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Sram shifter broke!

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Old 02-21-12 | 07:47 PM
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Sram shifter broke!

Today during a training ride my right shifter stopped shifting upward!! i clicked without any response!! and well, it came right off!!

Spoke to my mechanic, he told me to bring in the bike to check if warranty is still under effect, he thinks its 2 years.



this are apex shifters that came on my 2011 specialized roubiax have around 9k+ miles. well maintained, cleaned.

any of you guys have to deal with part replacements? my intuition says they will replace only hte broken shifter, so theres no upgrade option. id really like to buy sram red shifters, and upgrade once. opinions are welcome
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Old 02-21-12 | 07:53 PM
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I've had three SRAM Rival shifters break in the last three years. The last broke after the shifter was 6 months past the end of the two year warranty. They upgraded me to Red at no cost.

SRAM does well with their warranty. Shouldn't be a problem for you.
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Old 02-21-12 | 08:07 PM
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sram is awesome at warranty. lots of people get lucky and sram just decides to send them red shifters like the above poster.
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Old 02-22-12 | 04:44 AM
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ill keep you guys posted. But this gives me hope!

lets see how long it takes.
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Old 02-22-12 | 10:27 AM
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Originally Posted by echotraveler
ill keep you guys posted. But this gives me hope!

lets see how long it takes.
Same thing happened to me 6-7 months ago. Took it to my LBS and they shipped it off to SRAM for replacement. I can't remember exactly but I think I had a new shifter (Rival, but current model year) in a week or less.
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Old 02-22-12 | 10:36 AM
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I had this exact same thing happen. Warranty coverage was good, but I'd rather have a product that didn't fail. Shifters break at very inconvenient times, so I'm thinking I might leave them if it happens again.
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Old 02-22-12 | 10:56 AM
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Originally Posted by wkg
sram is awesome at warranty. lots of people get lucky and sram just decides to send them red shifters like the above poster.
Kind of makes me want to be rough with the Apex shifters I got on my new bike.
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Old 02-22-12 | 11:12 AM
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Originally Posted by tardman91
Kind of makes me want to be rough with the Apex shifters I got on my new bike.
You don't have to be rough! Just use it normally and it will break!

I had the same exact break on my Rival shifter! I wasn't using it hard or anything. Took it to my local bike shop and the SRAM rep sent me new 2012 Rival shifters! Which I sold right away and upgraded to Red. Hopefully the Red will hold out!
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Old 02-22-12 | 11:33 AM
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Originally Posted by banerjek
I had this exact same thing happen. Warranty coverage was good, but I'd rather have a product that didn't fail. Shifters break at very inconvenient times, so I'm thinking I might leave them if it happens again.
Yep, and here I was consider SRAM for a build on an incoming frameset. I might rethink it if shifter breakage is this common. I mean, Shimano shifters fail but I've never heard of parts snapping off!
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Old 02-22-12 | 12:01 PM
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Originally Posted by khatfull
Yep, and here I was consider SRAM for a build on an incoming frameset. I might rethink it if shifter breakage is this common. I mean, Shimano shifters fail but I've never heard of parts snapping off!
I guess the quest to be the lightest has some drawbacks every now and then. I don't think this is really that common, but if it is it's great to hear that SRAM stands behind their parts and offers good warranty service.
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Old 02-22-12 | 12:28 PM
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I had two right SRAM Rival shifters do that to me.
Never had those issues with Shimano or Campy.
Oh well.
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Old 02-22-12 | 12:31 PM
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sucks for you guys!
(happily rides away and shifting at ease with italian made goodness)
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Old 02-23-12 | 12:53 PM
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Got a response from sram. They sent today a new Apex right shifter.

