{"id":456776,"date":"2026-03-04T08:59:13","date_gmt":"2026-03-04T08:59:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/456776\/"},"modified":"2026-03-04T08:59:13","modified_gmt":"2026-03-04T08:59:13","slug":"is-shimanos-surprise-tiagra-revamp-an-admission-that-its-cues-project-has-failed-cycling-news-bike-reviews","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/456776\/","title":{"rendered":"Is Shimano’s surprise Tiagra revamp an admission that its CUES project has failed? – Cycling News | Bike Reviews"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

It\u2019s official, and certainly caught us by surprise: Shimano has revamped its popular fourth tier Tiagra groupset<\/a>, making it 11-speed, and saying the 2026 Tiagra \u201cdelivers modernised road performance at an attainable price\u201d. In this spontaneous edition of the road.cc Podcast, Ryan is joined by Jack Sexty, Mat Brett and Stu Kerton to discuss Tiagra\u2019s rebirth, plus what it means for us as riders and Shimano itself.<\/p>\n

Listen to the road.cc Podcast on Apple Podcasts<\/a>
Listen to the road.cc Podcast on Spotify<\/a>
Listen to the road.cc Podcast on Amazon Music<\/a><\/p>\n

\"20262026 Shimano Tiagra RD R4000 rear derailleur (Image Credit: Shimano)<\/p>\n

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 \u2013 it\u2019s 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<\/a>, the company\u2019s range of 9-, 10- and 11-speed components that Shimano says is aimed at more recreational riders, commuting and trekking.<\/p>\n

In that presentation, Shimano said its \u2018mid-tier\u2019 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\u2026 but now we\u2019ve been told that\u2019s 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\u2019t happen following the launch of 105 Di2 in 2022.<\/p>\n

With Shimano\u2019s road performance groupsets remaining distinct from the CUES line-up at least four tiers deep after all, where does this leave CUES?<\/p>\n

\u201cI think they could bin CUES and it wouldn\u2019t really affect anyone\u201d, says our chief reviewer Stu Kerton.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou could keep all the road-level groupsets, we\u2019ve got various levels of GRX [Shimano\u2019s gravel-specific groupsets]\u2026 the entry-level GRX can be used on all road bikes and hybrids.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think CUES has added nothing to the mix, and just given too many options when they aren\u2019t really needed.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"20262026 Shimano Tiagra ST R4020 R dual control lever (Image Credit: Shimano)<\/p>\n

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\u2019s finest tech nerds\u2026<\/p>\n

The\u00a0road.cc\u00a0Podcast is available on\u00a0Apple Podcasts<\/a>,\u00a0Spotify<\/a>, and\u00a0Amazon Music<\/a>, and if you have an Alexa you can tell it to play the road.cc Podcast. It\u2019s also embedded above, so you can just press play.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s official, and certainly caught us by surprise: Shimano has revamped its popular fourth tier Tiagra groupset, making…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":456777,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[4985,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-456776","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-cycling","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/456776","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=456776"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/456776\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/456777"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=456776"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=456776"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=456776"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}