On Wednesday, April 7, 2021 at 7:10:23 PM UTC-7, James wrote:
On 8/4/21 1:19 am, Frank Krygowski wrote:
On 4/7/2021 12:18 AM, James wrote:
On 7/4/21 2:09 pm, jbeattie wrote:
A few miles into my evening ride on my cable-shift Emonda -- with my
wife pushing me on her ebike, I shifted to go up the next hill and
snap -- immediate downshift into 34/11. Great. In the middle of a
9% grade, that turned at the top to another climb, but a short one.
I tacked a bit, got home and then jumped on the Di2 disc Synapse and
started over. Heavier with fenders, etc., but still a nice bike.
The discs, BTW, don't drag at all. Thank Buddha for that reliable
Di2.

The good thing about the latest Ultegra levers is that there is a
trap door under the lever body, and you can remove one screw, take
out the door and grab the broken cable and end. No more fishing it
out of the lever.

I hadn't heard about that. It sounds like a nice improvement.


This is the second time in 20 years on STI that
I've broken a cable. Before that I broke a friction bar-end cable in
the middle of a tour. I had a spare.


I'm still waiting to break a cable after more than 30 years of using
cable actuated gears and brakes.

Do you replace them regularly? Could that be why?

What is regularly? I usually wait until the outer plastic is cracked
and rust is showing, then wait until the next time I replace handlebar
tape and replace cables and tape at the same time. Probably every 2-3
years or more? The tape gets replaced more often because I usually end
up wearing a hole in it somewhere.
But I've also learned to notice the first strands of the shift cable
breaking at the bar end control. They stick out and poke my finger, a
nice early warning system.
Once I had gear change problems and it turned out to be a couple of
broken strands in the Campagnolo Ergo lever body. I didn't need to
unscrew a secret trapdoor to extract the cable. I think Campagnolo
levers are much easier to work on. You can disassemble, clean and
reassemble them fairly easily.

I'm told the most recent Campy levers are not rebuildable -- or they are rebuildable, but the parts are not available. One or the other. My son had a left STI lever go dead on a ride, and it was not fixable -- or I couldn't fix it. That's the only STI lever I've had go belly up in almost 30 years.. Every other issue I've resolved with a WD40 flush and lubrication. The new trap door feature gives you good access to the innards for cleaning and lubricating. It's not the same as being rebuildable, but it is an improvement.

-- Jay Beattie.