I wanted to upgrade to sram red, payin a diference. But it seems sram cant do this since they only sell to distributors. No worries i paid for apex. I get what i paid for, fair to some extent.
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Old 07-10-12 | 03:50 PM
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Bikes: Surly Long Haul Trucker w/ SRAM Rival, & 36H 38's, Late 70's Santana Tandem w/ Double Diamond frame

I had this exact same thing happen with my SRAM Rival shifters today. It had been wonky.. throwing way too far when shifting for awhile.. I had it in a workstand while I was dialing in my new rival wifli derrailleur and 11-32 cassette and suddenly all my shifting stopped. Yep.. shifter broke in exactly this same way.

It should be covered under warranty but still.. being without a bike to ride for a week sucks...
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Old 07-10-12 | 04:13 PM
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Originally Posted by iconicflux
It should be covered under warranty but still.. being without a bike to ride for a week sucks...
Looks like you need more bikes :-)
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Old 07-10-12 | 04:14 PM
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Originally Posted by iconicflux
I had this exact same thing happen with my SRAM Rival shifters today. It had been wonky.. throwing way too far when shifting for awhile.. I had it in a workstand while I was dialing in my new rival wifli derrailleur and 11-32 cassette and suddenly all my shifting stopped. Yep.. shifter broke in exactly this same way.
Be glad it didn't happen when you were trying to downshift on a climbing ride with more than 50 miles to go....
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Old 07-10-12 | 06:07 PM
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Bikes: Surly Long Haul Trucker w/ SRAM Rival, & 36H 38's, Late 70's Santana Tandem w/ Double Diamond frame

I am thankful for it not happening at a more inopportune moment. I heard back this evening that SRAM is fixing it under warranty. They'll be replacing the shifters on both sides. What isn't clear yet is whether they cover the service costs that go with it and the cost of bar tape. I may be wrong but I'm pretty sure that you have to take the tape off to get this work done.
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Old 07-10-12 | 06:20 PM
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Be glad you have SRAM with the way they stand behind their warranty. I am sold on the Rival I have on my CAAD 10. Went from 105 to the Rival and have not regretted it one bit.
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Old 07-10-12 | 06:24 PM
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You can re-use tape as long as you're not a total idiot and remove it with a x-acto knife.
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Old 07-10-12 | 06:25 PM
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I have always been told that SRAM has an AMAZING warranty department... because SRAM stuff always breaks. Guys at a shop once told me they have THE best crash replacement policy for MTB, because if you crash, you will for sure break something. OTOH, never broken a Shimano part in an MTB fall.
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Old 07-11-12 | 12:30 AM
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Originally Posted by garciawork
I have always been told that SRAM has an AMAZING warranty department... because SRAM stuff always breaks.
I couldn't have said it better myself.

SRAM is garbage. The only products they make that don't suck are BB-7 disk brakes.

Last edited by BoSoxYacht; 07-11-12 at 09:34 AM.
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Old 07-11-12 | 01:08 AM
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I wrecked hard on my left apex shifter over a year ago and it's still going strong, scuffed, but going. hope this thread doesn't jinx me now.
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Old 07-11-12 | 02:23 AM
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never ridden sram. tried it once during a test ride and while it seemed like a good concept, the actual shift lever seemed dainty. in its quest to be entirely different, seems like sram kind of sacrificed some longevity in order to have one lever do both shift operations. 2x the use would wear it out twice as fast?? dunno.....
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Old 07-11-12 | 08:18 AM
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Resurrected thread... My warraty came in real fast. Its been working nicely..scuffed it on a crash... Still works the same. Just saying id buy sram any day
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Old 07-11-12 | 08:50 AM
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Bikes: Surly Long Haul Trucker w/ SRAM Rival, & 36H 38's, Late 70's Santana Tandem w/ Double Diamond frame

I'm a huge SRAM fan because this is the second time they've taken care of me when I needed it. The first time I was totally honest with them and told them that I broke my left shifter in a crash, I didn't have the money to buy a new one, and they hooked me up with a good crash replacement deal. Cost me $80 total to get it fixed.

I haven't seen anything to make me think that Shimano's are any better or worse than SRAM. I do think that SRAM has killer customer service and that's important to me.
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