It’s official, and certainly caught us by surprise: Shimano has revamped its popular fourth tier Tiagra groupset, making it 11-speed, and saying the 2026 Tiagra “delivers modernised road performance at an attainable price”. In this spontaneous edition of the road.cc Podcast, Ryan is joined by Jack Sexty, Mat Brett and Stu Kerton to discuss Tiagra’s rebirth, plus what it means for us as riders and Shimano itself.
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The reason this news is so surprising to us is not just because we were left to surmise that the groupset would eventually be phased out – it’s because we were all but told this would be the case in a presentation distributed to the media shortly before the 2023 launch of Shimano CUES, the company’s range of 9-, 10- and 11-speed components that Shimano says is aimed at more recreational riders, commuting and trekking.
In that presentation, Shimano said its ‘mid-tier’ road and mountain bike groupsets (below 105 and SLX level) would be unified under the CUES brand, which surely meant Tiagra, Sora and Claris would be chopped… but now we’ve been told that’s actually not what was being said, and Shimano never explicitly said Tiagra would be phased out. Shimano also introduced a mechanical, 12-speed Shimano 105 groupset when it said that wouldn’t happen following the launch of 105 Di2 in 2022.
With Shimano’s road performance groupsets remaining distinct from the CUES line-up at least four tiers deep after all, where does this leave CUES?
“I think they could bin CUES and it wouldn’t really affect anyone”, says our chief reviewer Stu Kerton.
“You could keep all the road-level groupsets, we’ve got various levels of GRX [Shimano’s gravel-specific groupsets]… the entry-level GRX can be used on all road bikes and hybrids.
“I think CUES has added nothing to the mix, and just given too many options when they aren’t really needed.”
So, is a bike featuring the all new Tiagra groupset now on your wishlist? Will we be sat here next year reporting on Shimano Sora, meaning you might as well wait for that instead? For now, join the discussion in the comments, or press play on the episode to hear the thoughts of road.cc’s finest tech nerds…
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12 thoughts on “Is Shimano’s surprise Tiagra revamp an admission that its CUES project has failed?”
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CUES doesn’t seem attractive to anyone who even vaguely considers themselves interested in their performance, not least cos it’s a terrible name, so perhaps a Tiagra revamp is a tacit admission of that.
That still leaves a huge market of people who just want a bike that works, and the CUES promise of long-life components is very relevant in the era of ebikes, so probably going too far to say CUES has failed.
The CUES story seems a very odd one. It seems to have been years since it was announced yet bikes are still being sold mostly with the groupsets it was meant to replace (and it can’t all be overstock, surely?). I haven’t followed it closely but it also seemed quite confusing about what it actually was – one groupset but with 8, 9 and 10 speed options… surely that’s three groupsets, even if you put the same name on them? And for those who do believe it’s all the same, why then buy a £1200-£1500 bike if it has the same groupset (or at least the same groupset name) as one half the price.
As I say, I haven’t followed it closely so may have missed the point – but good marketing and communication is partly about ensuring that your core message gets through to people who aren’t paying much attention for much of the time (which is surely a lot of us, a lot of the time).
Flat bar 1x CUES is very popular, its a great price point. Guess the drop bar CUES is an option if you want durability rather than super fast Shimano HG or HG+ shifting.
This just looks like the existing Tiagra chainset, with a mish-mash of old 105 bits. Nicer than CUES, but that’s not much of an achievement.
I have Tiagra on my do-it-all bike, and it’s great. BUT Tiagra (especially) compatibility is a nightmare. Never mind 9/10 and now 11 speed incompatibilities, there were 2 variations of 10 speed groups with different pull ratios making compatibility a right PITA. Personally if I want to replace a derailleur, I’d prefer not to have to spend hours going through spec sheets with a fine tooth comb.
If I want to (ahem… aspire to) go fast, I have a road bike with Ultegra Di2, but for utility bikes, touring etc., the “just works” compatibility of CUES is welcome.
To be fair, the incompatible 10 speed groups are positively ancient. You would be looking at parts from groupsets released pre-2012 and you wouldn’t be able to find parts that old sold as new in shops. The two “current” 10 speed groups, tiagra 4700 and grx 400 were released in 2015 and 2019 respectively.
Yep, thats me. Ancient Tiagra, my bikeshop sourced an even older 10spd Ultegra deraileur from the parts bin they had. Works great though.
If you are looking for parts for the 10-speed bike you’ve had for years, it’s still a pain.
Mine’s rim braked, so even if “whole new groupset” might be the right answer, 11-speed Tiagra won’t be.
My 10-speed Ultegra 6800 series shifter broke the other year. There was no Shimano part that is mechanically (i.e., the original 10-speed pull, not the new 11-speed pull distance on 10-speed, like Tiagra 4700) and aesthetically (i.e., under bar-tape cable routing, to match the other shifter) compatible. I don’t know what pull-length Cues uses, but I guess it’s the new-10-speed/equal-to-11-speed pull (?).
Anyway, I went to aliexpress and found that LTwoo make a range of mechanical shifters that covers pretty much all the speeds and cable-pulls compability. So, thank you China. The LTwoo shifter action is basically SRAM double-tap, and they work fine.
I upgraded my well worn 2×8 R2000 Claris to on my flatbar roadie to CUES U6000 2×10. It’s now running 46/32 with a 11-39 cassette. Perfect for the Cornish hills that I ride and just works all the time!
I really don’t get the hate that the groupset seems to get.
£260 for the crankset, chain, bottom bracket, shifters and 2 cassettes (needed a spare for the smart trainer) was a steal as far as I’m concerned and it’s transformed the bike!
A 2×11 drop bar CUES by removing the spacer in the shifter and combined with 11-45 cassette is a killer option to anyone who doesn’t want to race if Shimano wanted to offer it. It could be the best groupset on endurance, all road, gravel and touring bikes.