ONy got 7 months out of a pair of Ultegra STi levers. Pretty pathetic.

Yes, it is.... Good thing they come with a 2 year warranty.

How many miles of use? Were these the 'new and improved' 10 speed models, or older 9 speed?

The 9 speed stuff.

Unfortunately, not all that unusual for a lot of folks who log high mileage or put hard, racing-level demands on the shifting mech. Again, most dealers who are authorized Shimano OEM users or retailers will replace the things upon request without a lot of questions... it's that common.

Guess I shouldn't feel so bad about getting ~10months out of $150 (nashbar) 105 9speed brifters. (Gotta fill out my warrantee paperwork...)

Hm, and I got a bit over a year out of my right Sora 7 speed brifter. And, at 445g per pair, they're 45g lighter than Ultegra, according to Shimano's Web site.

Somebody needs to pick up Shimano, shake it around, and put it back rightside-up. :p

-Greg

I have no general complaint about SHimano STi's (well I guess except they're not repairable). I've had them last on racing bikes for a long, long time with hard use. I think a good portion of it is well summed up by TGeek: Lots of hard miles. I do a lot of shifting uphill, off the saddle... both of us off the saddle sometimes. Twang!!!!

I think a good portion of it is well summed up by TGeek: Lots of hard miles.

Interesting...

On my daily commute rides, I make about 50 complete stops on my normal route, round trip. Most are stop signs, some red lights. Yes, complete stops -- and I shift to the big cog, middle ring every time. Shift up through to somewhere in the middle of the cassette, then back to the big cog for the next stop.

So, at least 8 shift actuations on my right shifter between each stop, but sometimes more. 50 * 8 = 400 in a day. That's 2,000 M-F, or about 8,000 per month commuting. Plus as much as a couple of hundred road miles on the weekends on a good month.

Very roughly, 100,000 STI clicks in a year, give or take. (Way way more than 10,000, way way less than a million; this is just an order-of-magnitude estimate.)

I guess something has to give.

-Greg

My late '02 rear Ultegra brifter gave out in the first 1,000 miles. Good stuff... :rolleyes:

My 2001 Ultegra brifters are still shifting and braking fine after 21,000 miles. I did replace the little chrome covers during this year's overhaul. The one odd thing is that when the temperature drops below 45 degrees, the left brifter doesn't send accurate information to the flight deck computer. This results in an incorrect virtual cadence and incorrect visual display of current gear selection.

I am not starting an A vs. B argument. Anyone with similar problems on Campy. I see more complaints than I thought there should be. I suspect the sample size for Campy will be smaller and thus the number of problems. Well, I guess that is assuming that Campy has equal quality control and reliability. Please post problems only, not that yours is working great, always has and always will.

masi, I tried to keep the matter of S/C out of it. BUt, to be honest, I tried a Campy set-up when I bought this bike and I just can't switch over: too used to the Shimano operation. I will fry in Hell for it, but i actually have Dura-Ace on my Colnago C40HP for teh same reason.

Campy, at minimum, can be rebuilt. At least that is what all my Campy friends say...

Campy, while not always problem free, are rebuildable. Of course it's a double edged sword. With Campy, it's never a matter of IF you'll need to rebuild your right hand lever (rebuild = replace the springs and shift disc), it's always WHEN. For me, it's routinely been right around 10k - 12k miles on the original lever, and closer to 8k - 10k on the rebuilt ones.

For me, new or freshly rebuilt Campy Ergo shifters start out with stiff, crisp shifts which becomes silky smooth around 1k miles and stays that way for a pretty long time. As they continue to wear the shifts become less precise and you find yourself "nudging" the levers a bit to trim the rear derailleur and quiet the chain noise. As they continue to wear you eventually find that the shifter won't hold the derailleur in the #1 (tallest cog) detent which is the clear indication that you need to rebuild. Parts are readily available from Branford Bike and other authorized Campy dealers. User-serviceable implies that the user have pretty good mechanical repair skills and patience for working with small springs and things. If your sweat is toxic, you may find the shifting mechanism hard to disassemble due to corrosion.

TandemGeek's experience is pretty much the same as mine. I had ergo levers on a Santana Noventa that I rebuilt once in 30,000 miles. I don't remember the mileage when I rebuilt them but they were in good shape when I sold the bike.

The only other ergo lever that I saw fail was an original '99 Campy Daytona that locked up. The bike shop cleared it without rebuilding it. I don't know the exact problem and only knew of it because it was on a bike that I sold and the owner related the story to me. That lever easily had 10,000 miles on it when I sold it and the next owner probably had at least another 5,000 miles on it before the jam.

Dennis

had two problems on shimano shiffters
9 speed shifter, broke replaced on warranty
10 speed shifter broke replaced on warranty
lot of miles and alot of shifts.
My brother uses Campy and puts more money into the campy products than I have ever with shimano.

