Originally Posted by
RCMoeur
Just had a rider in my group this morning complaining her brifters weren't working well again. She took them to a shop where they charged her for a flush, and as I unfortunately predicted they worked for a while, but then the old grease re-solidified. I offered to degunk them in the ultrasonic, but she doesn't want to unwrap the bars and pull the brifters.
I purchased an '08 tandem with 10-speed Ultegra in 2021 (Jan. 6 of all days.). The seller wasn't the owner (son of late step father) and didn't know anything about it. Both shifters were completely gummed up and non-functional. The bike was somewhat dirty and not in "show" condition for sale. Luckily for me, I had just overhauled, flushed & lubed some other Ultrega STI shifters, so I knew I could probably restore these to fully functional. As it turns out, the bike was in absolutely pristine condition, despite its appearance. Spoke tensions perfect; as if the couple riding it didn't put much miles on it and never slammed a pothole. The triple-color fade paint had about three tiny scratches on it; I put more on it in the six-week restoration!
Shifters work like butter now. The entire project revealed such an incredible "diamond in the rough" find for me.