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After two trashed Ultegra hydro levers, a word of warning.

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After two trashed Ultegra hydro levers, a word of warning.

Old 12-04-20, 11:04 PM
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HarborBandS
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After two trashed Ultegra hydro levers, a word of warning.

I am a former 1990s shop mechanic, and have successfully built up countless bikes over the past decades. But my current build was my first with hydraulic disc brakes.

I watched several YouTube videos to prepare for some new hydraulics experience, and felt pretty confident going in.

My Shimano ST-R8020 levers came without hoses attached. But the calipers were pre-attached to the hoses.

A couple of days ago I shortened the front brake hose, installed a new barb, put an olive on the end, and tried to tighten the fixing bolt to the shift lever. But I just had a ton of trouble getting the bolt started. Eventually I got a cross threaded angle going, and totally stripped the threads in the lever body, thereby trashing an expensive bicycle part. Arrgghhh!!!! Seriously?!?

So today I was determined to not make the same mistake on the other lever. I did the same steps of inserting the barb, threading the olive on to the end of the hose, and very carefully got the fixing bolt started by hand. I tightened it down slowly, never really feeling like it was a lot of torque (I don’t have a torque spanner wrench—just a socket type), and suddenly I heard a sharp, snapping sound. I knew it couldn’t be good. And there it was... a crack through the shifter body from over tightening! Crazy!

I was a bit despondent at this point. This step looked so easy on YouTube... If GP Llama could do it, I could certainly handle the task. How could I have botched these two bolts so badly?

Then I saw it... remnants of TWO olives in the hose attachment point. The shift levers had come with olives already inside them! So of course it was hard to thread the fixing bolt on the first shifter. And the pressure from two olives crushed in that space cracked a shifter.

And now I’m a deeply frustrated idiot out several hundred dollars. Always check for a pre-installed olive in your new shift levers, even if there is no hose attached. Don’t be like me.
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Old 12-05-20, 09:49 AM
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Don't feel so bad......

We have ALL made mistakes working on bicycles . That is how we learn.

My Father always taught me and says " we learn by our mistakes"

That's what we call experience !!!!!
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Old 12-05-20, 10:48 AM
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The fact that an experienced mechanic with what one presumes are better-than-average mechanical skills trashed two Ultegra shift lever bodies would hint to me at poor design/poor execution on Shimano's part.

In industrial fittings where one uses swaged fittings (swaging is the technical name for fittings like the olive that are smushed onto the hose*) like Parker or SwageLok, you can actually buy hardened steel fittings to pre-swage the the "olives*"" to the tube. Then assembly is easy. This might be a nice tool for Shimano to produce.

*Swaging is also how they make double and triple-butted tubes.
** Swagelok doesn't use tubes, it uses two rings that nest. Parker uses a single ring. But the principle's the same: you smush something metal onto the tube and this allows a better seal.
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Old 12-05-20, 11:26 AM
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I have to say that this also speaks to the need for better instructions and better following them. Many of my mistakes come from my being over confident and not taking the time to better understand the entire situation before doing some non reversible action. Andy
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Old 12-05-20, 05:22 PM
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I do think that the hose fitting part of the shifter should not be plastic. I understand the need to make Ultegra-level components lightweight, but these shifters are quite fragile.

But this really was my mistake, and it cost me $429. And now I am unlikely to have this build done before the Chicago snow and ice and road salt sets in. That’s the real tragedy here—having the project delayed. 😭
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Old 12-05-20, 05:52 PM
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The first time I installed hydro brakes from Shimano, I, too discovered that the olive is in the lever from the factory. Fortunately I discovered it when doing a pre-fit of everything before assembly. It can catch you off guard. In automotive and motorcycle parts, nothing is pre-installed.
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Old 12-05-20, 10:54 PM
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Lessons learned:

1. Check for an olive in the lever before proceeding.

2. Attach the hose without the levers mounted to the bars. It is easier to cross-thread the fixing bolt if you are bending the hose at an angle.

3. Get some metric spanner “crows foot” attachments for my torque wrench. 5-7 N-m is easy to exceed without a torque wrench.
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Old 12-05-20, 11:14 PM
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Originally Posted by Andrew R Stewart
I have to say that this also speaks to the need for better instructions and better following them. Many of my mistakes come from my being over confident and not taking the time to better understand the entire situation before doing some non reversible action. Andy
100% this. Nothing like knowing you've got this and then botching the job on that presumption.
If shimano had an extra olive in the box I might get caught out with this but if I had to come up with an extra I'd have probably found it, I'd have looked everywhere for the missing olive. Test fitting the hose might have gotten the problem too, I found my missing olives on the MTB lever when test fitting the hose and it jammed on one of them.
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Old 12-06-20, 01:46 PM
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don't feel bad. I've been overhauling bikes since 1975 or so. I'm chicken to use any of the newer stuff as I know I'll wreck it, or it will just eat itself on it's own. I'll use cable brakes forever, 85% of the performance, simple and effective. Hydraulics are better, but for me the juice isn't worth the squeeze.
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Old 12-07-20, 06:37 AM
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Doh, sorry for your loss and thanks for sharing.

If you get a crows foot remember to apply the appropriate correction factor to your torque wrench readings.
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