Shimano 105 STI lever problem

[Dan Daniel]

I'm trying to decide if a friend's right (rear derailleur) STI lever
is shot. It will upshift fine- pushing the outer lever toward the
center. Downshifting- clicking the inner lever- is only possible when
holding the outer lever still and pushing at a slightly different
angle. This makes it a two-handed operation, obviously not acceptable.

The bike had taken a fall- slow speed slip on wet railroad tracks- and
come down on the right side. I don't see any obvious signs of impact
or scraping on the levers. He says that it wouldn't shift afterwards
and he walked it home. I put this down the rear derailleur and chain
being grossly offset- 2 or 3 cog difference between derailleur
position and chain position, and I don't remember which way.

I've tried flushing the unit with solvent but that hasn't made a
difference. Comparing the left and right lever motions, it feels as if
the right inner lever is moving at a different angle than the left
inner lever, and this motion is more forward and hanging up on the
outer lever body.

Flush it all again? Try bending the inner lever? Time to get a
replacement? Any experiences appreciated as I have almost no
experience with brifters, and times like this remind me why.

 

[Mike Jacoubowsky]

> I'm trying to decide if a friend's right (rear derailleur) STI lever
> is shot. It will upshift fine- pushing the outer lever toward the
> center. Downshifting- clicking the inner lever- is only possible when
> holding the outer lever still and pushing at a slightly different
> angle. This makes it a two-handed operation, obviously not acceptable.
>
> The bike had taken a fall- slow speed slip on wet railroad tracks- and
> come down on the right side. I don't see any obvious signs of impact
> or scraping on the levers. He says that it wouldn't shift afterwards
> and he walked it home. I put this down the rear derailleur and chain
> being grossly offset- 2 or 3 cog difference between derailleur
> position and chain position, and I don't remember which way.
>
> I've tried flushing the unit with solvent but that hasn't made a
> difference. Comparing the left and right lever motions, it feels as if
> the right inner lever is moving at a different angle than the left
> inner lever, and this motion is more forward and hanging up on the
> outer lever body.
>
> Flush it all again? Try bending the inner lever? Time to get a
> replacement? Any experiences appreciated as I have almost no
> experience with brifters, and times like this remind me why.

Unfortunately, there may be nothing you can do about it. It's been my
experience that, if the bike crashes in such a way that the brake lever is
pushed hard against the handlebar, the lever is shaped just right so that it
follows the bend of the bar and forces it to the outside, bending the
internals in a way that I haven't found a way to fix. It's not even visibly
bent, but when I find a lever with the problem you describe, there's nearly
always evidence on the handlebar tape that the lever had been forced into
it.

--Mike-- Chain Reaction Bicycles
www.ChainReactionBicycles.com

 

[B Paton]

"Dan Daniel" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> Flush it all again? Try bending the inner lever? Time to get a
> replacement?

I think you have got the right procedure. Follow it in the order you
mention, but be patient with each step.

I will only add that I had a similar situation last year on a bike that went
through a similar experience, and I was 99% sure it was time to get a
replacement. Still, I flushed it yet again (probably the 4th time). Lo and
behold, it worked perfectly and, as far as I know, it has worked since.
Good luck.
Blake

 

[Francesco Devittori]

Just in case you haven't already done it, check the cable. I once had a
similar problem with an STI lever and discovering the damaged cable
avoided buying a new lever...

Francesco

Dan Daniel wrote:
> I'm trying to decide if a friend's right (rear derailleur) STI lever
> is shot. It will upshift fine- pushing the outer lever toward the
> center. Downshifting- clicking the inner lever- is only possible when
> holding the outer lever still and pushing at a slightly different
> angle. This makes it a two-handed operation, obviously not acceptable.
>
> The bike had taken a fall- slow speed slip on wet railroad tracks- and
> come down on the right side. I don't see any obvious signs of impact
> or scraping on the levers. He says that it wouldn't shift afterwards
> and he walked it home. I put this down the rear derailleur and chain
> being grossly offset- 2 or 3 cog difference between derailleur
> position and chain position, and I don't remember which way.
>
> I've tried flushing the unit with solvent but that hasn't made a
> difference. Comparing the left and right lever motions, it feels as if
> the right inner lever is moving at a different angle than the left
> inner lever, and this motion is more forward and hanging up on the
> outer lever body.
>
> Flush it all again? Try bending the inner lever? Time to get a
> replacement? Any experiences appreciated as I have almost no
> experience with brifters, and times like this remind me why.

 

[Qui Si Parla Campagnolo]

Dan Daniel wrote:
> I'm trying to decide if a friend's right (rear derailleur) STI lever
> is shot. It will upshift fine- pushing the outer lever toward the
> center. Downshifting- clicking the inner lever- is only possible when
> holding the outer lever still and pushing at a slightly different
> angle. This makes it a two-handed operation, obviously not acceptable.

