Shifters broken

jteighty

Hi,

I have a boardman road comp 2009 and the shifters arent working. I recently lent it out to a friend and I think he didnt realise it only has 2 rings at the front and he tried shifting it into the third ring on the shifters which broke the shifters. I've taken it into evans and halfords and they say it'll cost about £200 to fix as new shifters are about £180 plus labour..Is there anywhere that i can buy only a left hand shifter (the broken one) as shifters are only usually sold in pairs? Also it uses Shimano Tiagra 9 speed shifters, do i need to get the same exact model or will any tiagras work? What's the difference between Tiagra double and triple?

Many thanks,

JT80

marin_maniac

What exactly is your front ring shifter not doing? Is it stuck in a gear that would be the third ring on a triple which you haven't got?

This sometimes happened to me. If this is the case, try pulling the brake and then shift to a smaller ring.

andrewjoseph

I had exactly this problem with my boardman comp, twice.

The first one was before I road it. Had it from shop and was setting front stop adjustment, second time i touched the lever it broke.

Halfords put a new one on but it took a week.

it lasted fine for two years until it suddenly broke again mid ride. i bought a left only shifter from CRC.

for my touring bike I put downtube shifters on.

My wife's ultegra shifters have lasted for years, but they don't get the same abuse I give mine.

jteighty

Thanks for the responses.

@andrewjoseph: Thanks for the advice, i've found a left hand piece at crc but it's only due in stock in september. I've found another one on farnham (http://www.farnhamcycles.co.uk/Shop/p/2 ... left-hand/) but i'm not sure if it's the right one as it's the ST-4501 and I'm not sure whether my other one is that.

@Marin Maniac: I can't change the gears on the left hand side. It doesnt click and the indicator doesnt change either. Evans and halfords said it was a problem with the shifter so i need to replace it.

Monty Dog

I presume you're going to get your 'friend' to pay for the damage? You can replace them with a Tiagra triple no problem, you just have one spare 'click' on the LH shifter. FWIW Shimano 4500/5600 LH shifters are pretty vulnerable to breakages.

oodboo

I broke a left SRAM X7 shifter on my enduro by forcing it too much and snapped something inside. Ended up taking it off and finding I prefer the 1x9 set up. That doesn't really help here but on Saturday I though I'd broke the left shifter on my Genesis, Tiagra double. Same symptoms as what you described. Turned out I had managed to pull about 15mm the steel core bit of the outer cable into the shifter and this was jamming it up. I replaced the outer with some spare I had from my enduro and use a inner that I had left over from something else and if it wasn't for my busted toe I'd have rode to work today.

Anyway, I'm rambling a bit. As you said you took it to Evans and Halfords I was wondering if you (or anyone else) had tried taking the cable off and checking it? It might be the same problem I had or something else cable related.

andrewjoseph

I don't think you need to keep to the same model numbers, I didn't. As long as the cable pull is the same it should work.

Go for the same model if you feel more comfortable with that, but you don't need to buy a pair, unless you want to upgrade.