My bike has turned into a double bass!

attica

Not as mad as it sounds:-

I'm running Shimano Ultegra gears

Lately the rear gears have been a increasingly reluctant to change up (to a smaller sprocket), this appears to be because something in the shifter inside the brake lever isn't returning when I shift up, so the first shift always works, then there's no click and nothing happens for the second shift.

Lately I've taken to tweaking the gear cable along the down tube, an action eerily reminiscent of playing a double bass, this forces whatever is wrong in there to "click" and the shift will then work.

I've lubed the shifter to bits and tried to see what's going on in there, to no avail, has anyone else ever experienced this, any suggestions for a fix/cure?

Cheers ta

maddog 2

could be a kinked cable, could be a incorrectly fitted cable/nipple, could be wrongly indexed (gear 1 is in position 0?), could be a sticky cable...

attica

Thanks Mad Dog
I've been over the cable with a fine tooth comb, the cable/nipple have been in place and working - all correctly for well over a year, so I don't think that fitting is a problem.

Also the problem occurs throughout the gears not just in the last shift, so it's not the incorrect indexing (that and the fact that it used to work perfectly)

So I still think it's a problem within the shifter mechanism.