2011 Shimano Tiagra and Acera – First look

8 comments
By Richard Tyler, in London, England | Tuesday, Mar 1, 2011 12.01am

Shimano's entry-level road and mountain bike groupsets have been given a significant facelift as improvements to their higher-end offerings trickle down to the Tiagra and Acera groups for 2011/2012.

Smoother shifting and more gears are the major changes promised for Shimano's "gateway" groupsets. Both groups will be given an additional sprocket on the rear; Tiagra will join its 10-speed siblings, while the new Acera will set a minimum nine-speed standard across the Shimano mountain bike range.

Tiagra gets tricked out for 2012

Shimano's tweaks to Tiagra appear to be part of a push to firmly establish that group among its peers. A plethora of options will be on offer for users, with Tiagra-branded double, compact and triple cranksets set to cater for racing, sportive and touring riders respectively.

Shimano tiagra flat-bar shifter:

Tourers and commuters will also have the option of Tiagra flat-bar shifters (a new non-series R780S shifter is also due for release for 105 and Ultegra flat-bar users). But those making use of STI shifters haven't been neglected.

Shimano have improved the ergonomics of the levers, which will now feature fully-adjustable reach settings to cater for smaller hands. A new pull ratio also makes the new brakes compatible with higher-level groups for the first time in several years.

Significantly, however, external cable routing remains a feature of the junior group. The extra gear on the rear will be accompanied by a new 10-speed chain, although Shimano recommend that triple users stick with the current nine-speed chain.

Shimano tiagra:

Acera gets more gears

Improvements to Shimano's entry-level off-road groupset are based largely on features available on its higher end siblings. Its triple crankset will feature replaceable chainrings and a new lower-profile rear derailleur. Though still beefier than the Shadow option offered on higher-end groups, this will help to reduce the risk of rock strikes – and resulting cost – for novice riders.

The increased gear range has necessitated a new shifting unit, which features a clearer gear indicator that will offer better readability regardless of lever angle. The greater range of gears should also result in a smoother shift. The brake levers remain integrated with the shifters, with wheel-end work still carried out by V-brake callipers.

This hardtail is decked out with shimano's new 2011/12 acera mountain bike groupset:

Acera is likely to remain the preserve of entry-level complete bikes, where it will provide a cheaper entry point for nine-speed shifting, rather than being sold aftermarket. It's available in black or silver.

Non-series components

Several entry-level, non-series components have had a busy year of development and production. Despite the push to get even beginner riders onto nine-speed setups, Shimano's aftermarket seven- and eight-speed cassettes have gone on a diet. The company have trimmed around 20g off the weight of the sprocket sets, while also increasing the range of available gear ratios.

Shimano's non-series cassettes have gone on a drastic diet:

Related articles

Related links

BikeRadar is not responsible for the content of external websites

You can follow BikeRadar on Twitter at twitter.com/bikeradar and on Facebook at facebook.com/BikeRadar.

You might also like...

User Comments

There are 8 comments on this post

Showing 1 - 8 of 8 comments

  • It's nice to see that Shimano will offer a bigger range of cassette combinations - it was interesting to see the images of the 12-28 and 12-30 cassettes. The 12-30 is very intriguing because Shimano's other road groups are not rated to handle larger than a 28 tooth cog - I'm assuming the existence of this cassette means that the Tiagra rear derailleur can officially handle it.

    Also, any info on why Shimano recommends a 9-speed chain to go with the triple crank? Are they still expecting you to use a 10-speed cassette? This seems a bit odd.

  • Yeah it is nice, especially since Campag have been offereing 10-speed entry level groupsets for some time. About the bigger casettes, it's my understanding that the size of cassette is limited mainly by the clearance provided by the rear derailleur. I ran a 32-tooth sprocket on a long-cage 105 a few years back. All it needed was a bit more chain and some adjustment of the screw that angles the derailleur. I've found that a big-range sprocket with a compact chainring can replace most of the gears you might need with a triple.

  • I'm aware that it's often possible to use cogs that are larger than the manufacturers state for a rear derailleur without a problem. My point is that Shimano used to state that the largest cog size that their road RDs could handle was 27 teeth, this was increased to 28 teeth for the new 7900, 6700, and 5700 models. Now it appears that it might be 30 teeth for 4600, which surprises me.

    It appears that Shimano might be trying to get closely to matching what SRAM is offering with their new Apex group, which includes a RD that can handle the groups' biggest cassette of 11-32. The new 12-30 Shimano cassette pictured has far better spacing between the cogs than SRAM's 11-32 (based on counting the teeth in the picture, I believe it has 12,13,14,15,17,19,21,24,27,30)

  • About time they did something about those awful thumb shifters on the Sora STI's a s well.

  • Hum... I've been waiting for the announcement of the nw XT for months now and all I get is Tiagra...

    :(

  • @Chris+W:

    Well the reason's behind Shimano quoting specific cog sizes are also beyond me. I definitely agree that SRAM's ultra-wide sprocket offerings are much more appealing and are likely to be behind the changes.

    I also still can't get my head around the numbers of teeth some of these sprockets. Apart from road racers, who ever uses the 12 or 11 tooth cog? I time-trial a lot and almost never use the 11 tooth cog. I don't understand why they get put on the mid- and lower-end groupsets as well. An extra cog somewhere in the 20s would be more useful for when your trying to find the right gear to grind up a hill with. Maybe I'm just moaning, but when you have 20 speed groupset and only 12-14 speeds are actually useable, I think that the sprocket range should be a more user-friendly.

  • There's a new 105 rear derailleur with 30T capacity and the new Tiagra derailleur features the same.

  • If you live somewhere flat like the fens an 11 tooth is very useful as you don't need any extra low gears for hill climbing and the 11 tooth sproket really comes into its own cycling along flat even ground but I agree the majority of people buying that groupset won't need it.

Post a Comment:

You need to login or register to post comments.