ultegra r8000 rear derailleur barrel adjuster

turbo1191

Hi folks.. just wondering if anyone has any experience of the above? Trying to index my rear derailleur and the barrel adjuster is just spinning and wont let me fine tune the rear shifting..They aren't the same as the older adjusters and in my opinion they are terrible, hopefully I can get a hold of an older one and replace.

indyp

I've no experience of the new R8000 groupset but the barrel adjuster has to be screwed in all the way before allowing any adjustment. Have you tried releasing the cable from fixing bolt on the dreailleur and screwing the barrel adjuster in all the way and then back it off a bit. That would normally allow for adjustment in other types, but then Shimano may have changed things again. A link to manual is here -
http://si.shimano.com/pdfs/dm/DM-RARD001-03-ENG.pdf

turbo1191

They've changed the barrel adjuster in the 8000 series and it seems its a weak point.. the actual plastic part of the barrel that you turn just keeps spinning - its a terrible design!

Cerealkiller

I have same problem.
It is not working.

Contacted shimano but they don't know about more people having issues.

How did you solve it?

turbo1191

I managed to get hold of a barrel adjuster from and older derailleur and used that..

learyr

Thank God - I thought it was me. You wind and wind and nothing happens. I think I will find an old style barrel adjuster as the new style is s*1t. :!:

Olomana

You need to pull up the the barrel to engage the plastic tooth.
Mine brand new turn on itself... Different from my 9100

trivial_poursuivant

Sorry to hijack thread, on the subject of the r8000, as a whole groupset, is there much noticeable improvement over 6800?

I ask as I am considering a new bike. 2017 model has 6800 and ‘18 has r8000 but is around £800 more expensive for in reality just this change.

champson

Buy the 2017 model and then upgrade to R8000 for 600 quid if you end up losing sleep over it. Then sell 6800 for 150 quid.

MiddleRinger

Trivial poursuivant wrote:

Sorry to hijack thread, on the subject of the r8000, as a whole groupset, is there much noticeable improvement over 6800?

I ask as I am considering a new bike. 2017 model has 6800 and ‘18 has r8000 but is around £800 more expensive for in reality just this change.

Yes, but not £800 worth if that's the only other difference!

trivial_poursuivant

MiddleRinger wrote:

Trivial poursuivant wrote:

Sorry to hijack thread, on the subject of the r8000, as a whole groupset, is there much noticeable improvement over 6800?

I ask as I am considering a new bike. 2017 model has 6800 and ‘18 has r8000 but is around £800 more expensive for in reality just this change.

Yes, but not £800 worth if that's the only other difference!

It’s not the only difference. Wheels and some finishing kit which is pretty much on par on each model. I was more after knowing if there is a vast performance improvement. Which tbh would have to be spectacular considering how good 6800 already was. Aesthetically I don’t think it’s that great and could live without it and use the money saved for upgrades elsewhere.

Mountaindancer

Yes I had similar problems. I have two Giant Defy's one with 6800 and one with 8000. I have had problems with the 8000 rear mech seemly adjusting itself, requiring visits back to vendor. My latest theory is that the 8000 bike is internal cabling, whereas the 6800 is external cabling ie little outer cable used. The 6800 was set up nearly 5 years ago and has never been touched and still changes like an electric switch. The 8000, not so much!
I deliberately waited to get an 8000 bike. I'm a little underwhelmed. My comment today is unless you must have the latest thing then stick with 6800, the improvements are not mind blowing. The stand out feature is that the disc brake callipers and discs are now Ultegra branded.

johngti

Trivial poursuivant wrote:

Sorry to hijack thread, on the subject of the r8000, as a whole groupset, is there much noticeable improvement over 6800?

I ask as I am considering a new bike. 2017 model has 6800 and ‘18 has r8000 but is around £800 more expensive for in reality just this change.

Two differences for me. The reach adjustment on the shifters is much better for my little hands and makes the shifters a lot more comfy. The second difference is the 11-34 cassette. I’m not a natural climber (dislike the steep stuff in north Kent!) but the 32 tooth maximum on the 11-32 cassette was often a bit too much while the 28 wasn’t quite enough. I’ve found that I get up stuff better on the 30 tooth new cassette than I did on 28 or 32. And I have a 34 tooth cog for the really difficult stuff.

skeetam

I have the same problem with the barrel adjuster too. It keeps turning and nothing changes. Have they even tested it?

rwoofer

Yes. Another person getting frustrated by the useless barrel adjuster. It seems to rely on the collar squeezing a little plastic tooth to engage with the screw. Two problems as far as I can see:

1. The plastic collar is very flimsy and often does not exert enough pressure to engage the tooth.
2. The plastic tooth wears quickly once it slips, making the problem even worse to the point it doesn't work at all.

