masi61

I crashed last week and ruined my lovely Dura Ace 7700 shifter. I elected to swap it out for a NOS Ultegra 6500 nine speed that I purchased for a good price a few years back.

I’ve got it installed and shifting fine, having done a good 42.5 mile test run yesterday evening.

My front shifter is a Dura Ace 7703 triple and it shifts fine and my data on the Flight Deck is correct. It captures the shifts between the 30 tooth chainring and the 39 and 53 tooth chainrings without a hitch.

The 9 speed gear read out is pegged on gear 9. I’m thinking that the electrical contact from the wiring harness is mis-aligned the the electrical contact strip in the 6500 shifter. I plan to check this today. I hope to get it functional because I still like my old school Flight Deck data coming from the bike. The LCD gear readout is most valuable since it allows you not to need to visually check your cassette as much to determine your exact gear.

The virtual cadence function where it backwards extrapolates your cadence in RPM from gear data and MPH data, well this continues to be a very valuable feature for me.

If anyone could point me to a helpful YouTube guide to troubleshooting Shimano Flight Deck computers, I would be most grateful if I am able to optimize this helpful system once more. BTW: My other road bike has 2x10 Dura Ace 7800 with Flight Deck and both front and rear shifters are out of contact with the display as well. On that bike I still get accurate MPH and distance (which are most important) so I have procrastinated looking into sorting that one out either.

Edit: The last 5 words of my title are supposed to say help me get things functional.

masi61

The lack of support for the Flight Deck seems kind of odd to me. Yeah cell phones and GPS and Strava are great but sometimes you just want some robust, direct data coming direct from the bike the old way. Thus, this is why I have placed this query in classic & vintage.

SpeedofLite 

I've never use a Flight Deck, so I can't really help you troubleshoot your issue. However, I have a few Flight Deck parts that I saved from bikes I've bought over the years.
Report back to this thread once you've decided you need a replacement part for full function or to use to help you diagnose the problem.
I might be able to get you going again with what I have.

masi61

Thanks SpeedofLite - I will let you know

masi61

Update: My flight deck 6500 nine speed shifter is definitely not displaying any correct gear information on my display. It does not change when gears are changed either. Some at this point I am no closer to solving the mystery. I plan to double check that the Ultegra 9 speed shifter is connected to a compatible wiring harness. It worked perfectly with the old 7700 Dura Ace before my crash. I may end up digging out a NOS Dura Ace 7700 shift lever and shelving the Ultegra 6500 if it turns out I have an incompatible wiring harness. As far as I can tell, the electrical leads in the wiring harness are making contact with the electrical leads in the shifter body.

This is like my 3rd thread that I started where I encouraged others to talk about their experiences with setting up and troubleshooting Shimano Flight Deck wiring harnesses with Flight Deck compatible shifters. I get it that almost no one is using these any more.

AJI125 

Mine thankfully works from when I bought the bike it’s on (9 speed 105, 5500 series). Never did anything but change the battery, rewrap the wires on the bars, and move the magnet and sensor as I tweaked things. I got some Chorus 10 shifters for a Shimergo setup, but dreading getting rid of the Flight Deck, for all the reasons you’ve posted I really like it. And being wired lasts a lot longer on a battery than the Cateye wireless on my other used bike (while not displaying actual cadence, I think I would choose the gears over that). I think I’ll just pick up a basic computer or skip it all together when I do so, as the Campagnolo Ergobrain (I think) seems to have had lots of issues back in the day.

madpogue 

Years ago I came across a "poor man's Flight Deck" device -- a little cylindrical thingy that replaces a section of the cable housing up by the brifter, with a window with little dashes indicating the gear positions, and a red pointer that moved as the cable moved. I couldn't for the life of me tell you where to find such a thing now. I don't even remember what it was called.

ryansu

Its called an Inline Gear indicator I think they mostly had them for 9 speeds I used one on a Cannondale Road many years ago, not as intricate or fussy as the Flight Deck you can sometimes find them on eBay also OP have you searched YouTube for Flightdeck set up videos???

Spaghetti Legs 

I went from Shimano 9 to Campy 10 15+ years ago and never looked back. My old computer bookmark for flight deck instructions is broken now but a quick search turned up this.

https://www.manualslib.com/products/...1-3628803.html

Drop me a line if you can’t get it working. I’m pretty sure I have one or two Flight Decks sitting in a box somewhere.

madpogue 

That's it, and indeed, the simplicity was what I liked about it. No batteries, no vulnerable display, etc. "Calibration" process was simply to shift through all 9 positions, in both directions.

masi61

I do have the in-line indicator but I use it in conjunction with the Flight Deck.
I spoke with my LBS mechanic and he is willing to help my troubleshoot why the new Ultegra shifter is not communicating correctly with the wiring harness which had worked perfectly prior to my accident. He is open tomorrow and if I get this resolved, I will post an update here. BTW my 3x9 bike is not registering the rear cogs whereas my 2x10 Dura Ace bike is not registering the front chainrings. I'm pretty sure each one just has a poor connection where the shifter body and the wiring loom mate up. I wish I knew of some test instrument such as how to use a multimeter in order to test for circuit continuity.