I'm a mountain biker from way back but have given into getting a road bike for faster commuting. I bought a 2nd hand Avanti Sprint Comp Series road bike. It has Shimano RSX brifters in which the gear shifters are not working, I've heard that blasting these out with WD40 usually fixes the problem. However if this doesn't work I'm seriously considering changing to a flat bar because I'm really not into the drop bar thing but I'm not sure what would be compatible. Does anyone know what STI I could use on a flat bar?

Much thanks in advance

any shimano 7spd shifter dewd

For a commuter - just ditch the gears altogether and go single speed - lowest possible maintenance

If it is 7 speed not 8 speed RSX you can find 7 speed Shimano downtube shifters on TM for 10 bucks.
Finding them with the screws and halfmoon frame adaptors is a little harder but your LBS should have those. (and maybe some old DT shifters come to think of it). The adapters need to be right curvature for your downtube, typically - 28.6mm for steel, 31.8mm for alu & carboon.

STI trub is often hardened grease gumming up the pawl so it doesnt engage the ratchet.

Prove that the cables are running nicely first, and all the derailleur pivots.
Try a fan heater and a little penetrating oil on the STIs first, if no luck then CRC. The 7, 8 speed STIs are said to be easier to work on than the later ones, but I think most attempts produce at best a bag containing 98% of the parts.

CRC and oil both will rot your hoods, they swell and go sticky and weak.

There are various photo series on the web for STI repair.
http://www.facebook.com/groups/100856572916/


I would think it would take a couple of months before you can tell whether you are a drop-bar kind of guy or not

Hi guys thanks very much for the help, I'm going to try see if I can get them working first

Simonius_Titius wrote:If it is 7 speed not 8 speed RSX you can find 7 speed Shimano downtube shifters on TM for 10 bucks.
Finding them with the screws and halfmoon frame adaptors is a little harder but your LBS should have those. (and maybe some old DT shifters come to think of it). The adapters need to be right curvature for your downtube, typically - 28.6mm for steel, 31.8mm for alu & carboon.

STI trub is often hardened grease gumming up the pawl so it doesnt engage the ratchet.

Prove that the cables are running nicely first, and all the derailleur pivots.
Try a fan heater and a little penetrating oil on the STIs first, if no luck then CRC. The 7, 8 speed STIs are said to be easier to work on than the later ones, but I think most attempts produce at best a bag containing 98% of the parts.

CRC and oil both will rot your hoods, they swell and go sticky and weak.

There are various photo series on the web for STI repair.
http://www.facebook.com/groups/100856572916/


I would think it would take a couple of months before you can tell whether you are a drop-bar kind of guy or not

Where abouts do I use the crc on the sti? I also took the front plate off and the spring came out, I wish I read the forums before, apparently its dang hard to get it back on, do you have any advice? Thanks

Below is the instructions for replacing the top cap I snipped from somewhere. The cap holds one end of the big shift lever return spring under tension so it is a bit of a fiddle. If you are having trouble manoevering the spring into the hole look to see whether the tip of the spring has a sharp edge which isn't helping. Grease everything before reassembly especially the spring ends.

But first, wrap up the hoods to protect them from grease. Then dig deeper into the doo-doo until you have identified the problem.

RSX front cap / brake spring tensioner reassembly:

I naively removed the front cover on my 1997 Shimano RSX STI shift lever -- the big allen bolt on front practically invites this -- then heard the "ping of horror" of the torsion spring unloading and popping out.

But after an hour of frustrating experimentation, I did manage to replace the cover and spring (with proper tension) without special tools, by using the spring cover itself as a "wrench" to rewind the spring.

Here's how: Insert the thin washer precisely into the circular groove in the cover where the spring sits, with one bent end of the spring inserted into the small slot at top of the inside fo the cover (12 o clock). Compress the spring with your thumb to make sure it is flat and level when compressed, and the washer stays in place surrounding the spring. Then find the hole in the inside of the lever cover (at 6 o'clock)where the other end of the spring inserts.

Next, with the lever in normal vertical position, very gently align the cover and press it into the lever until the free end of the spring can be inserted in the hole. At this point, the cover will be rotated 45 degrees clockwise from its fully installed position. Now, using thumb and 2 fingers, firmly push the cover in, keeping the spring engaged at both ends, while very firmly rotating it about 45 degrees counter-clockwise, until you can line up the square center hole then insert the allen bolt.
It seems to work as it did before assembly.

For a more elegant method of rewinding and holding the spring (during reassembly of a Shimano Ultegra shifter) bloggers at
http://www.billcotton.com/sti_shifter_repair.htm
suggest using a sewing "loop turner" with a homemade clamp, or a "dental hook."
I don't know whether such tools would work with the larger diameter RSX spring.

Shimano had a special tool which was just a thin straight tube to go over the end of the spring to turn it. A rolled pin from Mitre 10 should work as well.



This is from the world's only publicly available repository of many ancient Shimano Exploded Views, to the best of my knowledge. They sell parts if you can find someone to handle the Japanese language.

http://www3.big.or.jp/~number-1/index.html

This is the 8-speed version but it has a clearer diagram and the English parts list helps explain things. Note part no. 9 is only needed for 3 triple front.
The 7-speed ST-A410 is also on the site, in German but with part equivalents to the A550 and 105 shifters shown.


