Notices
General Cycling Discussion Have a cycling related question or comment that doesn't fit in one of the other specialty forums? Drop on in and post in here! When possible, please select the forum above that most fits your post!

Shifter worries

Old 11-24-22, 03:43 PM
  #1  
frogman
Senior Member
Thread Starter
 
frogman's Avatar
 
Join Date: Sep 2006
Location: Napa Valley, CA
Posts: 908

Bikes: Wife says I have too many :-)

Mentioned: 2 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 327 Post(s)
Liked 248 Times in 158 Posts
Shifter worries

So here you are 15 miles away from home, on a trail nowhere near any roadways on your gravel bike and your brifters crap out. How do you make field adjustments to lock them up to stay at least in a low gear so you can pedal back home ? That is my fear with the Shimano 10 speed
brake shifters. I had Shimano bar end shifters mounted up on the handlebar with Paul Thunbie mounts earlier and with them I could switch to friction shifting if the indexing crapped out, which was nice, but now I am spoiled with the Shimano brifters.
frogman is offline  
Old 11-24-22, 04:07 PM
  #2  
cxwrench
Senior Member
 
cxwrench's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jul 2013
Location: Nor-Cal
Posts: 3,767

Bikes: lots

Mentioned: 7 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 1958 Post(s)
Liked 2,932 Times in 1,489 Posts
You're overthinking this massively. Replace the cables/housing once a year like you'd change the oil in your car...it's preventative maintenance. If you're that worried about it carry a spare cable with you and maybe some needle nose pliers. If you think you can get home in one gear put the cable in the derailleur backwards so the head is in the barrel adjuster. Push the derailleur into a gear you can ride and tighten the anchor bolt.
As happens all the time this should've been posted in 'bicycle mechanics' not GD but I wouldn't have seen it as I'm still banned from that section.
cxwrench is offline  
Old 11-24-22, 05:41 PM
  #3  
frogman
Senior Member
Thread Starter
 
frogman's Avatar
 
Join Date: Sep 2006
Location: Napa Valley, CA
Posts: 908

Bikes: Wife says I have too many :-)

Mentioned: 2 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 327 Post(s)
Liked 248 Times in 158 Posts
thanks cxwrench, the cable technique sounds good. I will check it out.
Yeah, I'm sure I'm overthinking it
frogman is offline  
Likes For frogman:
Old 11-24-22, 08:06 PM
  #4  
wolfchild
Banned
 
Join Date: Feb 2008
Location: Mississauga/Toronto, Ontario canada
Posts: 8,721

Bikes: I have 3 singlespeed/fixed gear bikes

Mentioned: 30 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 4227 Post(s)
Liked 2,488 Times in 1,286 Posts
My bikes don`t have shifters, I ride singlespeed.
wolfchild is offline  
Old 11-24-22, 08:49 PM
  #5  
Koyote
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Sep 2017
Posts: 7,762
Mentioned: 37 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 6881 Post(s)
Liked 10,869 Times in 4,634 Posts
Originally Posted by wolfchild
My bikes don`t have shifters, I ride singlespeed.
How is that relevant?

O​​​P: ​​cxwrench is spot-on. But if you still get stuck, just ride home or call a friend for a ride. No biggie. It is marginally easier if you ride a 2x, as you can shift the other derailleur.
Koyote is offline  
Likes For Koyote:
Old 11-24-22, 09:33 PM
  #6  
dedhed
SE Wis
 
dedhed's Avatar
 
Join Date: Apr 2005
Location: Milwaukee, WI
Posts: 10,516

Bikes: '68 Raleigh Sprite, '02 Raleigh C500, '84 Raleigh Gran Prix, '91 Trek 400, 2013 Novara Randonee, 1990 Trek 970

Mentioned: 40 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 2731 Post(s)
Liked 3,355 Times in 2,034 Posts
Originally Posted by frogman
So here you are 15 miles away from home, on a trail nowhere near any roadways on your gravel bike and your brifters crap out. How do you make field adjustments to lock them up to stay at least in a low gear so you can pedal back home ? That is my fear with the Shimano 10 speed
brake shifters. I had Shimano bar end shifters mounted up on the handlebar with Paul Thunbie mounts earlier and with them I could switch to friction shifting if the indexing crapped out, which was nice, but now I am spoiled with the Shimano brifters.
I have 10's of thousands of miles on 6600 brifters without issue of them crapping out. I have on bikes, when a cable broke out on the trail/road, jammed an appropriate size stick off the ground in the RD to hold it in a favorable gear. Another hack is tie off the exposed inner cable to hold it in the gear you desire.
dedhed is offline  
Old 11-24-22, 10:46 PM
  #7  
tempocyclist
Senior Member
 
tempocyclist's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jun 2021
Location: Australia
Posts: 815

Bikes: 2002 Trek 5200 (US POSTAL), 2020 Canyon Aeroad SL

Mentioned: 1 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 309 Post(s)
Liked 664 Times in 324 Posts
If it's a front derailleur cable there's nothing to worry about, as it'll simply drop you into the small chainring and you can ride home in a tiny gear. You'll be able to climb fine and spinning out downhill won't matter really.

