Broken 105 shifter

stevenw

Did the Exmoor Beast on Sunday and about 8 miles in my lefthand 105 shifter broke(had to ride the rest of the 100km on the small ring). Anyway, I've been unimpressed with price of Shimano shifters, but these seem more reasonable(Sadly money is a bit tight at the moment). To the point, I've been looking at these.
www.microshift.biz/ppdtlist.asp?area=51&cat=173
Has anybody got any experience of these?
Thanks
Steven

Monty Dog

FWIW 105 LH shifters are notoriously unreliable - you might be able to try a warranty repair? No experience of Microshift.

Omar Little

i've had a 105 LH shifter replaced under warranty. It is a known fault and i've known a couple of others who have had them replaced despite them being outwith the years warranty period

dgstewart

My LH 105 shifter failed earlier this year and was sent back (through LBS) to Madison (Shimano distributor) for repair. It came back with new internals and worked OK for a few weeks then went again. I sent it back and insisted I did not want another repair as I knew this was a well known fault (trawl the web for numerous forum threads on it).

They eventually came back to say they had no new shifters and gave me £175 as a refund to go buy something else.

Mine was just under 1 year the first time it broke, but given that it is a known fault, you should have some luck with them. Basically it's not "fit for purpose" as it appears to be a design flaw.

Be prepared for a slow service from Madison though. It could take a couple of weeks to resolve.

redvision

there is a post on here about this.
Its a known problem with the 5600 series. the left shifter was designed for both triple and double chainset. problem with that is if you have a double/compact then you can push the shifter too far and in doing so it snaps the shifter.

i had two replaced under warranty before i was offered an upgrade to ultegra for £50.

get on to the place you bought your bike and claim it under the warranty.

dgstewart

redvision wrote:

i had two replaced under warranty before i was offered an upgrade to ultegra for £50.

Interesting - I've heard this several times but the guy I spoke to was adamant that they could never offer an upgrade in this manner, despite me saying I am aware that many people have had this offer. I think it depends on who you speak to.

First time I dealt with Madison I spoke to a woman who was quite helpful, 2nd time the guy noted above was a complete &rse!

stevenw

Thanks for the replies. I can't take the bike back to the shop as I bought it secondhand, it's a 2008 Specalized Roubaix running a compact. Might give Madison a try, nothing to lose, even though the warranty is probably up. After reading a few threads on the subject I don't think I'd want 105 shifters again, but to upgrade is so expensive!!
Thanks again.

lesterpiglet

I've just got mine back, took it to LBS even though I didn't buy the bike there, bought it second hand ...anyway they sent the shifter off to Madison to see what they had to say, after a 6 week wait they sent a new 105 double LH shifter back, all I had to pay for was bar tape, brake & gear cable and labour - £25 total

If it were me I'd give a friendly LBS a try .....I think Madison might be Business to Business only, I might be wrong though.

Good luck what ever you choose to do.

Stuy-b

if you set one of the double / tipple leavers up on a double then you have to set it up with the shifter in its "middle" ring position that way the worst thing your gonna do is have a slack cable when you shift down to far.

cooper.michael1

I had two break on me, sold on Ebay after that and bought campag veloce, which has been flawless.

Funny how there is never a mention of the woeful record of Shimano shifters in Cycling Plus or the other mags... all the advertising £££ im thinking.

The old ultegras were pants also, and this new generation look flimsier even still.

cougie

I've had shimano STI shifters since they first came out. I've had various groupsets - 105, DA and Ultegra and never had a lever break - and thats probably 20+ years for me. So hardly woeful in my experience ?

Deegs

I bought a well used ultegra 2nd hand for left on ebay and it just works a treat. Got the lever for <£15, new bang up-to-date RH 105 lever for £35 same source, £10 cables and setting up( :-) !) from local shop; think this is probably the way ahead with STi for some of us?

Took some lurking on ebay mind

cooper.michael1

cougie wrote:

I've had shimano STI shifters since they first came out. I've had various groupsets - 105, DA and Ultegra and never had a lever break - and thats probably 20+ years for me. So hardly woeful in my experience ?

The 5600 shifters were on the market for 4/5 years, knowingly faulty, yet never recalled.

Shimano blamed the failure on poor set up, so did not even take responsibility. For a piece of kit with an RRP of £200, that is just not on.

Cycling plus described the 5700 levers as the best value piece of kit you can buy, without even mentioning the multiple failures of the previous lever and if the new design resolved this.