# Shimano Sora Shifters (the newer one that are not thumb shifters)



## madflava54 (Jul 1, 2012)

Hello,

My wife recently got into road biking with me. She is small and unfortunately, she is having issues with the Sora shifters. Her hands are small and she is having problems having her hands comfortable over the shifters for braking and gear changing. I think this is a safety issue and was wondering if a mechanic would be able to adjust the shifter closer to the bike? I believe in our bike shopping, SRAM shifters are able to be adjusted. I ride with 105s and she felt more comfortable gripping the 105s. However, jumping to 105 components is a huge price jump and would like to explore alternatives before we explore that option.

Secondly, I was wondering if there is a reason why I go down hills quicker than her. I am 5'9 160 and she is 5'1 105 and I got 23mm tires and she has 25mm tires. Is it simply my weight that is helping me in this case? We will be pretty much at same speeds and stop pedaling once going down a hill and I will just slowly lose her without any effort.

Lastly, she test rode a few bikes with 105s and she thinks the Sora shift pretty poorly. I'm guessing we should just take it back and get it readjusted. 

Thanks for reading this much and your help.

P.S. Can anyone recommend a bike that comes with Tiagra? We know Trek bikes have a Tiagra line, but she was not a fan of the Trek Lexa.


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## PJ352 (Dec 5, 2007)

According to Shimano's tech docs, there are adjustment blocks available for the new Sora shifters. Once at the link below, check item #14.

http://techdocs.shimano.com/media/t.../ST/EV-ST-3500-3422_v1_m56577569830800256.pdf

Re: the poor shifting, that's almost always due to poor installation/ set up. Even high end groupsets perform poorly if not installed set up correctly. Bring the bike back to your LBS and describe the problem(s) in detail.

If this bike fits your wife and suites her intended uses, I suggest taking these steps to make it right before considering going with a new ride.


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## Randy99CL (Mar 27, 2013)

You might want to look into MicroShift short-reach shifters:

http://forums.roadbikereview.com/components-wrenching/microshift-short-reach-shifters-installed-video-demo-inside-306958.html#post4382030

They cost around $120 for the pair and people seem to be really happy with them.
They use a different system than the other shifters with two separate shift levers. You can watch them work in the video.


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