Originally Posted by
Milton Keynes
How often do brifters just "crap out?" Twist shifters on cheap Walmart bikes, yeah, I've seen those crap out and not keep friction or hold their position, but brifters and trigger type shifters are a different matter.
Fairly often with poor maintenance if you count frayed cables at the sharp bend as the cable enters the brifter on some models. But that isn't really a failed brifter i guess. It isn't that obvious if you don't know where to look. It does usually give some warning in poor shifting for a while before failure so unless you just keep ignoring it it isn't too likely to suddenly fail all at once.
I had one get bad enough to be shifting badly on tour, but not close to actually breaking. I stopped in the next town with a bike shop and bought a cable. I could imagine someone not figuring out what was going on and possibly breaking the cable. Carrying a spare cable would be the answer for that though.