bruce19

My gf has a 3 yr. old Fuji Team Sport w/ Ultegra components. Recently the chain has been jumping cogs on steep hills. When it happens it's from the 25T down a couple cogs. It does not happen anywhere but on the steep hills. The cassette and chain have less than 300 mi. on them and were working fine until last week. The LBS says they have checked out everything and are now convinced it's the shift lever itself. Does this sound right? Any other ideas before we end up buy new shifters?

cmburch

I have the same problem with mine. I thought it may be the angle and the FD.

Thanks for the info! I will look at it today.

Steev

A "three year old Fuji with Ultegra" will not have downtube shifters.
If the skip is only under load, then it is unlikely to be the shifter as it doesn't see the pedaling load. I know you said chain and cassette are 300 miles old, but it is the classic symptom of chain/cassette wear. One more area to check would be the cable guide under the BB being gummed up.
I'll let Sheldon Brown do the talking.
https://www.sheldonbrown.com/autoshift.html

joejack951

Replace your cables and housing. I might also consider finding a new LBS. It's certainly convenient for them to recommend replacing the most expensive component on your bike, especially since it's so highly unlikely that the shifters are the problem (something they'd know if they had a clue).

av8torjim

Mine was doing the same thing, only when I stood to pound up a steep hill, and the chain and cassette were in good shape. My LBS simply made a couple of RD adjustments and it has been fine for the next 1,000+ miles.

bruce19

When I first brought it in I was convinced it was a cable problem. OTOH, what do I know? That's why I'm taking it to the LBS. This shop has been very good to me for years. And, they worked on this problem two times without charging us. Now they've kept it for a week, tried various things and tested it. They feel like "there's nothing else" it could be. I'm generally perplexed and appreciate all the insights given here.

Steev

And that bike has no Ultegra components listed in the spec.

joejack951

I would insist that they replace the cable and housing before swapping shifters then. Use all new ferrules and check or replace the cable guide under the bottom bracket. Check the derailler hanger alignment as well. As a last resort, try a new rear derailler too. Then (maybe) try new shifters.

conspiratemus

Back to the OP's question....
Dunno, at first blush it didn't sound like a shift-lever problem to me. When my Ultegra brifter started to die, first the upshift lever (and later the downshift lever) would lock up and fail to unlatch the ratchet when I tried to make a shift. But once the shift was able to be executed, the chain stayed on the selected cog reliably, no problem even with hard pedalling while standing.

However, perhaps there is more than one Ultegra failure mode and it might be that the extra cable tension generated by frame flex during hard pedalling somehow causes a worn shifter ratchet to release a notch or two when you don't want it to.

So just to make sure I understand:
1) you are talking about an Ultegra integrated brake-lever/shifter-lever mounted on the handlebars on a road bike?
2) when you pedal hard on a hill, the chain doesn't just skip over the teeth of a single cog but actually shifts outward to land on a smaller cog? Do you feel or hear anything abnormal happening in the shifter when this occurs--funny noises, unbidden movement of the levers? When you relax your pedalling force does the chain want to shift back to the original cog, or does it stay in the smaller cog it jumped over to?
3) when you are shifting while pedalling lightly, does the shifter work smoothly and flawlessly or is there any balking, stickiness, hanging up, etc.? All these can be early signs of Ultegra Disease and will get steadily worse until the shifter just seizes up. Repair is impossible.

Three years can be a long time in the life of an Ultegra brifter, depending on how much rain and dirt finds their way into the mech., which opens to the elements each time you brake. The ones on our tandem lasted just over two years, and our cycling season is only 6-7 months.

Based on this reasoning, the shop could be right and replacing the shifter might well be the right fix. I hope they will agree to charge you for the parts and labour only if replacing the shifter does in fact fix the problem. (A charge for the effort at diagnosis is fair even if unsuccessful.)

Edit: Finally, make sure none of the frame joints have failed. Any movement of one tube relative to, say, the bottom bracket shell will do funny things to cable tension and allow "ghost" shifting.

Please let us know how it works out.