Re: Helping a tourist with STI problems

On 22 May 2025 12:25:59 GMT, Roger Merriman <roger@sarlet.com> wrote:

Frank Krygowski <frkrygow@sbcglobal.net> wrote:

Last night we hosted a touring cyclist from Japan. He's ridden here from
NYC and is on his way to LA, by a route that I think is too ambitious,
given his time frame. He's a chef and was nice enough to cook dinner!
He's riding a Jamis touring bike, disc brakes, Tiagra 2x10, very heavily
loaded.
 
This morning he headed west about 10 AM, trying to beat oncoming rain.
But at about 1 PM he sent me an email from 18 miles down the road,
saying his bike stopped shifting. He'd tried but failed to fix it
himself. Could I help? He thought he might have broken a rear shift
cable, but wasn't sure.
 
I didn't get the email until later, but when I did I drove off into
heavy traffic and rain to see if I could help. I took tools and spare
cables. On the way, I encountered him backtracking, about five miles
from my place - so having wasted about 30 miles. I loaded his bike onto
my car's rack and drove him to my LBS.
 
The mechanic there is an old friend of mine. I was able to convince him
to stop other work to fix the tourist's bike. Turns out that in
fiddling, the young guy had completely unscrewed the adjustable cable
stop on the rear derailleur. But fixing that still left complications.
 
This mechanic has long had the reputation of being the best in the area.
(I've mentioned him before as the winner of the "fix a flat" race at a
local cycling picnic event.) Still, he was quite frustrated by the front
Tiagra STI lever. He seemed to be having trouble getting it set to the
right condition to properly seat the cable end, then thread the cut end
of the cable into the (totally enclosed) cable housing. It wasn't
responding properly to the upshift or downshift levers.
 
Spraying the guts thoroughly with lubricant has been the only thing I've
ever done to fix STI. Eventually, doing that enabled him to get the
levers working again and allowed the repair to complete. As a result of
all this, the young guy is going to do an extra overnight here.
 
To me, it's justification for my preference for bar end shifters for
touring. I prefer simple devices with only visible problems.
 

That’s your techo growch showing! I’m assuming bar end shifters would still
require some technical knowledge to rebuild.
>
Don’t believe STI etc shifters are rebuildable particularly but then again
in my experience they just work, and soak up the miles.
>
I have the Tiagra shifters 10s though are at least a few, different models.
>
Roger Merriman

My 3x9 shifters are Shimano Altus Sl-M2010 thumb trigger shifters
which probably have a similar mechanism as as the STIs. I've managed
to adapt them to my very nonstandard handlebars, and I like them so
much that I bought a second pair in case these ever fail.

--
C'est bon
Soloman