Source is Paul-Lange.de - this is the only other old Shimano EV site I know. It only goes back to early nineties but some docs and navigation are in English.
Note STI comes under ST - Rapidfire, not SB - Shift-Brake.
http://www.paul-lange.de/service/support/handbuecher-archiv.html
Your ST-A410 is there too. Note there is a part shown that is only for 3-speed

Simonius_Titius wrote:Below is the instructions for replacing the top cap I snipped from somewhere. The cap holds one end of the big shift lever return spring under tension so it is a bit of a fiddle. If you are having trouble manoevering the spring into the hole look to see whether the tip of the spring has a sharp edge which isn't helping. Grease everything before reassembly especially the spring ends.

But first, wrap up the hoods to protect them from grease. Then dig deeper into the doo-doo until you have identified the problem.

RSX front cap / brake spring tensioner reassembly:

I naively removed the front cover on my 1997 Shimano RSX STI shift lever -- the big allen bolt on front practically invites this -- then heard the "ping of horror" of the torsion spring unloading and popping out.

But after an hour of frustrating experimentation, I did manage to replace the cover and spring (with proper tension) without special tools, by using the spring cover itself as a "wrench" to rewind the spring.

Here's how: Insert the thin washer precisely into the circular groove in the cover where the spring sits, with one bent end of the spring inserted into the small slot at top of the inside fo the cover (12 o clock). Compress the spring with your thumb to make sure it is flat and level when compressed, and the washer stays in place surrounding the spring. Then find the hole in the inside of the lever cover (at 6 o'clock)where the other end of the spring inserts.

Next, with the lever in normal vertical position, very gently align the cover and press it into the lever until the free end of the spring can be inserted in the hole. At this point, the cover will be rotated 45 degrees clockwise from its fully installed position. Now, using thumb and 2 fingers, firmly push the cover in, keeping the spring engaged at both ends, while very firmly rotating it about 45 degrees counter-clockwise, until you can line up the square center hole then insert the allen bolt.
It seems to work as it did before assembly.

For a more elegant method of rewinding and holding the spring (during reassembly of a Shimano Ultegra shifter) bloggers at
http://www.billcotton.com/sti_shifter_repair.htm
suggest using a sewing "loop turner" with a homemade clamp, or a "dental hook."
I don't know whether such tools would work with the larger diameter RSX spring.

Thanks very much for the info, after about 30 minutes of trying I finally managed to get the cap back on with the spring in place! I also blasted the insides with CRC and I'm glad to report that the gear shifters and now working!!!! Unbelievable really!!!!

So I'm going to give the drop bars a go but I'm curious (please forgive me if I sound stupid, I'm new to this road biking thing), would it be possible to mount dropbar STIs sideways on a flatbar (essentially using it like rapidfire STIs)???? Forget about the practicality of gear changing, is it actually possible?

Unfortunately mixing flat bar and road stuff is not as simple as it seems, though Shimano have a whole set of special road flatbar gear which works very nicely.

Road bars are fatter than MTB, that's easy to shim.

Brake travel for STI on a flat bar would be almost non existent. Special bodgy angled shims wouldn't be enough.

Cable length and angle - dunno, might be hard to handle full bar turns without cable damage, or small turns without autoshift.

MTB rear shifters work fine on road rear derailleurs.

MTB front shifters pull much more cable than road, but MTB FDs are made for a MTB crank with 3 rings, a much wider chainline, a fatter seat tube for all but the oldest ones.
MTB FD cabling is usually top pull only, though some do both.
It is doable, tourers do it. I suspect the really old MTB FDs might make life easier with bottom pull and your 28.6mm clamp size. There's one on Trademe for $5.

Note the amount of lever bend required to get what looks like inadequate lever travel. It just wouldn't work at all with the levers in front.

Possibly you could mount STIs on MTB bar extensions, really big ones with a bend might work. You will need shimming, and trustworthyness, then a few layers of bart ape.

Or easier is to do what the guy with the pictured bike should have done - flip the bars and fit the STIs in the normal position. That will give you "alky bars". Endure the shame for a bit and don't cut the bars because the hand postion might not be all that comfortable.

Simonius_Titius wrote:Unfortunately mixing flat bar and road stuff is not as simple as it seems, though Shimano have a whole set of special road flatbar gear which works very nicely.

Road bars are fatter than MTB, that's easy to shim.

Brake travel for STI on a flat bar would be almost non existent. Special bodgy angled shims wouldn't be enough.

Cable length and angle - dunno, might be hard to handle full bar turns without cable damage, or small turns without autoshift.

MTB rear shifters work fine on road rear derailleurs.

MTB front shifters pull much more cable than road, but MTB FDs are made for a MTB crank with 3 rings, a much wider chainline, a fatter seat tube for all but the oldest ones.
MTB FD cabling is usually top pull only, though some do both.
It is doable, tourers do it. I suspect the really old MTB FDs might make life easier with bottom pull and your 28.6mm clamp size. There's one on Trademe for $5.

I never ever change my front gears, I'm always in the biggest sprocket to get the most power (biggest sprocket in front and smallest sprocket in the rear is still not enough for me ). So in that sense the front shifters don't matter. So I suppose I might be on the lookout on TM for some integrated calliper brake lever and gear shifters.

Sorry to bring up this thread again but thought you might all like to know that I rode my first road race a few weeks back and came 2nd in the mens on my hybrid! Was the 32km Pokeno Wheels and Heels. Check my face of death

Heh, everyone will want a hybrid now.