Shimano has added hydraulic 9-speed levers to its CUES series, designed to “be offered at a more affordable price point and to be adopted across a wider range of bikes”. That means you can now have a drop bar road, gravel, allroad or [insert new genre here] bike with 9-speed shifting and hydraulic disc brakes, with a single or double chainring setup. Prices start from £99.99 per lever.
Previously, your 9-speed Shimano options using either Shimano Sora or the CUES U3000 series were limited to mechanical disc brakes. CUES U3000 was only announced in January as part of Shimano’s drop bar CUES expansion, which gave riders the option to go 9-, 10- or 11-speed with drop bars. You’d have needed to go for the CUES U6000 series (10-speed and 11-speed) if you wanted hydraulic disc brakes, but the launch of the U4030 series means you can now take advantage of more powerful hydraulic braking with an affordable 9-speed groupset, with a single or double chainring set-up. Shimano says the new levers have a refined shape that shortens the reach distance, allowing riders “with a wider range of hand sizes to comfortably access the lever”.
The idea behind CUES is greater cross-compatibility, and all rear derailleurs, cassettes and chains in the series can be combined across flat bar and drop bar builds. As opposed to Shimano’s Hyperglide drivetrains, prioritising lighter weights and quicker shifts for road performance, CUES uses Linkglide technology, which is said to be more durable and tougher under load. In theory it means slightly less rapid but more dependable shifting, arguably more appropriate for entry-level road and gravel bikes.
Upgrading CUES at this level gives bike brands and retailers the option to offer 9-speed drop bar bikes with hydraulic disc brakes, which could mean cheaper and better performing entry-level bikes if the combination is widely adopted.
Pricing and availability
Products are currently showing as out of stock at Freewheel, Shimano’s biggest UK distributor, but we expect to see them available in the coming weeks. Here are your options and prices:
BL-U4030-L left-hand brake lever (brake lever only for 1x set-ups): £99.99
ST-U4030 STI lever, left hand: £119.99
ST-U4030 STI lever, right hand: £119.99
You can also buy each option with brake callipers: £159.99 for the left-hand brake lever, and £169.99 each for the left and right-hand brake/shift levers.
Have we finally reached the point where Shimano’s road-specific groupsets end?
When CUES was announced in 2023, the messaging seemed to indicate that this groupset family would remove everything under 105 level on the road side; however, Shimano left us pleasantly surprised by launching a revamped, 11-speed Tiagra groupset back in March of this year. Shimano still has 9-speed Sora and 8-speed Claris road groupsets listed on its website, but to the best of our knowledge, there are no plans for these to be upgraded any time soon.
> Is Shimano’s surprise Tiagra revamp an admission that its CUES project has failed?
Unless it was the plan to upgrade Tiagra all along and ours and Shimano’s wires were majorly crossed, we can only assume the brand has come to realise there is still an appetite for mechanical road performance groupsets beneath 105 level. A similar situation occurred when Shimano launched 105 Di2, when we all assumed that the groupset tier had gone fully electric… barely a year later, 12-speed Shimano 105 mechanical was unveiled.
Whether Shimano adds to its road-specific lineup underneath Tiagra level again or not, it can only be a good thing that bike brands, retailers and riders now have an option to build an affordable 9-speed drop bar bike with hydraulic disc brakes thanks to this latest expansion to the CUES range.
We’ve asked Shimano if we can expect to see a new version of its Sora or Claris groupsets in the future.
