How Different Is Shimano 105 And Tiagra Really?

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#cycling #bikes #bicycle

[RichieRich]

Tiagra is seriously underrated, it just works, it's great value, it offers a nice balanced gear range, its affordable to replace parts, you can't go wrong with it

[christianb.]

Tiagra is really, really good. The best thing is: If you want more range, just upgrade the deraillieur to a GRX 400 and get a bigger cassette. Really not expensive and can make a huge difference! And IF you want to upgrade even further to 11-speed someday, you just have to change the shifters to 105 or so, since both, Tiagra and GRX 400, are fully compatible with 11 speed shifters.

[owensnicholas]

I see so many people in online communities talking about upgrading their groupsets to Di2 or AXS. I have a sneaking suspicion that the vast majority could derive much more benefit from a great fitting pair of shoes and/or saddle. They're not as sexy, but I'll take equipment that lets me ride all day in comfort over electronic shifting.

[falklevien]

Done three Everestings with my 3x10 Tiagra in the last two months. Absolutely brilliant. I went with the Tiagra a, for budget reasons, b, for the 30 front 34 rear combination and c, for the much smaller steps in gears from the 10 speed system. It's been amazing and I'm keeping it on my bike.

[fenbops]

My bike has Tiagra. No problems with it. I’ll probably upgrade bike and groupset in years to come but for now it’s great.

[judycarlsen]

(Richard here). After several years of transitioning to 1X about a decade ago, I settled on a long cage Tiagra derailleur tagged to my 10 speed Ultegra right shifter. With this set-up, over 4 years I did everything (training & events) up to and including two 24-hour bike races. Today, I ride two Poseidons with 10 speed Advent X systems quite happily. No battery charging, no software, no internal cables. Just good, solid shifting that lets me focus on riding (and tire selection) and not on paying for electronic hardware.

[trnnel]

Always fun to watch your podcast, one suggestion that would make my viewing experience even better is to more often put a short picture in of the thing that is currently talked about (for example the tourney shifters). I quite often need to look up what is actually talked about.

Also regarding this question: Make sure you have hydraulic disk brakes (in stead of cable operatered disk brakes) when purchasing the bike. It's just that much better.

[BogdanTimofte]

Stop focusing on the weight and number of gears of the groupset. They are not important and do not make a bike useless. Only the range of a groupset does.

[markjthomson]

I have 105 10 speed on my road bike and Tiagra 10 speed shifters running my 10 speed GRX groupset on my touring bike. I've previously run 3 x Tiagra on my touring bike as well. My Tiagra is newer, and feels so (the 105 having done >30 000km and the Tiagra about 10 000km) but other than that they are both reliable, work every time and easy to maintain. Would I buy one over the other based on performance? No, either works and works well and TBH the cost difference alone means Tiagra comes out in front most days. The only oddball thing about the Tiagra 10 speed is the cable pull is different to all other Shimano 10 speeds in the road groups - it's the same pull ratio as 11 speed. Not a problem when setting up from scratch, but caused me some issues when I got the new shifters, I had to change the rear derailleur to allow for the cable pull change - for me that just meant upgrading to GRX sooner rather than later.

[putrid.p]

Should bikes be available to buy without a saddle and tyres, in the same way they're normally supplied without pedals?

[daytch]

I've got both tiagra 10 and 105 10spd . Yes the tiagra works great and quality is excellent, except for the geometry of the front derailleur leaves something to be desired( it hangs up if it gets the slightest bit dirty or bottle juice on the cable . The 105 has been solid all the way and you get a stiffer, lighter crank. Which brings the question, did I do right by upgrading my heavy tiagra cranks to ultegra?

[XXXENOWRAITHXX]

The biggest thing for having more gears is a smoother transition of cadence when keeping the same range… yes you don’t need more gears but it is nicer. When comparing the performance of the group-sets, 105 is where it gets really nice vs the pretty good of tiagra/sora/claris (which are all being phased out with cues maybe? If they ever put our road brifters) the only difference between sora/claris and older 105( the ones that don’t have the extra thing to attach the the RD hanger) is the shifters, the RD is basically the same thing with the same pull ratio with a slightly lighter material.

[TESTA-CC]

105 is For Road, Tiagra Can be used on a Road & Mountain Bike. That's it.

[michaelviglianco]

Malaysia is small with a ton of bike shops. Not exactly a test of any equipment or gear. Being in a different country doesn't put more strain on anything

[abedfo]

Also when chain reaction closed down i literally got a tiagra front derailleur for £5 😂😂

[timwong]

I do like hyperglide+ drivetrain, it makes a difference between 12speed 105 (mechanical and eletronic) and previous generation that uses hyperglide.

[TheKizersoze]

I was in this situation a month ago and went with Tiagra bike because I was using it to get back into shape / commuter bike.

If I was to do it again I think I would have paid a little more and got that 1 extra gear because there are 2 large climbs in my area where that 1 extra easy gear would have made it so I could stay in the large ring.

But it’s giving me the excuse to get a full time workout bike next summer, convert my synapse to a full time commuter with a rack and that’s easier for maintain.

[sylvaingarel]

When you know that the New acera 3020 IS able to handle 10 speeds with a 11-32 or 11-42 cassette it's Amazing ! So cheap and so much range

[buggen]

Tiagra is great! I use tiagra on my gravel/commuter bike, ride it on single track and tarmac without any issues. My ultegra carbon racer is better of course but tiagra is great

[awhite]

My bike has a mix of 12 year old Tiagra and even older 10 speed Ultegra. It shifts flawlessly!