If it's the rear derailleur cable, like above has said try jamming something from the roadside into the rear derailleur to "push" it into a good gear, or pull the cable tight so it "holds" in a middle gear then tie it off to the frame ir a mounting bolt or whatever is in reach of the cable. Not pretty, but it'll get you home. Worst case scenario is that you're stuck in the small front / small rear combination. You'll likely still be able to pedal yourself home.

It's not a huge concern though. Times I've had a cable snap in tens of thousands of miles: 2 (both could have been prevented with a little more maintenance)



Originally Posted by wolfchild
My bikes don`t have shifters, I ride singlespeed.
Helpful... 🙄 🙄 🙄
tempocyclist is offline  
Likes For tempocyclist:
Old 11-24-22, 11:51 PM
  #8  
Canker
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Aug 2005
Posts: 1,743
Mentioned: 2 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 329 Post(s)
Liked 209 Times in 133 Posts
the limit screw will get you at least one if not two gears up from the hardest.
Canker is offline  
Likes For Canker:
Old 11-25-22, 01:13 AM
  #9  
veganbikes
Clark W. Griswold
 
Join Date: Mar 2014
Location: ,location, location
Posts: 13,274

Bikes: Foundry Chilkoot Ti W/Ultegra Di2, Salsa Timberjack Ti, Cinelli Mash Work RandoCross Fun Time Machine, 1x9 XT Parts Hybrid, Co-Motion Cascadia, Specialized Langster, Phil Wood Apple VeloXS Frame (w/DA 7400), R+M Supercharger2 Rohloff, Habanero Ti 26

Mentioned: 54 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 4251 Post(s)
Liked 3,861 Times in 2,577 Posts
Originally Posted by wolfchild
My bikes don`t have shifters, I ride singlespeed.
Hey sorry my medal maker is closed for the holidays hope it is ok they make it next week?

I love single speeds and fixed gears, I have two of them and have plans for the third but that isn't so much relevant in this thread. We are all pretty understanding that generally yes a single speed or fixed gear is lower trouble and no shift issues however if you have a shifter probably listen to what cxwrench said it is good advice. Keep things well maintained and you are less likely to have an issue and if you get totally screwed out there just Missy Elliot it:
Put your thing down, flip it and reverse it

Also get really top quality cables and housing and that can help as well along with maintenance. If you have severe bends a more flexible set up like say Jagwire Elite Link might be helpful to provide a smoother cable transition and with the really high polished slick stainless cables it makes them glide so smooth.
veganbikes is offline  
Old 11-25-22, 10:04 AM
  #10  
cxwrench
Senior Member
 
cxwrench's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jul 2013
Location: Nor-Cal
Posts: 3,767

Bikes: lots

Mentioned: 7 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 1958 Post(s)
Liked 2,932 Times in 1,489 Posts
Originally Posted by wolfchild
My bikes don`t have shifters, I ride singlespeed.
You just had to post something didn't you?
cxwrench is offline  
Likes For cxwrench:
Old 11-25-22, 10:32 AM
  #11  
Iride01 
I'm good to go!
 
Iride01's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jul 2017
Location: Mississippi
Posts: 14,800

Bikes: Tarmac Disc Comp Di2 - 2020

Mentioned: 50 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 6099 Post(s)
Liked 4,730 Times in 3,260 Posts
Carry some thing that you can cut the cable with where it runs bare along the downtube. Then you can tie it off on a bottle cage or some where else convenient in the gear that you want.
Iride01 is offline  
Old 11-25-22, 10:59 AM
  #12  
staehpj1
Senior Member
 
staehpj1's Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug 2006
Location: Tallahassee, FL
Posts: 11,837
Mentioned: 7 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 1236 Post(s)
Liked 744 Times in 554 Posts
Originally Posted by Canker
the limit screw will get you at least one if not two gears up from the hardest.
That will vary depending on the exact setup, but yeah at least one. If yiu are lucky you might get three.

Then why not wedge something between the end of the limit screw and the point it hits to get a bit more if needed?

