# New Specialized Secteur, 2400 claris groupset. Upgrade?



## boxrick (18 Aug 2013)

I just purchased a brand new Specialized Secteur bike at a cost of £650. However one thing that I am unhappy with is the gearing. It came with a Shinano 2400 groupset and I am wondering If I could change just the front and rear Derailleur to something like Ultegra components and leave the rest intact to give me swifter cleaner changes, or would further pieces like the shifters and crank need changing?

Any help or advise would be appreciated. My local bike shop can't even seem to get it right.


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## cyberknight (18 Aug 2013)

Assuming the bike is set up right the gears should shift equally well whether you have entry level of top of the line , the main differences will be the speed which i doubt you could tell any difference without a stop watch and a slow motion video and number of sprockets .
I would suggest you spend any upgrade money on a lighter set of wheels first.


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## Peteaud (18 Aug 2013)

My wife has the 2300 as she prefers the thumb button on her Dolce

It changes spot on every time, you just need to get it set right.

Upgrade by all means, but they all need setting up.


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## musa (18 Aug 2013)

You could but the claris works fine. Use tiagro if you must 

Just make sure its set up nicely 

I mean an ultegra rear mexh is £80 retails front mech £20-30 tbh no point


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## SpokeyDokey (18 Aug 2013)

boxrick said:


> I just purchased a brand new Specialized Secteur bike at a cost of £650. However one thing that I am unhappy with is the gearing. It came with a Shinano 2400 groupset and I am wondering If I could change just the front and rear Derailleur to something like Ultegra components and leave the rest intact to give me swifter cleaner changes, or would further pieces like the shifters and crank need changing?
> 
> Any help or advise would be appreciated. My local bike shop can't even seem to get it right.


 

What exactly are you unhappy with?

Have you used Ultegra before?


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## Grayduff (18 Aug 2013)

I might be wrong and i hope i am  but having read other threads on this forum BUT i thought that anything below Tiagra components were not interchangeable , I have a Sora Groupset and would love to upgrade the front mesh, cranks etc BUT i was told i had to do it all or nothing ??? ..can anybody tell me any different


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## IanG1 (19 Aug 2013)

I have exactly the same bike but 2013 model, it's all about the set up and the best thing I did was troll YouTube and learn how to set it up properly. I did find my front mech took regular tweaks over the first 500 miles to keep it shifting nicely as the cable stretched but has since settled down. I haven't touched the back at all in this time and never felt the need to. As its a triple I think the front can be more fickle to set up and needs a little patience to get it spot on without any chain rub. Once you have learnt the basics it will save you money to spend on other stuff lol


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## boxrick (20 Aug 2013)

When I say "not right", I spent hours looking over youtube videos about adjusting the dérailleurs. After not being able to get it quite right I took it to my local bike store where I left it with the mechanic for the afternoon. When I got back he said he just couldn't get it right and didn't even charge me. It shifts "ok" through the gears then around the middle on the back it doesn't sit cleanly and always wants to change ( makes that noise ).

1) Ignore it, use my bike and call it a day
2) Upgrade a few bits ( Shimano 105 entire groupset is ~ £300 and stick some new wheels on it £250 ) I got a pretty nice bike with a gorgeous looking frame for £1000 then sell all the old components and make a few quid back.
3) Attempt to return and buy an entirely different bike, this time around the £1000 mark. Some nice ultegra - carbon bikes at £1000 from PlanetX


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## HLaB (20 Aug 2013)

Grayduff said:


> I might be wrong and i hope i am  but having read other threads on this forum BUT i thought that anything below Tiagra components were not interchangeable , I have a Sora Groupset and would love to upgrade the front mesh, cranks etc BUT i was told i had to do it all or nothing ??? ..can anybody tell me any different


My old Sirrus uses Tiagra and Sora no problem and I've also ridden bikes with mix of SRAM and Shimano, so if you've interpreted that they cant mix you are wrong. If they are the same speed they'll up grade no problem the only limitation is you cant go to a campag based system.


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## PaulSecteur (20 Aug 2013)

If you have a specialized concept store nearby it might be worth popping it in to them, especially if you brought it there.


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## Grayduff (20 Aug 2013)

HLaB said:


> My old Sirrus uses Tiagra and Sora no problem and I've also ridden bikes with mix of SRAM and Shimano, so if you've interpreted that they cant mix you are wrong. If they are the same speed they'll up grade no problem the only limitation is you cant go to a campag based system.


