great for aesthetics.

I'm hesitant to go with anything much better than tiagra because it increases the price substantially, but my 105 front and rear derailleur on another bike shift wonderfully and leave me wanting for more on my commute. Current wheelset on the commuter won't take an 11 speed cassette without some sort of machining (that I know of or without being cost-prohibitive).

RubeRad

Interesting choice. First off, it is pretty widely recognized that the knee in the cost/quality curve is either Tiagra or 105; I bet you'd be happy with Tiagra. Personally, my plan for all future bikes is 1x with a giant 11-40 or even 11-42 cassette. How about this:

Buy the tiagra 10sp hydraulic brifters/brakes
Buy a 10sp 10-40 or 10-42 cassette
Probably buy a longer-cage RD, and/or Wolftooth RoadLink, to handle the cassette
Ditch the front derailleur
Buy a 1x crankset; or leave the double on and choose one chainring to leave the chain on (or manually switch it before various rides if you want)

I don't know if that solution would end up cheaper than your whole Tiagra group.

srestrepo

thats definitely an awesome suggestion about going with a one by. but doing it out, it looks like its more expensive to do it that way.

i can't seem to find it anywhere, but does anyone who has tiagra know if the tiagra front derailleur shifter has more than 3 index positions?

the sora does, and it sucks that way, the 105 on my other bike has 4 indexed positions and i like it leaps and bounds over the sora.

RubeRad

I have an old road bike with Tiagra 3x8, and it has a 'trim' position halfway between the small and middle rings, so I imagine newer iterations would still have that.

The 'trim' position can only be reached by half-shifting from small to middle. If you shift from middle to small, it always goes all the way down. The half-shift is a very subtle click, I didn't even know I had it when I first got the bike!

Darth Lefty 

Gear first. Do you have lights, clothes, tools?

Upgrade contact points second. Saddle, tires, handlebars and wrap, shorts and gloves, adjust position.

If you've broken four spokes, wheels next. Decent wheels are just so cheap now, there's no need to suffer. Get a set from Shimano or Vuelta, they are the bee's nuts.

Tiagra is the first level that's all metal and should have a very long life, but Sora is similar to the Acera that I've been abusing for 16 years now on my MTB and it's fine too. Indexed triples are all fussy, IME so far anyhow.

kevrider

i have and older version of tiagra on my commuter sled (9sp), it works quite well, i do not experience the issues with which you are plagued. and yes, it does have the trim position for the FD. wifey has a 10sp tiagra on her roadie machine, that's also quite slick. i'm sure you'll be satisfied with that upgrade.

i agree with Darth Lefty about the wheels... my commuter sled has a vuelta wheelset, which seems quite stout to me. i weigh 155#, so a grain of salt is appropriate, but perhaps you can get wheels sooner if you go that route. they are inexpensive but not cheap.

srestrepo

i have 1100 lumen cygolite and 150 hotshot in the rear, most if not all of the clothes i need with the exception of a decent pair of thermal pants and rain pants which i dont think i'll get. for tools i've got most of the things that i need right now and if i need something else, i'll go and get it if i think its going to be a recurring repair that i'll have to do.

my only objection to the wheelset being a nicer to have than the groupset is, in the process of having to rebuild my wheels, i've realized that i dont mind truing my wheel. it isn't necessarily a fun process, but it also isn't one i object to either.

the groupset coming with the hydraulic brakes is what i think i'm going to bite the bullet on. my commutes aren't very long - they're only 7 miles round trip at the shortest. but i do it daily and most often times i end up going other places too.

RubeRad

Is that better or worse than the bees knees?

Darth Lefty 

it's the shiz

RubeRad

Meh, if it's not the shiznit it's not good enough for me

srestrepo

Fo' sizzle

Also just realized they make the Sora R3000 which tuck the cables under the bar tape. I might go with those and upgrade to TRP Spyres

hyhuu

I had Sora before and it shifted flawlessly.

Bike Gremlin

Sora is perfectly fine if tuned properly and if it isn't damaged. Also, it should be compatible with your chainrings/sprockets.
As for brakes - V-brakes have more than enough stopping power. Discs - even more so. Mechanical ones, starting as cheap as Avid BB5 work perfectly - also, provided they are tuned well, rotors are of good quality and brake pads and rotors are compatible.

So I'd go with a good wheel. As low as Deore (or 105 if you have a 130mm rear dropout spacing) hubs will work perfectly. I'd look for 36 spoke hubs and double walled aluminium rims, and double butted DT Swiss spokes of 2-1.8-2 mm width.

OnyxTiger

I've got the Tiagra 10speed 4600 (shifters/f/r ders, and Promax Render R disc brakes) that I'm not using anymore (upgraded to 5700 105 and BB7 brakes)... wouldn't mind getting those off my hands. Let me know if you're interested. I can cut a solid deal for you.