- Joined
- Dec 18, 2019
- Messages
- 6,447
So it's an unusually nice day today, thought it would be nice to take a bicycle ride. Find all the crapola, shorts, gloves, brain bucket, and pump up the tires. Go out on the street and saddle up and then down the street. Hmm, no shifting, maybe I forgot how... Get a ways and gee, nothings making sense, if I shift the paddle, it doesn't shift, what's going on? Finally wangle the gear into something I can ride with and go back home. Find the cheapo bike stand and set it up. Yep, it's not doing the right thing. These are Shimano Ultegra "Flight Deck" shifters and Ultegra Derailleurs. The shifters are the kind where there are two of them which you push for up and down respectively. It is also integrated in with the brake lever.
After putzing around getting nowhere, I decide I've been temporarily defeated and bring it to the bike shop where I bought it.
I've had this Trek Pilot 5.2 Carbon Fiber frame bike for a while, and have really enjoyed it. It was hand made in the US. Bought it as it was last years model, for a discount, ages ago. It's surely not the best bike, nor have I kept up with all the fancy bike stuff, but it is a nice ride.
Anyways, the bike shop tells me the shifter is worn out, and Shimano doesn't sell parts for it, only the whole assembly. But I can't buy a new Ultegra, because they are now designed for cassettes with 11 or 12 gears, and I have 10 on my bike. But there's the Tegra which I could buy - but it's back ordered until December 2023. So no more riding for me this season.
But the Tegra will require a new matching rear derailleur. The bike tech said it could be that the shifter is full of congealed old grease and that's affecting it. Anyways, the bill for doing this (and bringing the bike back up to snuff) is pretty high, like $720, which gives me pause. Actually more like oh cr@p, but trying to keep it clean here.
I'm kind of miffed the shifter has worn out, as I don't have that many miles on it. Anyways, I'm searching for any suggestions, or ideas on what I can do. A new bike is probably not in the cards. So got any repair ideas? I'm not a bike guy, so use ordinary language when explaining stuff.
So I could look around for shifters. Maybe remove the current shifter and dunk it in an ultrasonic cleaner? Save my pennies and do X? What is X? Thanks in advance for any and all helpful suggestions.
After putzing around getting nowhere, I decide I've been temporarily defeated and bring it to the bike shop where I bought it.
I've had this Trek Pilot 5.2 Carbon Fiber frame bike for a while, and have really enjoyed it. It was hand made in the US. Bought it as it was last years model, for a discount, ages ago. It's surely not the best bike, nor have I kept up with all the fancy bike stuff, but it is a nice ride.
Anyways, the bike shop tells me the shifter is worn out, and Shimano doesn't sell parts for it, only the whole assembly. But I can't buy a new Ultegra, because they are now designed for cassettes with 11 or 12 gears, and I have 10 on my bike. But there's the Tegra which I could buy - but it's back ordered until December 2023. So no more riding for me this season.
But the Tegra will require a new matching rear derailleur. The bike tech said it could be that the shifter is full of congealed old grease and that's affecting it. Anyways, the bill for doing this (and bringing the bike back up to snuff) is pretty high, like $720, which gives me pause. Actually more like oh cr@p, but trying to keep it clean here.I'm kind of miffed the shifter has worn out, as I don't have that many miles on it. Anyways, I'm searching for any suggestions, or ideas on what I can do. A new bike is probably not in the cards. So got any repair ideas? I'm not a bike guy, so use ordinary language when explaining stuff.
So I could look around for shifters. Maybe remove the current shifter and dunk it in an ultrasonic cleaner? Save my pennies and do X? What is X? Thanks in advance for any and all helpful suggestions.
