Shifter Question (105)

g0g

Ok so I'm fairly clueless on bike maintenance/repair beyond the simple enough stuff. Hopefully if I describe this someone can tell me if it's banjaxed or a common problem. Bike is Canyon Roadlite 6.0 2012 with full 105 groupset.

A few cycles ago I got into a weird position where the front gearing wouldn't go down from big ring to small ring. My useless powers of deduction concluded that the bike was manky and some bits were clogged/seized up. I managed to manually get into the small ring for the hill in question, and the rest of the journey was flat/downhill so I was grand.

Since then I had it serviced locally and everything seems grand now except that the left shifter (front gears) doesn't spring back into place after being pushed. You need to manually flick it back now which is pretty annoying. TBF to the local bike shop the guy kept it a couple of extra days and said he did everything he could to clean the thing up and get it working, but it still doesn't properly "reset" after being pushed. Is this known/common problem? Is it possible there's some internal spring in there that's prone to failing over time?

He said it's mad money to replace shifter as you have to buy them in pairs. I see on Wiggle's sale now it'd be around € 150 for a pair, but I'm convinced there must be some way to repair it! Any advice appreciated!

Swinefluproof

Having the same problem with mine but on the RHS shifter and I'm putting it down to dampness and (unfortunately) lack of use over the winter. Crazy money for the replacements alright but think I'll suffer along with manually resetting to see if the copious amount of oil I'm pouring into it will make a difference

NeedMoreGears

I wonder do the cables need replacing. Possibly inners and outers.

Ask the lbs guy before you replace the shifters

cython

NeedMoreGears wrote: »

I wonder do the cables need replacing. Possibly inners and outers.

Ask the lbs guy before you replace the shifters

Worth asking, but I doubt it, seeing as the shift levers are designed to vary the cable tension through a set of discrete levels, i.e. derailleur positions, as opposed to brake levers modulating tension, and relying on cable tension to return. Once the gear cable has moved to it's new tension/position as part of the shift, the (gear) lever return should be independent of the cable, since a ratchet or similar will be taking the tension at that point,and the lever isn't under tension from the cable any more (otherwise the derailleur would just drop straight back). If you ever have the chance to fiddle with a shifter that has no cable/is not installed on a bike you can test this.

ted1

Look up the shamino website and you'll find the maintenance manual which shows how to rebuild the shifter.

Cee-Jay-Cee

Shifters are available to buy separately on various sites

Brian?

Take the cable off the derailleur, does the derailleur move freely?

g0g

Thanks all. Will Google taking the cable off to test and see how complicated that looks. The LBS guy mentioned taking the cables out and servicing them (whatever that involves), and he seemed convinced that it's the shifter. Will have a look at the Shimano website too.

NeedMoreGears

'think Cython is right - now that I recall, I had a problem with brakes (not gear changing), that was resolved by changing both cables.

MugMugs

You'd imagine the service would have included changing the cables whilst he had them out.

It's a two minute job at most.