New bike, new gears..

DariusJedburgh said:

Will be receiving my first road bike soon, it's a second-
hand Giant around six years old. The bike has downtube
shifters (which is fine) but in the future I think I may
opt for STI shifters ( all me mates have got 'em!!🙂), so
what I want to know is (bear with me, newbie alert): can I
just swap over? Will I need a new groupset? Can I fit it
myself, or is it a LBS job? If I need a lot of new
components how much am I looking at for fitting STI?

If it's got downtube shifters, it's probably more than six
years old.

You first need to determine how many rear cogs it's got and
what the rear dropout spacing is. Modern 8, 9, 10 speed
systems use 130 mm rear dropout spacing. Older 6 and 7 speed
systems had 126 mm spacing. A steel frame can be spread
("cold set"😉 to the wider spacing. Even with an aluminum
frame, you can just shove a 130 mm hub into a 126 mm frame
and hope for the best.

No matter what you've got now, you should be able to keep
your existing crankset, front derailleur, and brakes. You
may need a new rear wheel and rear der.

If you're just upgrading to STI/Ergo without increasing the
number of gears, all you'll need are the STI/Ergo levers

See the links below for more details.

sheldonbrown.comk7.htmlOpen ↗

sheldonbrown.comframe spacing.htmlOpen ↗

sheldonbrown.comupgrade.htmlOpen ↗

Art Harris

DariusJedburgh said:

Hi all.

Will be receiving my first road bike soon, it's a second-
hand Giant around six years old. The bike has downtube
shifters (which is fine) but in the future I think I may
opt for STI shifters ( all me mates have got 'em!!🙂), so
what I want to know is (bear with me, newbie alert): can I
just swap over? Will I need a new groupset? Can I fit it
myself, or is it a LBS job? If I need a lot of new
components how much am I looking at for fitting STI?

Hope I'm on the correct board here.

It's somewhat expensive. I bought my 10-year old road bike
for $75 with DT shifters... upgrading them to STI would
cost 3 times what it's worth, especially since I would put
Campy on them.

--
Phil, Squid-in-Training

DariusJedburgh said:

Hi all.

Will be receiving my first road bike soon, it's a second-
hand Giant around six years old. The bike has downtube
shifters (which is fine) but in the future I think I may
opt for STI shifters ( all me mates have got 'em!!🙂), so
what I want to know is (bear with me, newbie alert): can I
just swap over? Will I need a new groupset? Can I fit it
myself, or is it a LBS job? If I need a lot of new
components how much am I looking at for fitting STI?

If it's 8 speed, the Sora STI units will work. If it's 9
speed you need Tiagra/105/Ultegra or last year's Dura-Ace.
You'll also need some down tube cable stops which fit the
existing lever braze-ons and new, longer, gear cable inners
and the outers which you don't currently have (Shimano sell
the cables as a kit). Also budget for new brake cables and
handlebar tape if you're doing a neat job.

Down tube shifters are fine if you're not doing bunch
racing. STI is no help if you're using aero bars in a time
trial (the serious riders use barcons on the end of their
tri-bars instead), and for leisure riding you can afford to
take that extra second to change gear.

I've also noticed a side effect of STI - the pros ride on
the lever hoods all the time these days, where they can
easily flick through the gears. Not many ride on the drops,
even when they're trying to make a lone break.