Common problem on STI-9s
>
> The bike had taken a fall- slow speed slip on wet railroad tracks- and
> come down on the right side. I don't see any obvious signs of impact
> or scraping on the levers. He says that it wouldn't shift afterwards
> and he walked it home. I put this down the rear derailleur and chain
> being grossly offset- 2 or 3 cog difference between derailleur
> position and chain position, and I don't remember which way.
>
> I've tried flushing the unit with solvent but that hasn't made a
> difference. Comparing the left and right lever motions, it feels as if
> the right inner lever is moving at a different angle than the left
> inner lever, and this motion is more forward and hanging up on the
> outer lever body.
>
> Flush it all again? Try bending the inner lever? Time to get a
> replacement? Any experiences appreciated as I have almost no
> experience with brifters, and times like this remind me why.

Flush it, ensure the housing, inner wire and BB guikde are clear. If all
is OK, then the lever is done. Replacing is the only fix. Campagnolo
levers and rear der will eliminate any future 'busted, gotta throw
away', problems.

 

[richard]

I had this same experience with the frayed inner cable. It could be
just coincidental that the problem became evident right after a crash.
(The crash might also have broken a wire or two.)

If a new cable + flushes of solvent don't fix it, well, since it's
broken anyway... See if the inner lever is contacting the outer at any
point in its movement. See if you can either bend or file things so the
levers no longer contact. Like I said, since it's already broken...

Francesco Devittori wrote:
> Just in case you haven't already done it, check the cable. I once had a
> similar problem with an STI lever and discovering the damaged cable
> avoided buying a new lever...
>
> Francesco
>
> Dan Daniel wrote:
>
>> I'm trying to decide if a friend's right (rear derailleur) STI lever
>> is shot. It will upshift fine- pushing the outer lever toward the
>> center. Downshifting- clicking the inner lever- is only possible when
>> holding the outer lever still and pushing at a slightly different
>> angle. This makes it a two-handed operation, obviously not acceptable.
>>
>> The bike had taken a fall- slow speed slip on wet railroad tracks- and
>> come down on the right side. I don't see any obvious signs of impact
>> or scraping on the levers. He says that it wouldn't shift afterwards
>> and he walked it home. I put this down the rear derailleur and chain
>> being grossly offset- 2 or 3 cog difference between derailleur
>> position and chain position, and I don't remember which way.
>>
>> I've tried flushing the unit with solvent but that hasn't made a
>> difference. Comparing the left and right lever motions, it feels as if
>> the right inner lever is moving at a different angle than the left
>> inner lever, and this motion is more forward and hanging up on the
>> outer lever body.
>>
>> Flush it all again? Try bending the inner lever? Time to get a
>> replacement? Any experiences appreciated as I have almost no
>> experience with brifters, and times like this remind me why.

 

[Bill Cotton]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Qui Si Parla Campagnolo" <[email protected]>

> Dan Daniel wrote:
>> I'm trying to decide if a friend's right (rear derailleur) STI lever
>> is shot. It will upshift fine- pushing the outer lever toward the
>> center. Downshifting- clicking the inner lever- is only possible when
>> holding the outer lever still and pushing at a slightly different
>> angle. This makes it a two-handed operation, obviously not acceptable.
> Replacing is the only fix. Campagnolo levers and rear der will eliminate
> any future 'busted, gotta throw away', problems.
See my page: http://www.billcotton.com/sti_shifter_repair.htm
www.billcotton.com.

 

[Dan Daniel]

On Sat, 12 Mar 2005 13:18:58 -0500, "Bill Cotton"
<[email protected]> wrote:

>
>----- Original Message -----
>From: "Qui Si Parla Campagnolo" <[email protected]>
>
>> Dan Daniel wrote:
>>> I'm trying to decide if a friend's right (rear derailleur) STI lever
>>> is shot. It will upshift fine- pushing the outer lever toward the
>>> center. Downshifting- clicking the inner lever- is only possible when
>>> holding the outer lever still and pushing at a slightly different
>>> angle. This makes it a two-handed operation, obviously not acceptable.
>> Replacing is the only fix. Campagnolo levers and rear der will eliminate
>> any future 'busted, gotta throw away', problems.
>See my page: http://www.billcotton.com/sti_shifter_repair.htm
>www.billcotton.com.
>

Thanks. Looks as if your rubber band thing is the exact kludge for my
problem. The inner lever will still shift if I hold the outer lever in
place. But without the outer lever held still, it moves right along
with the inner lever when trying to shift. Maybe the spring isn't
holding the outer lever well enough. Or maybe the mechanism is bent.

I pulled the cabling and the problem still exists, which I take to
mean that the housing or cable run isn't the problem. I'll try some
more flushing and then do some surgery along the lines of your site
and see what happens.