Nice anecdotes all. A few problems on the STI, good warranty and customer support, smoother operation than Campy. A few problems on the Campy, good replacement parts, longer average life with rebuild than Shimano. The world is where it should be :). I don't quite know where the cost of ownership numbers would fall, but its relevancy is probably lower given that experienced riders have preferences that the cost difference won't cause them to change.

ElRey, I hear you on trying other products. I have done the same but am opposite in terms of preference. I find the adherent arguments boorish. Its funny how marketing can make people think that something that works is wrong in terms of your Colnago/Shimano setup.

I have both and can't fault either. But, I don't know how many miles I have on the 105 STI unit so it might just crap out any day. With the Campy ERGO, the most time-consuming part of the rebuild is actually getting the lever off the handlebar...at least in my experience.

Well... I was able to get them working pretty well agai: a friend who's been a shop mechanic suggested that Ultegra levers need to be cleaned/lubed with a generaous application of WD40 or such into all the pivot points and access holes. Worked pretty well, so am going to see what I see for another month or so. No reason to hurry since the warranty has a ways to go. Mel at Tandems East was ready to serve, as always.

Well... I was able to get them working pretty well agai: a friend who's been a shop mechanic suggested that Ultegra levers need to be cleaned/lubed with a generaous application of WD40 or such into all the pivot points and access holes. Worked pretty well, so am going to see what I see for another month or so. No reason to hurry since the warranty has a ways to go. Mel at Tandems East was ready to serve, as always.


Is this something we should be doing to DA shifters as well?

it sure couldn't hurt. I'm going to...

In many cases, shifting performance falls off when the lube applied to the STI levers by Shimano gets contaminated (heavy sweaters, all-weather riders, dusty conditions) or, on older STI levers, gets hard and cruddy. So, yes, regular preventative maintenance is a good idea.

However, if you use WD-40 or any other solvent remember that what you're doing is flushing out the light coating of lubrication that was in there from the factory. Therefore, regular re-application of the WD-40 or the use of something like Tri-Flow the day after you've flushed with WD-40 would be advisable so as to keep the shifter's internals lubricated.

Others who use or regularly work on STI may have a better lube recommendation given what's come along in more recent years. I used Tri-Flow on my own STI levers back in the 90's before switching to Ergo levers so that's still what comes to mind. For the Campy levers, I just hit them with a light coat of Syn grease when I pull them apart for periodic maintenance... usually when I replace worn-out handlebar tape. I began to do the intermediate clean & lube after finding the bolt that needs to come out to service the internals corroded in place on my single "mud bike".

I actually use TriFlow as well... the WD40 reference was actually meant in the generic "spray lube" sense. However, there are times I use WD40 to remove moisture. But as you say, then back to something with some staying power. Thanks for the thoughts....

Ah, the price/wonders/complexity of technology!
Back to barcons for us folks: Lo-tech/simple.

I used an overnight soak in Marvel's Mystery Oil to free up a crudded 8 year old STI shifter. It's worked like new ever since.

for what its worth, i've run rsx sti's for over ten years (approx 50k) all weathers no problems at all
run ultegra sti's for five years (20k) no probs either.Although my lbs says if the shimano shifters fail its useally the high end levers that do,i have no experience of campag whatsoever.I've found shimano very good,though wish they would give me some more choice in cassette ratios, i mean who needs an 11 tooth sprocket.

hi Zonatandem(we've met on uk tc site,how are you?)
i'm with you also re simple,running Kelly take offs on both our tandems i like them, occasional nudge needed but otherwise quite pleased. we're buying a Santana Arriva with sti's really looking forward the whole Santana trip.

Soon we'll have another choice, SRAM. I hope SRAM gets it right out of the box. The various SRAM products I've used have been pretty damn good at a fair price. Competition is a good thing...

It's funny I have all the shifters you guys are discussing and I have never had either fail me. Don't like Shimano shifting, but it works. Three sets of campy ergo (Record, Chorus, and Athena) never a problem - and two sets of Durace barend shifters (One 8 speed and the other 9 speed). It maybe none of my bikes have over 15,000 miles accept my 69 Paramount which is pushing 30,000 miles. My only maintence is new cables once a year.

Well, I'm in the process of changing out my '03 Ultegra shifters as we speak (write) in favor of DuraAce bar end shifters. Besides my rear lever slipping (pawl not engaging) about 25% of the time, my front lever has decided to lock up during shifting a good 50% of the time at least. That was the last straw. I've been a fan of bar ends for years, so it's not that big of deal to go back to them. If nothing else, front der. chain rub will be gone.

For statistical purposes, this set has 3,126 miles on them.