Owlie, there's nothing wrong with mismatching fsa and sram. my litespeed has almost all ultegra components + fsa carbon fiber cranks + an sram cassette. I mostly have FSA cranks on all my bikes, because they have 165 mm cranks available on most of their line and because they make carbon fiber cranks. Shimano doesn't. I am lusting after the SRAM RED cranks, but I'll probably never spring for that upgrade.

SRAM and FSA have various levels of componentry, just like shimano does.

Why do you think you need to change the shifters? Just buy a different 8 speed cassette for it.

As for comfort vs performance upgrade - you're not going to ride your bike if it's not comfortable. Changing the avail into the bike you want it to be really doesn't make too much sense, unless you can do a lot of the work yourself and buy used parts. You can just buy a 105 level bike new or off craigslist for less than what it will probably cost you to get a bike shop to upgrade your bike.

As for your bike being a magnet for thieves for commuting - put a ratty old saddle onit. PUt duct tape on it. Do whatever it takes to make it look grungier if you need. I'm not sure 8 speed sora components are a huge priority for bike thieves, but I could be mistaken.


What do you currently have on your avail cassette?

I built up my surly using 8 speed XTR mountain bike shifters I had lying around, the 8 speed 11-32 cassette I had, and some road triple cranks. I definitely was having a hard time finding a gear I liked, because the spread of an 8 speed 11-32 cassette is fairly big. I recently bought it a 12-23 8 speed cassette and I have nice tight gearing - I just have to remember to shift my front chain ring much more than I usually do. I think the cassette was something like $20 through ebay, if that.