bob44

As I was heading out of my driveway on my ride yesterday, I thought my left foot was clicked in, unfortunately it was not. As I was swinging my right leg over the saddle the left foot came loose and I went down. Somewhat embarassing going all of 2mph.

Most everything was ok, including me, but the left shifter took most of the fall. Externally it looks fine, but on closer inspection under the hood the carcass of the shifter has a couple of cracks. Mechanically it still works fine and tightens securely to the bars, but I wanted to run the scenario by everyone here since I haven't had this happen before and I am not sure about safety issues, whether it can be repaired etc.

I would very much appreciate any feedback or similar experiences anyone has had. Most importantly, is it ok to still use it etc.

Thanks,
BPS

Here is a close-up of the crack:

Cracked Shifter..jpg

mrnotwo

even if it works fine i'd try to get a replacement part and fix it yourself or have your lbs/dealer do it. I believe it's item no 12
https://techdocs.shimano.com/media/te...9830683887.pdf

operator

I would also check your bars for damage real carefully. Especially if they are carbon.

bob44

Thanks I will take a look. I didn't realize you could replace parts in these.

bob44

Thanks. The bars are carbon. I unwrapped the left side (the side that hit the ground) and looked carefully last night. I didn't see any cracks or damage at all. The top of the shifter is what hit the ground, and it turned on the bar when it did which caused the shifter to crack.

Chris_W

The shifters are supposed to twist inwards a bit in the event of a fall, and so I'm surprised that dosing so resulted in a crack. You may want to check both levers to see how tightly they are clamped - if they are clamped too tightly then you prevent them from twisting when they need to, and something else then has to give instead. Don't expect the replacement part to be cheap or easy to replace! I'm not sure whether it needs replacing though, hopefully someone will come along with a good answer to that.

bob44

Thanks Chris, I realigned and retorqued the left and right side yesterday to 6nm, which is the spec. The shifter seems as solid as it ever was, hell it even seems to shift a bit better. :-)

I am going to watch closely and see how it goes, I may get a replacement, but they are expensive.

Chris_W

Taking another look at the photo and looking at a similar model that I have, I think that since the crack doesn't extend to the area around the clamp bolt then it should be safe. It's definitely something to keep an eye on though.