 
R U sure I was told that i could not upgrade my Sora groupset to 105`s or Ultegra`s, i will as you say pop into a concept store when i am next in London (Covent Garden) cheers


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## T.M.H.N.E.T (20 Aug 2013)

Grayduff said:


> R U sure I was told that i could not upgrade my Sora groupset to 105`s or Ultegra`s, i will as you say pop into a concept store when i am next in London (Covent Garden) cheers


Sora 9 speed

Tiagra/105/Ultegra/Dura-ace 10spd


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## Grayduff (20 Aug 2013)

T.M.H.N.E.T said:


> Sora 9 speed
> 
> Tiagra/105/Ultegra/Dura-ace 10spd


 
Ok ta..Better start upgrading then


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## Longshot (20 Aug 2013)

[quote="boxrick, post: 2608054, member: 31958"
1) Ignore it, use my bike and call it a day
[/quote]


This. Unless you're unhappy with the gear shifts - are you? Are you really or are you finding something that isn't there because you're hankering after Ultegra or similar? There's an awful lot of people out there using 2300/2400/Sora that seem to be able to change gear fairly well - it can't be that bad can it?


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## musa (20 Aug 2013)

Maybe return the bike and get a roubaix of tiagra/105 spec. Unless you have the parts lying around


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## HLaB (20 Aug 2013)

Grayduff said:


> R U sure I was told that i could not upgrade my Sora groupset to 105`s or Ultegra`s, i will as you say pop into a concept store when i am next in London (Covent Garden) cheers


 


HLaB said:


> If they are the *same speed* they'll up grade no problem


Old Sora is 9sp and 105s are 10sp; you can still upgrade but it'll be problematic and costly


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## the_mikey (20 Aug 2013)

Unless you're really unhappy with the gears on the bike then I'd stick with Claris. I know it's a new bike but other factors that could affect shifting are poorly set up indexing, bent derailleur hanger, poorly cut gear cable outers. In my opinion, upgrading to 105 or Ultegra is a waste of money, better spent on new wheels or save it for a better bike. Please ignore my comments if you need to!


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## PaulSecteur (21 Aug 2013)

Are you anywhere near wolverhampton?

If you are I could have a look... im getting pretty decent at setting gears.


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## Nigelnaturist (21 Aug 2013)

T.M.H.N.E.T said:


> Sora 9 speed
> 
> Tiagra/105/Ultegra/Dura-ace 10spd


New stuff.
Plenty of scope to get 9sp Tiagra shifters 2nd hand or ebay ect, 9 and 8 sp mechs interchangeable, as an 8sp rear cog is 1.8mm wide a 9sp 1.78mm wide, ( I use 8sp cogs on my 7sp, with 7sp spacers no problem), as are chains, chainsets should also be fine, 8sp chains will work on 9sp, just a little wider so may be some rub on extremes. You would however need a 9 sp cassette.
10 sp complete upgrade as for as I understand it.
But then I use an Acera (which is good up to a 34th) on the rear of my road bike, so what do I know.


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## cyberknight (21 Aug 2013)

boxrick said:


> When I say "not right", I spent hours looking over youtube videos about adjusting the dérailleurs. After not being able to get it quite right I took it to my local bike store where I left it with the mechanic for the afternoon. When I got back he said he just couldn't get it right and didn't even charge me. It shifts "ok" through the gears then around the middle on the back it doesn't sit cleanly and always wants to change ( makes that noise ).
> 
> 1) Ignore it, use my bike and call it a day
> 2) Upgrade a few bits ( Shimano 105 entire groupset is ~ £300 and stick some new wheels on it £250 ) I got a pretty nice bike with a gorgeous looking frame for £1000 then sell all the old components and make a few quid back.
> 3) Attempt to return and buy an entirely different bike, this time around the £1000 mark. Some nice ultegra - carbon bikes at £1000 from PlanetX


try another bike shop maybe?
It could be as daft as the high/low b stops needing a minor tweak , i have had the exact same problems when i put a new rear mech on a bike and my LBS fixed it in about 30 seconds.
have you checked your hanger alignment ?


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## Widge (24 Aug 2013)

I haven't so much upgraded my Triban 3, as made a sideways step to solve a problem.
As you know......the T3 comes with 2300 and a Sora front mech. The 8spd triple takes a bit of fettling to run sweet but can be done with a bit of cursing. I like 8spd - it seems tough and shifts well when adjusted optimally for me. Also...my only experience of Shimano sti has been with those 'mouse-ears' shifters.....and I find them very intuitive and far more convenient than the huge 'grind-and-find' ships levers I had on my old Mercian,....gloriously retro as it was.

I did, however, invest in a new 'Claris' r/d to solve the problem of inadequate clearance between the mech and my new r500 wheels. The claris looks to be EXACTLY a reissue of 'old' 8sd sora and, as such, is rather better designed and altogether slicker and more adapatable than the chunky 2300 d/r it replaced. Also solved a problem.

I think that Claris is probably a slight all round improvement if you want to keep your 8spd set up....and looks on first acquaintance to be a marginal step up from 2300. I would be interested to hear anyones experiences with the the 'proper' dual lever shifters and uprated chainset/bb too? Claris does not yet appear to be mainstream on many new entry-level machines yet, so opinions are hard to come by.

w


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