If you were that worried about it you could make a little cable end with a set screw that could be adjusted to roughly the right gear and fine tuned with the barrel adjuster. Given how unlikely you are to need it and how many other work arounds there are I wouldn't bother.
staehpj1 is offline  
Old 11-25-22, 01:21 PM
  #13  
tomato coupe
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Jul 2009
Posts: 5,879

Bikes: Colnago, Van Dessel, Factor, Cervelo, Ritchey

Mentioned: 5 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 3905 Post(s)
Liked 7,181 Times in 2,905 Posts
Originally Posted by Iride01
Carry some thing that you can cut the cable with where it runs bare along the downtube. Then you can tie it off on a bottle cage or some where else convenient in the gear that you want.
I saw a variation on that where a rider tied a loop in the cable, and then attached the loop to a bottle cage using a tie wrap. The nice thing was he could ratchet up the tie wrap to put the derailleur in a convenient gear. Of course, you have to carry a tie wrap with you ...
tomato coupe is offline  
Old 11-25-22, 01:36 PM
  #14  
rsbob 
Grupetto Bob
 
rsbob's Avatar
 
Join Date: Sep 2020
Location: Seattle-ish
Posts: 6,065

Bikes: Bikey McBike Face

Mentioned: 2 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 2512 Post(s)
Liked 5,421 Times in 2,824 Posts
Originally Posted by cxwrench
You just had to post something didn't you?
Anything to boost a post count, no matter how irrelevant or unproductive (kind of like this one )
__________________
Road 🚴🏾‍♂️ & Mountain 🚵🏾‍♂️







rsbob is offline  
Likes For rsbob:
Old 11-25-22, 06:09 PM
  #15  
3alarmer 
Friendship is Magic
 
3alarmer's Avatar
 
Join Date: Nov 2010
Location: Sacramento, CA
Posts: 22,930

Bikes: old ones

Mentioned: 304 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 26243 Post(s)
Liked 10,227 Times in 7,097 Posts
Originally Posted by cxwrench
As happens all the time this should've been posted in 'bicycle mechanics' not GD but I wouldn't have seen it as I'm still banned from that section.
Originally Posted by cxwrench
You just had to post something didn't you?
Originally Posted by Proverbs 15 : 1
A soft answer turneth away wrath: but grievous words stir up anger.
...​​​​​​​
__________________
3alarmer is offline  
Old 11-25-22, 07:25 PM
  #16  
Miele Man
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Jun 2014
Location: Ontario, Canada
Posts: 4,655

Bikes: iele Latina, Miele Suprema, Miele Uno LS, Miele Miele Beta, MMTB, Bianchi Model Unknown, Fiori Venezia, Fiori Napoli, VeloSport Adamas AX

Mentioned: 16 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 1324 Post(s)
Liked 927 Times in 640 Posts
Originally Posted by frogman
So here you are 15 miles away from home, on a trail nowhere near any roadways on your gravel bike and your brifters crap out. How do you make field adjustments to lock them up to stay at least in a low gear so you can pedal back home ? That is my fear with the Shimano 10 speed
brake shifters. I had Shimano bar end shifters mounted up on the handlebar with Paul Thunbie mounts earlier and with them I could switch to friction shifting if the indexing crapped out, which was nice, but now I am spoiled with the Shimano brifters.
Carry a spare thumbshifter and cable with you if you're that worried about it. Even an inexpensive friction only thumbshifter will let you get home.

Cheers
Miele Man is offline  
Likes For Miele Man:
Old 11-25-22, 11:19 PM
  #17  
frogman
Senior Member
Thread Starter
 
frogman's Avatar
 
Join Date: Sep 2006
Location: Napa Valley, CA
Posts: 908

Bikes: Wife says I have too many :-)

Mentioned: 2 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 327 Post(s)
Liked 248 Times in 158 Posts
Carrying a spare thumbshifter sounds like a good option Miele Man.
frogman is offline  
Old 11-26-22, 12:26 AM
  #18  
Camilo
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Apr 2007
Posts: 6,760
Mentioned: 10 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 1106 Post(s)
Liked 1,197 Times in 758 Posts
Originally Posted by frogman
So here you are 15 miles away from home, on a trail nowhere near any roadways on your gravel bike and your brifters crap out. How do you make field adjustments to lock them up to stay at least in a low gear so you can pedal back home ? That is my fear with the Shimano 10 speed
brake shifters. I had Shimano bar end shifters mounted up on the handlebar with Paul Thunbie mounts earlier and with them I could switch to friction shifting if the indexing crapped out, which was nice, but now I am spoiled with the Shimano brifters.
You'd deal with it the same as if you have so many flats you run out of spare tubes and patches. And the failure of a shift lever is much, much less likely with simple attention to cables. So if you never worry about having multiple flats exceeding your ability to repair the holes, you should worry even less (less than never) about a shfiter or cable failure. But as others have said, don't ignore the cables for years on end.
Camilo is offline  
Likes For Camilo:
Old 11-26-22, 10:31 AM
  #19  
cxwrench
Senior Member
 
cxwrench's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jul 2013
Location: Nor-Cal
Posts: 3,767

