front derailleur upgrade?

torydiver

Quick question folks,
Have a 2011 Boardman with Shimano 105 10 speed,not sure if it's 5600 or 5700 series,

Front derailleur shifting has always felt horrible,
Agricultural putting it mildly,

Slow pick up from small to large chainring, quiet a bit of force needed at the lever to shift small to large chainring, clunky shift from large to small ring,
Several knowledgeable folks have looked at it,
it's been adjusted every way possible to no avail
General opinion is it is set up as good as possible.
All components are working perfectly, shifters, cables, fd Etc,
It works ok but is horrible to use

Someone suggested an upgrade to an ultegra fd might improve things,
looked online and I can get an ultegra 6700 fd for under 30 euros delivered.
I would be willing to try this if I thought quality of front shifting would improve,
I intend to keep the bike for at least another year.

Can anyone with experience of ultegra and 105 offers any opinion,
would it be a worthwhile upgrade or a waste of money,

kingoffifa

can i ask - have you ever changed the cable?

even if you go new make sure to change the cable and cable housing with it. you will have been straining it all the more if it is hard to get it to shift.

or change cable/cable housing first and see where you are at.

the fd must have taken a knock somewhere along the line by the sounds of it.

have a boardman cx that came with a microshift fd. it never came right no matter what. bought an force fd off some lad on here and haven't needed to change since. the deraileur that is. i've changed gear quite a bit

torydiver

Cables, both inners and outers all changed, everything appears to be working fine,
everything been checked by several Lads that know their bikes, local lbs even gave it a good check...

kingoffifa

sure you may as go for it so - at 30 delivered its not so bad.

and you get bling for your bike!

smacl

I had a similar problem with a front DR, and the problem ended up being worn ramps on the big ring. Get the new front mech by all means*, but I'd also be tempted to have a look at the condition of the ramps on the big ring. If you've been experiencing grinding when shifting, this will have worn the ramps a bit further. Could be worth replacing the big ring at the same time as the front mech.

(*Typical 404 response to should I buy something, yes, but buy more while you're at it!)

torydiver

smacl wrote: »

I had a similar problem with a front DR, and the problem ended up being worn ramps on the big ring. Get the new front mech by all means*, but I'd also be tempted to have a look at the condition of the ramps on the big ring. If you've been experiencing grinding when shifting, this will have worn the ramps a bit further. Could be worth replacing the big ring at the same time as the front mech.
(*Typical 404 response to should I buy something, yes, but buy more while you're at it!)

Thanks,
Will give a good look over again when I get chance,

OldBean

I upgraded from 105 to Ultegra because it was cheaper than replacing with 105 at the time, due to sales on CRC, etc. I've literally never noticed anything different, to be honest.

If it feels wrong, then one of the components isn't working properly, as mentioned, check everything else before spending the 30 quid. But then again, it's 30 quid!

Cee-Jay-Cee

I have the same problem on my Felt F5. I got around it by changing the entire groupset to 6800. Job done 😜

I changed cables, adjusted, readjusted FD but nothing made any difference. I think the biggest problem is the cable routing as I have Tiagra on my winter bike and tthe effort to change up/down the FD on it would is roughly 30% of that with 105 5700. It was the only let down of 105.

If i wasn't in a position to upgrade the groupset I would have bought a Dura Ace 7900 FD as I don't think Ultegra 6700 would have been much better.

torydiver

Cee-Jay-Cee wrote: »

I have the same problem on my Felt F5. I got around it by changing the entire groupset to 6800. Job done 😜

I changed cables, adjusted, readjusted FD but nothing made any difference. I think the biggest problem is the cable routing as I have Tiagra on my winter bike and tthe effort to change up/down the FD on it would is roughly 30% of that with 105 5700. It was the only let down of 105.

If i wasn't in a position to upgrade the groupset I would have bought a Dura Ace 7900 FD as I don't think Ultegra 6700 would have been much better.

Thanks for reply,
Hadn't even considered cable routing,
Definitely not in a position to change full groupset,
Have no great attachment for this bike so a fd replacement is as far as I'd go

Zippe

torydiver wrote: »

Quick question folks,
Have a 2011 Boardman with Shimano 105 10 speed,not sure if it's 5600 or 5700 series,

Front derailleur shifting has always felt horrible,
Agricultural putting it mildly,

Slow pick up from small to large chainring, quiet a bit of force needed at the lever to shift small to large chainring, clunky shift from large to small ring,
Several knowledgeable folks have looked at it,
it's been adjusted every way possible to no avail
General opinion is it is set up as good as possible.
All components are working perfectly, shifters, cables, fd Etc,
It works ok but is horrible to use

Someone suggested an upgrade to an ultegra fd might improve things,
looked online and I can get an ultegra 6700 fd for under 30 euros delivered.
I would be willing to try this if I thought quality of front shifting would improve,
I intend to keep the bike for at least another year.

Can anyone with experience of ultegra and 105 offers any opinion,
would it be a worthwhile upgrade or a waste of money,

Hey,

On the 105 5700 frond derailleur this in a common problem, they start to get hard to change, the winter mils are not suited to it for some reason, I've changed 2 of them myself because of this, never had this prob with any other Shimano front derailleur, you could replace it with a tiagra 10speed also and replace the cable but I'd be 99% sure it's the front derailleur that the prob is with,

Cheers zip

ted1

Zippe wrote: »

Hey,

On the 105 5700 frond derailleur this in a common problem, they start to get hard to change, the winter mils are not suited to it for some reason, I've changed 2 of them myself because of this, never had this prob with any other Shimano front derailleur, you could replace it with a tiagra 10speed also and replace the cable but I'd be 99% sure it's the front derailleur that the prob is with,

Cheers zip

You could be on to something.
I've a 105 5702, after 5 months it won't shift down, it's like the spring is gone, the cable has slack but it doesn't move, if I push it in with my foot or hand it moves easily.

Brining it in to the shop today or tommorow as it should be covered u see warranty

jamesd

ted1 wrote: »

You could be on to something.
I've a 105 5702, after 5 months it won't shift down, it's like the spring is gone, the cable has slack but it doesn't move, if I push it in with my foot or hand it moves easily.

Brining it in to the shop today or tommorow as it should be covered u see warranty

Happened mine too with my 105 5700, got the front derailer changed to a 5800 front derailer and seems fine since.

joxerjohn

I have 105 5700 Shifters with a 6700 Ultegra FD and it works fine. There is a significant travel at the lever for shifting up to the big ring but I would say it's more a positive effort required rather than a struggle.

ted1

jamesd wrote: »

Happened mine too with my 105 5700, got the front derailer changed to a 5800 front derailer and seems fine since.

Does the 5800 work with 10 speed ? And tiagra shifters ?

jamesd

ted1 wrote: »

Does the 5800 work with 10 speed ? And tiagra shifters ?

Mine is 10 speed but with 105 5700 shifters.

Cee-Jay-Cee

jamesd wrote: »

Mine is 10 speed but with 105 5700 shifters.

I think what he means does 5800 FD work ok with the 5700 shifter? They have different pull ratios but because the pull ratio is shorter with the 5800 then I can't see why the longer lever of the 5700 shifter woukdnt work ok with it.

jamesd

Cee-Jay-Cee wrote: »

I think what he means does 5800 FD work ok with the 5700 shifter? They have different pull ratios but because the pull ratio is shorter with the 5800 then I can't see why the longer lever of the 5700 shifter woukdnt work ok with it.

Works perfect - no issues at all.