On Friday, January 8, 2016 at 4:15:06 PM UTC-8, jbeattie wrote:
On Friday, January 8, 2016 at 1:24:39 PM UTC-8, Doug Landau wrote:
Sheldon said that Sora were the best aero levers ever made, but I can't find the post and don't remember why he thought that was the case.

Anybody have any?

dkl

I don't know if he thought they were the best -- but he did think they were a good value and did like their functionality:

https://groups.google.com/forum/#!searchin/rec.bicycles.tech/sheldon$20sora$20levers/rec.bicycles.tech/Ecl73QkkcsE/DqWNfMnTBjIJ

A shy person asked:
- show quoted text -
The major problem with Sora is the stigma of low price. Snobs and
elitists like to puff themselves up by sneering at equipment that is
less expensive than what they use.

The principal area they rag on is the fact that the thumb button for
rear upshifts/front downshifts is inaccessible from the drops. I've
never had an owner of a Sora bike complain about this...most folks don't
ride in the drops that much of the time anyway. Shifting from the drops
is no more inconvenient with Sora than it is with, say, bar-end
shifters, and it is a LOT easier than the down-tube shifters that were
the norm through the early '90s.

Personally, I prefer this arrangement to that used on the more expensive
Shimano models, because I find it less confusing. With Sora, the
upshift and downshift operations are done by different digits, moving in
different directions. Other road STIs use two parallel levers, moving
in the same direction.

A unique Sora advantage is that they have adjustable reach on the brake
levers, so they can be adjusted for comfortable use by people with small
hands. No other drop-bar brake levers have this feature (though all
decent MTN levers do.)

It shifts as well as anything, and has had no worse reliability than
anything else.

The Sora cranks are basically identical to Tiagra, but the chainrings
are steel. Steel chainrings are heavier, but they are also much more
long-lasting than aluminum, so this could be a plus for many
high-mileage riders.

There are basically two things I don't care for in the Sora group:

The rear derailer seems cheesy.

It is limited to 8-speeds. If they had a 9-speed version, I would have
bought it instead of the 105 I use on my Hetchins.

One caution, though. While all Shimano hubs are basically equal in
quality, less expensive bikes often get less careful setup/assembly in
shops. All new bikes come with the hubs adjusted too tight, and the
assembler is supposed to adjust them--but this is a step often skipped
on less expensive models, and if it is omitted, the hubs are liable to
wear out prematurely.

Sheldon "Anti-Snob" Brown

Those are brifters. I'm talking about aero levers.

dkl