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Ultegra Front Derailleur - R8000 Question

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Ultegra Front Derailleur - R8000 Question

Old 06-20-20, 01:55 PM
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blinky
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Ultegra Front Derailleur - R8000 Question

After 17 years with Campy I'm slowly doing some upgrades , both for the bike and clothing including shoes for myself - I'm comfortable taking the bike to the local LBS for the big stuff like headset and BB including crankset but like to learn how to do some of the other things myself , for example adjusting the derailleurs and the brakes - my latest upgrade is to Ultegra for derailleurs, brakes , and crankset .

The basics of the front derailleur are still the same , i.e. H & L adjustments and anchoring the cable with a pinch bolt but after watching an online video it looks a little more complicated than it did years ago - now on the R8000 it looks like the last inch or so of the cable is wrapped around some hardware and use of a 2mm hex key is used to activate the pinching mechanism - this is also an important step when re-setting the barrel adjuster .

Was wondering if someone could recommend a book with some diagrams that show how these final steps in adjusting the front derailleur are done on the R-8000 .

Thanks in advance for any replies and thoughts on this .
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Old 06-20-20, 02:13 PM
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YOU ARE CORRECT, IT IS DIFFERENT. BEST TO FOLLOW SHIMANO INSTRUCTIONS CAREFULLY. https://si.shimano.com/pdfs/dm/DM-RAFD001-05-ENG.pdf
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Old 06-20-20, 03:27 PM
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This is where you read the referenced instructions at least 3 times while looking at the mechanism on the bike. Looking
at several videos on youtube is also helpful. There was a thread a month or so ago about this in general. My experience
with the essentially identical FD7000 was that despite doing this 3x and asking a local mech to check my results (all
basically to the exact Shimano instructions) the FD is noticeably harder to upshift than prior 6500 series FDs. Others
chimed in with similar results, but some felt the effort was not much different from prior series Shimanos. YMMV.

The reason for this difference in experience is unclear at present. FWIW this was with a new cable and the only (new)
housing was that needed to go from brifter to head tube, the rest of the cable is bare. Also using the complete 7000
group in this rebuild except for an FSA 48-32 chainset. Seems unlikely this would affect the brifter shift effort

Last edited by sch; 06-20-20 at 07:46 PM.
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Old 06-20-20, 05:52 PM
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One thing to be sure of is that if you are using R8000 derailleurs, for best performance be sure to also have R8000 STI shifters. The front trims are different than on 6800.
Also, even with over three decades experience in me and having completed Shimano S-Tec training, tuning the front derailleur was a time consuming and frustrating experience on one of my own bikes.
One thing that I learned from the experience and that you ought to know going into it is that the front derailleur setup may be really straightforward and relatively quick, or it might be somewhat time consuming depending upon some of your bike's geometry numbers.
My bike with very short 405mm chainstays is much less forgiving of the FD-R8000 than bikes with more common modern geometry. The R8000 FD will work best in combination with an R8000 crankset. The chainring spacing is different than on previous generations.
On some bikes, you will find that the Shimano installation and adjustment procedure is not going to yield the final settings. You may have to make many very tiny incremental adjustments to the limit screws and cable tension until it is "right".

Best of luck to you! Enjoy the new group!

Last edited by Cyclist7485; 06-21-20 at 11:21 AM. Reason: Spelling
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Old 06-23-20, 11:50 AM
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Originally Posted by Eddy_G
One thing to be sure of is that if you are using R8000 derailleurs, for best performance be sure to also have R8000 STI shifters. The front trims are different than on 6800.
Also, even with over three decades experience in me and having completed Shimano S-Tec training, tuning the front derailleur was a time consuming and frustrating experience on one of my own bikes.
One thing that I learned from the experience and that you ought to know going into it is that the front derailleur setup may be really straightforward and relatively quick, or it might be somewhat time consuming depending upon some of your bike's geometry numbers.
My bike with very short 405mm chainstays is much less forgiving of the FD-R8000 than bikes with more common modern geometry. The R8000 FD will work best in combination with an R8000 crankset. The chainring spacing is different than on previous generations.
On some bikes, you will find that the Shimano installation and adjustment procedure is not going to yield the final settings. You may have to make many very tiny incremental adjustments to the limit screws and cable tension until it is "right".

