Had a thread here a while back when I was having a real problem with Apex shifter / FD combo on my wife's bike.

Turned out it was MY problem - anchored the cable wrong. But int he process of figuring it out I did swap the FD for a Shimano FD (ultegra).

So the bike shifts pretty well now both front and back. Only issue is if you're going uphill and don't get into the small ring early enough and shift with some pressure at low cadence. Sometimes it just won't go into the small ring on the first shift, and it takes a second or third shift. If you're familiar with Apex shifters you know the loud click-click when shifting into the small ring. Well, you hear that noise, but the derailer doesn't move. So you just hit the shifter again, and usually the second try does it but occasionally it takes three or four attempts. Each time you get the click-click but no derailer movement.

Is there something wrong with the shifter? Is something just not engaging? Or is there an adjustment I'm not aware of that I can make on this thing?

Thank you.