Crap engineering if you ask me. Finally bit the bullet today and bought a different barrel adjuster and joy of joys I can now index my gears properly.

Can't believe Shimano even let this through to production.

kev06

I have the same problem also with my R8000 RD indexing. Can you buy an alternative that works, if so which one fits the R8000?

rwoofer

Halfords were doing old Dura Ace barrel adjusters for £3 that work, so i bought 3 of them!

mitchgixer6

I don't have the R8000, but I did hear you need to pull the adjust 'out' before turning it.

Vino'sGhost

rwoofer wrote:

Halfords were doing old Dura Ace barrel adjusters for £3 that work, so i bought 3 of them!

good shout, always useful to have about.

ridgeway_swiss

Same issue here, like many can't believe this item ever worked at all.... mine is straight out of the box and just fails at first use.

Stripped it down last night just to make sure it wasn't me and i can confirm the design is as functional as a chocolate kettle.

Off to find an alternative, one that works..... in the mean time i've borrowed the one off my 8yrs olds bike, it works better than the original part.

skeetam

Ridgeway Swiss wrote:

Same issue here, like many can't believe this item ever worked at all.... mine is straight out of the box and just fails at first use.

Stripped it down last night just to make sure it wasn't me and i can confirm the design is as functional as a chocolate kettle.

Off to find an alternative, one that works..... in the mean time i've borrowed the one off my 8yrs olds bike, it works better than the original part.

Just use them off old derailleurs, they worked fine before this redesign.

ridgeway_swiss

Actually found the Dura Ace version on Ebay so have one on the way so will swap it out next week although the one from my daughters bike is working fine until then (but she needs it back...)

grcav

Same issue for me too. "Broke" it the first time I tried to adjust the cable tension. Ridiculous that shimano made such a poor choice. I also find amazing that a few youtubers claim to have tested the group set thoroughly, with a thousand kilometres under their belts and nobody mentions this.

For those of you who have gone through this, will an ultegra 6800 barrel or older version ultegra also work?

Thanks for the help

skeetam

grcav wrote:

Same issue for me too. "Broke" it the first time I tried to adjust the cable tension. Ridiculous that shimano made such a poor choice. I also find amazing that a few youtubers claim to have tested the group set thoroughly, with a thousand kilometres under their belts and nobody mentions this.

For those of you who have gone through this, will an ultegra 6800 barrel or older version ultegra also work?

Thanks for the help

Yes, the Ultregra 6800 barrel adjuster will work. They are a little fiddly to get on with the spring underneath but they work fine. I changed both my r8000 Ultra rear mechs with older Shimano barrel adjusters.

These will work
https://www.sjscycles.co.uk/gear-spares/shimano-105-rd5800-cable-adjusting-bolt-unit-y5ye98030/

grcav

Thanks a lot Skeet, I will get those

daniel_b

Does Dura Ace 9100 have the same design feature?

As an aside, the 5800 barrel adjuster that SkeetAM posted above - does anyone know if that would work ok a 5700 RD?

Ignore that, I have googled and can see a 5700 equivalent :oops:

Nigel1979

Don't know if you're still having problems but found this video which endorses what many of the contributors to this thread have found:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_39lFgsF1eg

Hope it helps!

angry_bird

Can't say I've found any problems on either 9100 or 7000 rear mechs, just pull up to engage, twist and it adjusts the indexing...

buckmulligan

Glad I found this thread. Just changed my cables and thought I was going mad for a bit with the plastic bit spinning round and clicking but not actually unscrewing the adjuster bit!

Managed to get it dialled in well enough but was a piece of crap!

paul_the_pedaller

Mine's the same, just seems to spin. I had to use the inline adjuster to index it properly.

mahos3

Hi all, had the same issue, I just removed the plastic outing and there is a metal bit left which works perfectly, no issues. You might want to also leave the inner spring to keep the tension. Hope that helps.