Another Broken Shimano DA 9spd Bar End Lever

[Wraith Rider]

What is it with these things?  Is it just a poor application for trikes?  I broke my bar end third shift lever last week while on a century.  I had noticed the day before that my low end shifting had become somewhat erratic but didn't give it much thought until I lost all indexing about 50 miles from home.  As usual, the bezel was cracked and had finally let everything slip.

Oddly enough, I've got 12,000 miles on the same levers on my Fujin and 6,000 miles on my tandem with no problem.  My VK2 probably has 7,000 miles on the levers.  These went almost exactly 1,050 miles on my 700.  My Speed and Road each got about 800 before they broke.

It makes me wonder if it's the placement of the lever on a trike where trikers are able to pull back more or something.  Anyway, my LBS is going to send this one in and try to get it replaced for me.

[Hipster]

Dennis,
One item that may factor in ... I don't know about you, but I shift way more often on my trikes than I do on the bents, CFs & uprights.

I've pretty much quit using indexing on the Shimano bar ends & have converted over to friction only Rivendell Silvers on a couple. I like friction & the Silvers are smoooth to the hand & smoooth shifting.

[John Rooker]

Theory:

When I have bar end shifters on a trike, my hand position is almost always on those shifters, like they are a bar extension.  I don't think the Shimano shifter is made with that in mind.  These things are to be mounted on the ends of drop bars or aero bars where they don't get leaned on.  T

[Wraith Rider]

Hipster, I rode the rest of my ride in friction mode and it only took a few miles to be shifting like it was 1985 again.  I was hitting every shift with ease. 

[Wraith Rider]

John, you may be right.  It almost has to be the application.  I've been using hese things for years without any problems; only trikes seem to have this problem.

[trikebldr]

When I bought Dave Balfour's 700c '03 Speed, it had some older Dura Ace bar ends, but the indexed one had a broken off lever. That's one of the two that I disected last summer and posted pictures of (see pics and link below for more pics). The other one was a fairly new (less than a year old) shifter. There was a significant difference in the thickness of the detent ring in each one of them, but the depth of the detent holes was the same. This means that Shimano is now making thinner detent rings with deeper cuts into them. You do the math!

Every shifter I have heard about failing has been due to the detent ring cracking into two pieces. When it does this, it then gets pushed outward by the springs with enough force to break past the plastic bezel. This is exactly what happened to Rafael last year (bottom pic).

Shimano had better get their act together and go back to the thicker ring or they will lose their detent shifter business to warantee replacements. Even if they are good about backing them with service, who likes to be inconvenienced by a broken shifter so often?

http://www.flickr.com/photos/7789950@N05/sets/72157622220553188/

[trikebldr]

BTW, the newet bar end shifter I have on hand is from my '08 Speed, and it still works just fine. Even the ones on Holey Spokes are the original ones, and they have been drilled into oblivion, but still work just fine. I also ride just like John does, with my hand mostly around the shifter and just a part of the top of the handlebar, but I don't find that I put that much force on that shifter during turns, or it would tend to make it shift! That force would also not affect the detent plate that keeps breaking. If it did, then you would also be experiencing unwanted shifting first! The detent plate doesn't take any of the force from your hand until you want to shift.

I think you will find that the ones that are breaking were sold sometime in 2009 or 2010. Hmmm! Didn't Shimano introduced the new 10 speed equipment in 2009? Maybe they made some dimensional changes to the parts in all of their bar ends when they started making 10 speed shifters.

[Wraith Rider]

I installed bar ends on my Road and Speed in the winter of 2008-2009 and these were the first ones to break.  My 700 shifter that I broke was a late 2009 model soball three were late 2008 or newer.  You may be on to something, Bruce.

[trikebldr]

Dennis, do you remember when Shimano introduced those Dura Ace shifters? Until about a year ago, I never heard of one breaking unless somebody hit it against the ground or something pretty hard. Seems like we hear of one breaking almost every month, now.

[Oldfrt]

I have had to replace the shifter once on my tour so far and plan on going to sram when I replace the rear derailer this winter (over 10,000 miles on it).  I have sram on my musashi and the feel of the shifting is a lot firmer.

Dennis

[trikebldr]

While we are talking about broken components, unless you are returning the item for replacement under warantee, I wouild sure like to have anything you are going to throw out. Especially, wheel hubs, shifters of any kind, brake calipers or headtubes and headsets from crashed frames. I would like to do some cut-aways of these items for taking pictures to post for clarification. After all, a picture is worth a million words! (Ha! Thought I was going to say a thousand words, didn'tcha? Well, bike parts require more to describe!)

[Wraith Rider]

Dennis, do you remember when Shimano introduced those Dura Ace shifters? Until about a year ago, I never heard of one breaking unless somebody hit it against the ground or something pretty hard. Seems like we hear of one breaking almost every month, now.

They've been around a long time.  I'm sure the 9 model came out whenever Shimano went to 9 speeds.  I know that they had 8spd and I'm pretty sure that they had 7 before that.  I installed the ones on my tandem in 2004 and my 2004 Aero had them, also.  My 2006 Fujin has them and I installed some on a Volae in 2004.

It's only been new ones since late 2008, early 2009 that I've broken.

[John Rooker]

Do you recall the Shamano parts shortage a few years back?  I'm thinking 2004/2005?  I bought a new Longbikes Slipstream and it came with an 8 speed shifter in friction mode because 9 speed indexed bar ends were impossible to get. Pete Stull stole a 9 speed shifter off another bike for me, probably one of his own Linears. Greg Peek was tooling up to make his own shifters at that point because he was so frustrated with Shimano.  Is this when Shimano made design changes?  There probably aren't any kind of markings on these things to determine date of manufacture are there? 

It's too bad that J-Tek doesn't make their shifter in a 9 speed SIS.  It is far superior to the Shimano shifter.