Best of luck to you! Enjoy the new group!
I have Ultegra ST-R8000 Shift/Brk set , not sure of the difference between ST and STI - I find that the online instructions by Shimano to set up the front derailleur are not easy to follow - there is an online video that's pretty good but I could use some diagrams like Zinn uses in his books to supplement the video - I would get the most current Zinn book on road bike maintenance but not sure if it would include the R8000 group of components - does anyone know when this groupset came on the market ??

Like I said earlier the video is pretty good but it's hard to follow what happens with the bare cable over the last inch or two before installing the end cap .

Thanks everyone for the comments and time !!
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Old 06-23-20, 12:10 PM
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Originally Posted by blinky
I have Ultegra ST-R8000 Shift/Brk set , not sure of the difference between ST and STI - I find that the online instructions by Shimano to set up the front derailleur are not easy to follow - there is an online video that's pretty good but I could use some diagrams like Zinn uses in his books to supplement the video - I would get the most current Zinn book on road bike maintenance but not sure if it would include the R8000 group of components - does anyone know when this groupset came on the market ??

Like I said earlier the video is pretty good but it's hard to follow what happens with the bare cable over the last inch or two before installing the end cap .

Thanks everyone for the comments and time !!
regarding the bare cable, it loops underneath the link then up and through a hole in the cap. This guy rambles a bit, but pretty well illustrated it.
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Old 06-23-20, 09:26 PM
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These derailleurs are quite a bit different than current Campy stuff or older Shimano setups. I also made a video on how to install/adjust this particular front derailleur. There are 4 distinct positions on the shifter as well that can add to the confusion.

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Old 06-24-20, 06:14 AM
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Originally Posted by Le Mechanic
These derailleurs are quite a bit different than current Campy stuff or older Shimano setups. I also made a video on how to install/adjust this particular front derailleur. There are 4 distinct positions on the shifter as well that can add to the confusion.
Thank you for that video. I had found it on my own while adjusting my R8000 and it's very easy to follow. One change I had to make, though, was to keep the top piece down while securing the pinch bolt. If I kept it up, as you do, the derailleur had no motion left to move to the large chainring.
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Old 06-24-20, 08:25 AM
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I don't know about the newer Shimano FD road models but with my very short 400cm chainstay, I have to be really watching the trim or the chain will rub. There are very specific tight shift patterns and clearances. When I switched to SRAM yaw FD, I didn't need trim anymore. Setup was not much easier but I only had to care about the very top and the very bottom gear ranges. And now I don't have to worry about chain rub anymore. I used the same Shimano FD shifter for the SRAM yaw FD and just set the limit screws so that there were only 2 effective index positions, and the trim did nothing except clicks.
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Old 06-24-20, 06:04 PM
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Originally Posted by Eddy_G
regarding the bare cable, it loops underneath the link then up and through a hole in the cap. This guy rambles a bit, but pretty well illustrated it.
Fdr8000
Thanks Eddy_G - that's the same video I looked at - it's a big improvement over the Shimano leaflet that came with it but his presentation is a bit choppy and I think it would benefit by a schematic with a description of the steps required to set up not only a new front derailleur but this specific one which is more complex than yesteryear's models - at one point he talks about screwing in a hex fitting that apparently moves an arm that pinches the cable but it's not clear - the way I should approach this is to clamp the bike up in the air , drop the chain , and just play around with it to see how things work - and many years ago I probably would have tried it but now as a senior citizen I'll also think about dropping it off at the LBS , pay for an adjustment and watch them do it .
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Old 06-24-20, 06:24 PM
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Originally Posted by Le Mechanic
These derailleurs are quite a bit different than current Campy stuff or older Shimano setups. I also made a video on how to install/adjust this particular front derailleur. There are 4 distinct positions on the shifter as well that can add to the confusion.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=42bSAnk9_zQ&t=177s
Excellent video Le Mechanic , a great supplement to the video Eddy_G posted above - I went through a portion but need to go back and view it in it's entirety and then maybe I'll have the confidence to pull it apart and set it up from scratch , thanks again !!!
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