Bicycle Mechanics - shimano 2300

i have shimano 2300's on my road bike and the right lever/shifter alway rattles when i go on anything but the smoothest of roads. i'm reluctant to open it up and tinker with it without knowing what the problem is first. anyone got any experience with these? i now my way round bikes fairly well but i'm new to road bikes so thought i would ask before i open the thing, try and put it back together and end up with a few 'extra' parts that won't fit back together. the sound isn't unbearable, ican live with it but i'd rather it wasn't there.

the guy at the bike shop is rather useless, even the shimano trained guy, so i'd rather not let them touch it if possible.

thanks for any help.

Sounds like you don't have enough spring in your caliper to pull the lever fully relaxed.

Start by lubing your brake cable. Then try playing with the balance screw on your dual pivot calipers and see if you can't increase the spring tension of the caliper itself.

+1 on what Dan said. Also the shifters come with rubber spacers for reach adjustment (Shimano's "poor" solution, IMO) that work as vibration dampers as well to reduce the rattling.

thanks for the advice but that doesn't seem to be the problem. but having read back what i posted i can see why you would think that. i meant that the sound seems to be coming from within the mechanics inside the hood, the actual lever itself is fine. i should have made that more clear in the original post, sorry.

You have to play with the various aspects of the STI lever to see what controls the rattle. If the brake cable/caliper tension was the problem (which is very common) then while riding over rough roads if you tugged on an open stretch of the brake cable (hopefully you haven't bought into internal cable routing) then the added cable tension would hold the lever blade tightly against the lever body. Some of the same effect can be had by lightly placing a finger against the brake lever, damping it's slop. If the shift cable is loose then you'd have other complates with shift indexing. so we can assume that's not the problem. But there are many pieces to the shift mechanism that could rattle. So while you ride (or while you tap the STI with the bike on the stand) you need to selectively touch/push on various parts that you ca to see if there's a change to the rattles.

From your lack of comments of shifting or braking problems I assume that the functions are not yet problemitic. Could there be a different cause of the sounds? Like something in the bars or front end of the bike? these kinds of problems are very hard to figure out without looking at/listening to the bike. Can you have a shop help you? Andy.

Just wondered if you ever found a solution to your problem? I also have a pair of shimano 2300's and experience a very irritating vibration noise when on anything but perfect tarmac. I have tried removing the plastic name plates and riding a few km. Still noisy. My initial thought was it could be the brake wires that are slightly loose in the shifter but I was pulling hard on the rear brake today and still the noise was there. Its mainly in the left shifter. But sometimes in the right. I did notice today that if I slightly push the drop inwards as if going to shift the noise stops. This makes me think its the shift cable rattling. But if this was loose the shift wouldn't be smooth and it is. Anyway if anyone has any other ideas please let me know as its driving me mad!!

sorry, still no soloution. i'm just putting up with it...