I picked up this bike which has shimano rsx brifters.. i'm not quite sure how they should work

it seems like when i rotate the whole lever assembly, the cable gets tight but then goes slack when i loosen it

the smaller black lever doesnt seem to do anything when i push it

i sprayed some silicon spray in there (dont have any wd40 on hand cause its evil) but didnt notice any change in action

damn fancy new fangled parts.. i dont like bike technology i can't take apart and service.

those things are old. spray some more solvent and pray some more, work the levers. if the cable is not frayed or broken then the shifter is probably dead. if they are not worn out then you have some hope. worn out ones are pretty beat up on the outside, missing covers, shifts one way but difficult to go the other

frantik, The big lever (brake lever) shifts to a bigger gear, the small lever shifts to a smaller gear. You should feel positive detents as you shift. If not the shifters are most likely in need of cleaning and re oiling.

Brad

thanks.. will try more lube i guess lol

not more lube... you need some sort of solvent (like wd40) that will dissolve the old grease that was put in at the factory. The old grease gets hard or gummy and that is the problem - it jams up the ratchet mechanism.

well the silicon spray has a solvent which is used to deliver it.. i sprayed in there till it was dripping out of the things... they seem like something changed but they still dont shift right

spray silicone is a whole heck of a lot more evil than wd40. WD40 isn't the right thing for anything, but it's rarely completely, utterly the wrong thing. Spray silicone is absolutely, utterly and completely the wrong thing to use on a shimano brifter.

lol.. well there's a whole lot of it inside of the brifters now.. and they're workng. why is it the "completely wrong" thing?

It goes gummy after a while, IIRC. Anything that becomes sticky is exactly wrong for a STI shifter. You'll need to keep on flushing, with something like WD40 this time.

If you study the pics in this post, you may be able to see why...

The shift barrel is held in place by tiny little pawls actuated by little hair springs, and as soon as their pivots get sticky, it's all over.

Ergos are the brifter for you. Simple enough to easily understand, overhaul, and be reliable. They wouldn't give a damn what you lubed them with.

the brifter for me is no brifter at all

many times, the spring under the face cap works itself out of place if bombing the shifter with solvent/replacing the cable doesn't work. You can take the faceplate off and there are a series of nuts, washers, and a spring. Note their relative order and try to put them back in order while seating the spring. It's not that hard. It just takes a steady hand. Might as well try it if all else doesn't work right?