rhenry01 

A couple days ago I swapped my Sora 3X8 shifters and Tiagra rear mech for microShift R8 3X8 shifters and Ultegra rear mech. I have gone on a couple rides and I have to say that the microShift shifters are working really well. I much prefer the double-paddle design of the R8s over the Sora's method of swinging the brake handle to shift to a lower cog and pushing the button to shift to the higher cog. The R8 shifters work flawlessly with the Ultegra mech, the shifts are crisp and fast. The front is working well too but I still need to do a little adjusting of the front mech to get it to a reasonable working point. The brakes feel great and it was easy to adjust front/rear to have the same initial bite points when pulling the handles. I haven't made any panic stops yet but I probably need to try it a few times just to get the feel of it.

I'm not saying anything bad about the Sora shifters. These suckers are 18ish years old and were full of dirt and grime (mud wasp nest I think in one of them) and they shifted and engaged the brakes perfectly. Shimano make great products. I just didn't like that button, and I couldn't reach it from the drops (not that I ride in that aero position a lot but it only took one time in the drops and wanting to go even faster to figure out that I wanted a change.

So .... I'll keep putting some miles on these microShift shifters and see if my mind changes about them in the future. So far, I am liking them and think they are a very nice upgrade to the Sora 3X8 shifters of the 2006 vintage. Total cost for the R8s was $106 shipped to my door and the kit included cables and housing. I bought them from 365 Cycles out of Pennsylvania via Amazon.