Cleaning STI Shifters
 

I am transferring an Ultegra 6800 group from a road bike to a commuter/gravel bike that I am building. I have ridden the road bike for about a year. I had to take off the hoods to remove the shift cables. It appears that what can best be described as lint is inside each of the shifters. They were working properly, but I'm wondering if I should use this opportunity to clean them. I looked at a few videos online, all of which suggested spraying an aerosol degreaser followed by spray lube. I should then grease as well as possible. I'm assuming lithium grease will do.

However, one video suggested I should put off cleaning the shifters as long as possible because I will not be able to grease the inside of the shifter as well as it was done at the factory, and I will have to maintain and clean them more frequently moving forward.

Also, are removing fully functioning shift cables on Shimano STI shifters more difficult than it should be or is it just me?

Thoughts?

My preference is to clean thoroughly using a spray degreaser, such as Clean Streak. If I use any lube at all, I use a couple of small drops of a very light oil, such as Tech Lite. In my experience, over-lubrication is detrimental to STI brifters.

Both of the videos (Art's Cyclery and Global Cycling Network) sprayed a liberal amount of lube into the shifter, and then applied grease. Why do you suggest that too much oil is detrimental?

Grease attracts dirt. If it were an enclosed system then grease, at least, wouldn't be harmful. If I were to use grease, especially a large amount, I would make it a point to de-grease and clean my brifters very frequently.

Gotcha. One of the mechanics in the video stated the grease (in addition to the lube) is for weather proofing. But, he's also the one that said that once you do, it increases the frequency between cleanings.

Exactly. I stated above that grease attracts dirt but, more accurately, grease retains dirt. It's useful on higher temperature, closed surfaces under greater bearing pressure but a small amount of light, highly-penetrative oil seems better to me. In my opinion, it's the same theory as lubing a chain - you want the lubrication on the inside of the links and rollers, not the outside.

Shifters are 1 year old. There should be no need to flush out old lube yet with "normal" use/exposure during the year.


Adding some medium/thick oil (I like Phil) which will slowly enter and coat the surfaces would be all I would do. If the OEM lube is removed (as in cleaning with a solvent or over use of light runny lube) expect to need to freshen up the shifter's lube annually from then on. On the other hand refreshing the oil component of the OEM grease once a year will extend the OEM lube's life greatly. Doesn't take much added oil if done in a few spots and the shifters are positioned in a few different orientations to let gravity work on the drops of lube applied. Andy

IMO flushing and lubing after 1 year is unnecessary. You'll never be able to improve on the factory grease unless you want to partially disassemble the shifters and apply grease or use some kind of vacuum bag to force new grease into all the small little parts of the shifters which is a lot of unnecessary work. Just carefully wipe off the gunk that you can see and leave it until it starts acting up and then you can do a flush and lube. Any type of cleaning effort other than just wiping off the dirt will help wash away the factory grease in your shifters.