Should I be Concerned?
 

I bought a 2014 Specialized Allez Sport (my first road bike) that came with mostly a Sora groupset (FSA crankset and Tektron caliper brakes) six weeks ago. One thing lead to another and I just completed a swap over to complete 105 (5800, 11 spd/12-25) groupset over the course of the last three nights. Last night when I tested the right shifter for the first time, the shifter wouldn't shift back up after I successfully shifted down comletely (successfully shifted from the smallest to biggest cog). I was pissed/frustrated so I shifted down even though it was on the biggest cog already a couple of times and then it shifted up when I tried the small lever again. I literally did nothing else and I couldn't replicate the problem again.

Next I tested the left shifter and the chain went from the small chain ring to the big but wouldn't go back to small. I did the same thing and pressed the big lever a couple more times then it shifted when I used the small lever. I couldn't replicate that again either.

I checked the cable housings for something weird, the installation of the cable ends in the shifters, I checked the cable mounting bolts and found nothing. I turned the bars to both sides to see if that would do something and it didn't. I test rode the bike by riding up and down the street a few times shifting in every gear combination possible and couldn't get the shifters to fail again. I know that things just don't fix themselves so I'm concerned that the problem could happen again on any future ride. If it does happen again, I know that I'll get pissed and just throw the bike into the LA River (I ride on the bike path that parallels it). I should be able to get good distance because the bike is light.

Does anyone have any idea of what could've caused the problem? Any advice on what I could try to look at? Thanks.

Just keep riding.

Just make sure you have a mini tool with you in case you need to adjust it again during a ride. If I were you I would probably start from scratch though and make sure everything is adjusted correctly...both the front and rear derailleur. I'm sure it's nothing major...

LOL my bike is working great, and I can't understand it!

Seriously though, when you shifted into the big cog, and then 'shifted down even though it was on the biggest cog already a couple of times', you felt the shifter giving tactile feedback of shifting mechanism happening? Like 'click' and everything?

Are you sure you don't have your cable(s) way too tight and wanting to send stuff off the cassette (but limited by the limit screw)?

That doesn't really seem to make sense, but I can't make much sense of your reported behavior either, just spitballing.

All the cables and housing are well-seated in their ferrules and stops?

When you were trying/failing to shift up, did you get the typical shift/click sound/feeling but nothing happened at the derailleur? Or was the upshift lever frozen? Or did it move with no resistance?

Are the derailleur(s) pivot mechanisms lubed and freely-moving? If they are not, that would explain how the cable could pull them in the big direction, but the derailleur-spring not being able to force the derailleur back to small direction when cable is loosened, and maybe working it through the first time cracked them open?

Where near the LA river do you live, and when do you ride, so I can stand down there and wait for a free bike?

Meanwhile I agree with 10 Wheels, if it's working, keep riding, just gradually expand your range from home as your confidence grows.

Sounds like a cable/casing problem, like maybe the new endcaps are catching the cable, or maybe you wrapped the bar tape too tight. Or maybe you put a larger shifter cable into the old, smaller casing? You DID replace the cables, didn't you?

Yes, to double-check cables, I would detach from derailleurs, remove all housing, apply tension on the bare cable coming out of the shifter by pulling it with one hand, and working the shifter in both directions with the other hand. (And I would have done that before ever putting the cable through housing and tensioning up to derailleurs -- one step at a time!)

FYI, if your hoods are rolled up, as if cabling or wrapping bars, the return levers will not work. This is entirely repeatable, and I find it likely, if you were working on the bike.

Thank you. That's what I did after I read your post and the bike functioned just fine.

I do carry two inner tubes, three tire levers, 4 CO2 cartridges and a 12 in 1 tool because I believe in overkill. I almost gave up and was going to start over last night but the shifters worked after the second attempt and the very short test ride didn't show the symptom again.

LOL! When you put it that way, of course it sounds funny. I've just learned to not ignore symptoms from my watchmaking hobby; I've overlooked some esoteric symptoms and ended up having to completely take apart the movement to adjust something and reassemble. While a bicycle is much easier to diagnose because everything is so big and exposed, my lack of experience helps to make things much more difficult figure out.

It's academic now but you asked a good question: there was no resistance of any kind when I tried to use the small levers on both sides. If it was tight or stuck, I would've looked at the tension but with nothing happening at all--not even a click--I didn't know what the hell was going on. My first thought was that I bought broken levers (they were a take-off from eBay) followed-up with my thinking that I just messed up the lever somehow.

And sorry, no free bike today (lol).


Funny you should ask about the cables; I was planning to recycle them but replaced them since I had the new parts. I thought that with less than 200 miles of use on all of the parts, I would be okay reusing the cables. But alas, the fact that both the brake and shifting cables run under the tape instead one set out (Sora setup), I had to use the new cables.

Now that's interesting information! I think that hoods were up when I first tested them. I can't remember for sure because I don't remember pulling them down while I was turning the crank when I first tested them. None the less, this bit of knowledge makes me feel better.

Thank you to everyone for your suggestions and help. My ride earlier this evening was a success so I'll ride the bike in confidence.

Doing things one step at-a-time is such good advice. I did that with the brakes but for some reason, I just went ahead and did both shifters/derailleurs and didn't stop to check anything during the process...so stupid of me. You'd think that after having to do things more than twice on some watch movements because I didn't check things one step at-a-time, I would've translated that habit into working on the bike...but no, I didn't.

Another cyclist/watchmaker with an Allez. I had a shifting problem develop on my bike too. It turned out to be the wire of the shift outer housing poked through the cable end and fouled the shifting. A new cable end took care of it.

Enjoy your bike!

-SP