Bikes: lots

Mentioned: 7 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 1958 Post(s)
Liked 2,932 Times in 1,489 Posts
Originally Posted by frogman
Carrying a spare thumbshifter sounds like a good option Miele Man.
You're kidding, right? You're more likely to break a chain, you going to carry a spare one of those too?
cxwrench is offline  
Likes For cxwrench:
Old 11-26-22, 11:32 AM
  #20  
Koyote
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Sep 2017
Posts: 7,762
Mentioned: 37 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 6881 Post(s)
Liked 10,869 Times in 4,634 Posts
Originally Posted by cxwrench
You're kidding, right? You're more likely to break a chain, you going to carry a spare one of those too?
We had a poster who devised a rig for carrying an entire spare wheel, complete with tire and cassette...So I wouldn't be surprised if some paranoid bf'er was carrying a shifter around.
Koyote is offline  
Likes For Koyote:
Old 11-26-22, 09:50 PM
  #21  
Milton Keynes
Senior Member
 
Milton Keynes's Avatar
 
Join Date: May 2016
Posts: 3,947

Bikes: Trek 1100 road bike, Roadmaster gravel/commuter/beater mountain bike

Mentioned: 5 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 2281 Post(s)
Liked 1,710 Times in 936 Posts
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.
Milton Keynes is offline  
Old 11-26-22, 10:42 PM
  #22  
ofajen
Cheerfully low end
 
ofajen's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jun 2020
Posts: 1,965
Mentioned: 5 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 642 Post(s)
Liked 1,040 Times in 663 Posts
Originally Posted by Canker
the limit screw will get you at least one if not two gears up from the hardest.
That would be my remedy. If need be, one could swap in a slightly longer screw to ensure you could take the limit to the cog you want. In my case, two cogs over gets me to 16, which would be fine with me.

Otto
ofajen is offline  
Old 11-26-22, 10:49 PM
  #23  
cyccommute 
Mad bike riding scientist
 
cyccommute's Avatar
 
Join Date: Nov 2004
Location: Denver, CO
Posts: 27,274

Bikes: Some silver ones, a red one, a black and orange one, and a few titanium ones

Mentioned: 150 Post(s)
Tagged: 1 Thread(s)
Quoted: 6147 Post(s)
Liked 4,091 Times in 2,325 Posts
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.
Like almost never. I’ve got 10s of thousands of miles on these kinds of shifters as well…including thousands of miles far away from home where calling for help isn’t an option. I’ve never had a shifter problem.

Gripshifters aren’t all that delicate either. I see a lot of them at my local co-op. They are simple and robust. I’ve seen broken ones but that’s the result of a crash or someone trying to remove them without knowing how.
__________________
Stuart Black
Plan Epsilon Around Lake Michigan in the era of Covid
Old School…When It Wasn’t Ancient bikepacking
Gold Fever Three days of dirt in Colorado
Pokin' around the Poconos A cold ride around Lake Erie
Dinosaurs in Colorado A mountain bike guide to the Purgatory Canyon dinosaur trackway
Solo Without Pie. The search for pie in the Midwest.
Picking the Scablands. Washington and Oregon, 2005. Pie and spiders on the Columbia River!



cyccommute is offline  
Likes For cyccommute:
Old 11-26-22, 11:15 PM
  #24  
Rogerogeroge
Full Member
 
Join Date: Oct 2017
Posts: 355

Bikes: Trek Emonda SLR 9; Moots Routt YBB; Trek Fuel EX8+; LeMond Poprad

Mentioned: 2 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 178 Post(s)
Liked 176 Times in 100 Posts
Originally Posted by Milton Keynes
How often do brifters just "crap out?"
99.9% of the time it's lack of maintenance (i.e., replacing cables and housing).

Carrying a thumbshifter sounds ludicrous. I'm pretty sure those cheap ones don't split so you have to unwrap the bartape, pull the 'brifter' off of the handlebar, install the thumbshifter, brifter, and re-tape that half of the bar.
Rogerogeroge is offline  
Old 11-27-22, 07:18 AM
  #25  
staehpj1
Senior Member
 
staehpj1's Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug 2006
Location: Tallahassee, FL
Posts: 11,837
Mentioned: 7 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 1236 Post(s)
Liked 744 Times in 554 Posts
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.
staehpj1 is offline  

Thread Tools
Search this Thread

Contact Us - Archive - Advertising - Cookie Policy - Privacy Statement - Terms of Service -

Copyright © 2024 MH Sub I, LLC dba Internet Brands. All rights reserved. Use of this site indicates your consent to the Terms of Use.