So, this might have happened... NBD - 2016 Fuji Touring workhorse

[Gunk]

I can say with absolute certainty that Sora STIs will not play well with other than a road FD. Spent many an hour trying, trust me. Get a Sora FD.

I couldn’t get Sora 2x9 Brifters to work with early an 105 front mech, I farted about for hours, in the end I slapped a used Sora on and it all worked perfectly in seconds. Not all Shimano 9 speed is cross compatible.

 

[wafter]

I can say with absolute certainty that Sora STIs will not play well with other than a road FD. Spent many an hour trying, trust me. Get a Sora FD.

I couldn’t get Sora 2x9 Brifters to work with early an 105 front mech, I farted about for hours, in the end I slapped a used Sora on and it all worked perfectly in seconds. Not all Shimano 9 speed is cross compatible.

That's odd as AFAIK 9sp stuff should all be compatable... what were the problems you were each having / do you know what the specific problem is?

 

[Ming the Merciless]

Compatibility details

https://productinfo.shimano.com/pdfs/product/archive/2023-2024_Compatibility_v030_en.pdf

 

[DCBassman]

That's odd as AFAIK 9sp stuff should all be compatable... what were the problems you were each having / do you know what the specific problem is?

With a triple, you could have only two out of three working cleanly, with the inner ring always a problem. This also applies the other way round - MTB front controls would not play with road shifters. My experience with this extends across 8 and 9 speeds, trying to make things work on the two Scott roadies I've mainly used. My current setup, using Sora 9-speed mechs and flat bars, uses Claris/Sora left hand lever and a similar but MTB-series for the right hand. The left hand is from an 8-speed set, the right hand for the 9-speed cassette.

 

[wafter]

With a triple, you could have only two out of three working cleanly, with the inner ring always a problem. This also applies the other way round - MTB front controls would not play with road shifters. My experience with this extends across 8 and 9 speeds, trying to make things work on the two Scott roadies I've mainly used. My current setup, using Sora 9-speed mechs and flat bars, uses Claris/Sora left hand lever and a similar but MTB-series for the right hand. The left hand is from an 8-speed set, the right hand for the 9-speed cassette.

Thanks - that's interesting and sounds like the shifters' "cable pull" and FD's movement ratios are different - if you ever feel like measuring these differences by all means chuck them in my thread on the subject - would be great to build a body of knowledge on this as there seems very little information about regarding such compatability

 

[Gunk]

do you know what the specific problem is?

The cable pull just wasn’t long enough to pull the mech over enough to allow the chain to go on to the largest ring, in the end I found out that they were just not compatible.

 

[wafter]

The cable pull just wasn’t long enough to pull the mech over enough to allow the chain to go on to the largest ring, in the end I found out that they were just not compatible.

Thanks - so it seems that the 9sp Sora shifters have a shorter cable pull / require an FD with a higher movement ratio than earlier offerings..?

If I find myself in an idle moment I'll maybe take a look at the Shimano compatability charts to see if these will shed any more light on the situation