Shimano ST-RS685 shifter issues

5parky

My New 2016 bike came with these (2015 model used 105) and noticed first ride the rubber sheaths rise up so I spent most of the ride correcting them.

At the Cycle Show NEC yesterday I mentioned it to Shimano and they responded as a known issue which they have a fix for. I checked quite a few bikes with them on and whereas most seemed like they could display the same problem some looked to be ok.

Anyone else experienced the problem

Interestingly the model is not shown on their website

rumbataz

I believe I have these shifters too and noticed the rubber hood on the right one had risen up after my ride yesterday. I think it's because of the forward pressure exerted on the hood whilst riding pushes it out of alignment with the locating slots on the mechanism.

What I did after my ride was push the whole hood backwards by standing in front of the bike, grabbing hold of the hood and pushing it back towards the handlebar.

If you lift up the hood from the front and look at the inside (towards the stem) edge you'll see a locating clip. Now look at the mechanism on the levers and you'll see a recess where this locating clip is supposed to be engaged.

You need to position the hood so that this (and the other) locating clips are perfectly aligned with the slots on the mechanism.

Once the hood is adjusted and aligned, lower the front down. Then use your fingers to press the hood into place to ensure the locating clips engage into the mechanism.

You'll hear and feel them engaging. It s a bit like the sensation you get when you seal a freezer bag by aligning the sealing slots and pressing them together with your fingers.

One way to tell if th hood is located correctly is that the front part is very secure and you need to 'peel' the hood up from the lower edges to release the locators before there is enough slack to lift it up from the front to expose the mechanism. If the front part lifts up freely then it's not aligned properly,

Apologies if you already know this!

ugo.santalucia

The solution is to ride on the drops more often

5parky

Unfortunately the sheath looks stretch so no amount of repositioning is going to fix them. I did notice they looked a little strange when I picked up the bike so I suspect they require replacing.

cdamian

I had the same problem with the hoods. I googled around a bit and someone said that the problem is fixed with a never version.
So I bought a new set and it seems like they do the trick so far. The rubber seems to be slightly different and they fit better. And for 8 Euro it was worth a try: http://www.bike24.de/p1143918.html
Getting the old ones off and new ones on is a bit of a hassle though. I warmed them up a bit and used rubbing alcohol as lubricant.