So i dont know much about bikes, but i ride hard and often....

I just bought a new road bike, with full shimano 105 components. When i was adjusting the front rail, i must have pushed the left shifter too far in and it popped. Now the shifter seems to not be connected to anything, it doesnt move the cable at all. I tried taking apart the housing... and quickly realized i had no idea what i was doing.

Any help would be greatly appreciated, after all... it is a new bike, it doesnt deserve this or anymore of my money haha

Maybe you broke the cable in the shifter? See any loose cable ends? Is there any tension at all on the cable down at the derailleur?

The 105 left shifters are capable of either 2 or 3 chainrings; they have three chainring positions built into them. Shimano now sends a warning label attached to some of these sorts of shifters. It basically says that if you only have two chainrings, don't force the lever into that third position or you may break it.

If that's what happened in your case, then , especially if you weren't briefed on this potential problem. Those shifters are quite expensive, so here's hoping you really did just break the head off the cable, but you'd probably have noticed by now if you had, because the cable housing wouldn't stay in the lever anymore.

If it is new, most LBSs (bike shops) will have some kind of "we make sure this thing works for a while" policy so take it in and see what they say. Like mechBgon, I hope that you did not break the shifter ($50+) and just popped the cable (<$3).

Good luck.

there is tension down the cable on the underside of the bike, the cable is also still connected to the shifter housing

it looks just like the right side... just when i go to shift, nothing happens. I can feel it clicking, like it knows where to go, but nothing happens.

It is also a triple chain ring and i was "forcing" it from second to third when this happened


--thanks for all your help

I recently broke the shifting components inside of a 105 shifter. it took suprisingly little force to do so... listen to the sounds it makes when shifting and compare them to the other shifter. The sounds mine makes are pretty obviouse that is snapped some plastic part on the inside. if this is the case for you then start checking ebay. there are lots of left side shifters availble because people switch from tripples to doubles.

I agree with z415, your dealer ought to be able to get Shimano to warranty it in this case, since it was being used for what it's made for.

There are plenty of left shifters around as usually the right shifter wears out long before the left one and people often buy them as a pair. Check ebay or craigslist if your shop won't warranty it.

The way you put it is so much more eloquent.

UPDATE:

well i took it to my LBS, he took the shifter apart, snapped his fingers, blew on it a little, and did a little dance...

well lets just say he got it working. so no broken components!
no 150$ left shifter to buy! woohoo now i can ride once again

// edit

i take that back. it was broken, but i cut a deal on an ultegra for 70$

could have been worse

i just broke mine last night. it took surprisingly little force to do it. urgh! i feel so bad for breaking the most expensive component on my bike so easily. now the left shifter moves without any sound at all. i dont hear any rattling pieces of plastic so my suspicion is something slipped inside but since these are not serviceable i'll just leave it be.

I'm stuck on the small chainring (fine with me, cadence drills!) until i get a replacement shifter.

Right now Im looking for replacements, preferably those that wont give me the same problem again. A couple of choices are:

1) sora double left shifter for ~$50
2) 105 current model ~$150
3) 105 old model <$100
4) ultegra double left shifter >$150

so this has happened to me TWICE now. the first time, it was on my first ride. and the second, on my 4th.

i thought the first left shifter was damaged, and the bike store that serviced it under warranty just game me a new one, and said... "weird, that's odd"

but now it seems that this is a crappy design flaw. i certainly wasn't "pushing" the thing any harder than usual. but from now i have so be so friggin careful that it's ridiculous.

class action lawsuit!! who's in with me????

ok, i'll call specialized first, i dont want to be dramatic.