 

[Dan Daniel]

On Sat, 12 Mar 2005 07:17:13 -0700, Qui Si Parla Campagnolo
<[email protected]> wrote:

>Dan Daniel wrote:
>> I'm trying to decide if a friend's right (rear derailleur) STI lever
>> is shot. It will upshift fine- pushing the outer lever toward the
>> center. Downshifting- clicking the inner lever- is only possible when
>> holding the outer lever still and pushing at a slightly different
>> angle. This makes it a two-handed operation, obviously not acceptable.
>
>Common problem on STI-9s

Yeah, so I am learning. I'll stick with bar ends on my own bikes for
now.

>
>Flush it, ensure the housing, inner wire and BB guikde are clear. If all
>is OK, then the lever is done. Replacing is the only fix. Campagnolo
>levers and rear der will eliminate any future 'busted, gotta throw
>away', problems.

Quite a marketing feat by Shimano, getting this kind of mechanism
installed on so many bikes. Yeah, yeah, I know, thousands never have
this problem, 'mine has always been perfect,' blah blah blah. I don't
care- a $100 or more throw-away part on a bicycle is an insult to what
a bike should be. If I do ever go to brifters, Campy will get my
money.

 

[Dan Daniel]

On Fri, 11 Mar 2005 21:14:28 -0800, Dan Daniel
<[email protected]> wrote:

>
>Flush it all again? Try bending the inner lever? Time to get a
>replacement? Any experiences appreciated as I have almost no
>experience with brifters, and times like this remind me why.

Thanks to everyone for their responses. Looks like the lever is dead.
A couple of more flushes and not much more to do. Now I'll see if I
can talk the bike's owner into going to bar ends....

 

[Orin]

I had a 105 that did this. I took it apart and found one of the
internal parts was made of soft metal that had distorted - I filed it
flat, but there was still a dent and the lever still didn't work
properly.

It was cheaper at the time to buy a pair of Campy Daytona levers and do
the cable re-route trick than to replace the Shimano lever. I haven't
used Shimano STI since.

Orin.

 

[Szymon \Szymszy\ Seliga]

> I'm trying to decide if a friend's right (rear derailleur) STI lever
> is shot. It will upshift fine- pushing the outer lever toward the
> center. Downshifting- clicking the inner lever- is only possible when
> holding the outer lever still and pushing at a slightly different
> angle. This makes it a two-handed operation, obviously not acceptable.

There is a way of fixing the problem!!!! Maybe it isn't very elegant, but
helps you save a couple $'s.
Get rubber band. Take a thick one. Remove the derailler housing. first atach
one end of the end of the band to the place where there derrallers come out,
and the other thru the outr lever. If you don't get the idea try google this
group for a Ultegra STI similar problem. There's been a link to a foto. Or
maybe the link was on Sheldon's site

--
Simon
mailto: stsimon'hereTheUsaulCharacter'tlen.pl

 

[Qui Si Parla Campagnolo]

Bill Cotton wrote:
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Qui Si Parla Campagnolo" <[email protected]>
>
>>Dan Daniel wrote:
>>
>>>I'm trying to decide if a friend's right (rear derailleur) STI lever
>>>is shot. It will upshift fine- pushing the outer lever toward the
>>>center. Downshifting- clicking the inner lever- is only possible when
>>>holding the outer lever still and pushing at a slightly different
>>>angle. This makes it a two-handed operation, obviously not acceptable.
>>
>>Replacing is the only fix. Campagnolo levers and rear der will eliminate
>>any future 'busted, gotta throw away', problems.
>
> See my page: http://www.billcotton.com/sti_shifter_repair.htm
> www.billcotton.com.
>
>

Thanks but w/o any new small parts from shimano and the obvious
diffuculty of taking these things apart, I will keep STI in the 'Bic
lighter' catagory until shimano designs a lever that even they can repair.

 

[Qui Si Parla Campagnolo]

Dan Daniel wrote:
> On Sat, 12 Mar 2005 07:17:13 -0700, Qui Si Parla Campagnolo
> <[email protected]> wrote:
>
>
>>Dan Daniel wrote:
>>
>>>I'm trying to decide if a friend's right (rear derailleur) STI lever
>>>is shot. It will upshift fine- pushing the outer lever toward the
>>>center. Downshifting- clicking the inner lever- is only possible when
>>>holding the outer lever still and pushing at a slightly different
>>>angle. This makes it a two-handed operation, obviously not acceptable.
>>
>>Common problem on STI-9s
>
>
>
>
>
> Quite a marketing feat by Shimano, getting this kind of mechanism
> installed on so many bikes. Yeah, yeah, I know, thousands never have
> this problem, 'mine has always been perfect,' blah blah blah. I don't
> care- a $100 or more throw-away part on a bicycle is an insult to what
> a bike should be. If I do ever go to brifters, Campy will get my
> money.

We have warrantied probably 50 or 60 DA and ultegra 9s levers, and three
DA 10s ones. Many get complete bicycles from other shops with STI, it
fails early on and ther pther bike shop wants to send the whole bike
back(?). So we do the warranty thing for them.