hydro disc brake shifters - some gripes....

[shobo]

I' m still a fan of hydro brakes in spite of this.....

I've had a couple of shifters in the past that have had to be scrapped, but due to failures on the gear cable side rather than the hydro side. Expensive.

Gripe 1:

This time I've experienced a fairly rapid failure on the hydro side where the lever has excessive travel making it useless. I've just now topped up the hydraulic fluid which has corrected it for the time being, but I'm not expecting this remedy to last as the cause is almost certainly a seeping (and undetectable) leak.

I am not hopeful of ever being able to identify the leak and correct it (though I don't notice any leak at the calliper). I will have to scrap the entire shifter. I'm not too optimistic about my chances, being inexperienced, of successfully coupling a new shifter to the hydraulic pipe, so I might end up buying one of those already-filled shifter / calliper / pipe sets, and put up with excess pipe which will look a mess.

Gripe 2:

The filling point for the hydraulic fluid is accessible only by cutting away the rubber shifter cover, meaning it has to be patched up with black tape. Bad design.

Gripe 3:

The reliability of hydro shifters ? I estimate one complete failure (albeit usually on the gear cable side) per year. Dreadful.

Its almost enough to turn me away from hydro, but not quite.

Thoughts anyone ?

[rfryer]

What model of lever/shifter are you using? It sounds very odd that you need to cut away the hood in order to bleed the brakes.

It sounds as though you should have sufficient parts now to create a working lever, by adding your current shifting components to one of the old bodies? If that's not an option, given the luck you're having, I'd consider just switching to having a non-shifting hydraulic lever (ie one of your old ones with broken shifter) and moving the shifting to thumbies or bar-ends.

[shobo]

Thankyou fryer
I don't have the technical ability to cannibalise bits from other shifters unfortunately.
I didn't keep my previous failed shifters.
Switching to a bar end shifter would be a temporary fix. In fact, I did this on the left hand (front) on the very same bike, after that broke, and still have it in place, after a year ! But then I wouldn't have brakes.

[shobo]

the filler hole for the hydro fluid is right at the back of the shifter close to the handlebar. Its not possible to pull back the rubber hood enough to access it. I think in the early models it was near the front of the shifter.

[amediasatex]

thoughts anyone?

My initial thoughts are that your experiences are not typical. I'm not doubting that you've had failures, but the frequency you've experienced is not 'normal'. If the genuine failure rate was <12 months then there would be uproar from both consumers and industry (having to support the product).

I'd never claim that they are more (or even as) reliable as traditional mechanical setups, but a properly installed and bled installation should require almost no maintenance other than pad replacement. You'd be advised to do an annual fluid change but even that is not necessary. Three are literally thousands of units out there that are running fine after years of use.

I'm inclined to think you've either suffered a very unfortunate run of luck, or that there is something specific to your installation or operating environment that has caused your problems. I'd if it were me I'd certainly want to get to the bottom of the 'why' before I considered continuing to use them.

Have you returned to, or spoken with the retailer to discuss your issues? It certainly sounds like you'd have a credible warranty claim if you've had the amount of failures you report, I'd hope they'd be replacing failed shifters or brakes for you if they were failing within 12months.

The filling point for the hydraulic fluid is accessible only by cutting away the rubber shifter cover, meaning it has to be patched up with black tape. Bad design.

This is not required on any Shimano Road shifters as far as I am aware. None of the technical manuals state or imply that this is a requirement or that a replacement hood is needed when bleeding. What model shifters are you using?

[Brucey]

shimano parts carry a two-year warranty. If the shifter fails inside two years, you should get a new one in warranty.

Since you can change lever hoods for new lever hoods, it is not possible to arrange them so that a fill port is completely inaccessible, is it....?

If you are going to use hydraulic brakes you either need to use a good LBS to maintain them or you need to learn how to do it yourself (not a roadside job but not that difficult in the workshop). Badly filled and badly bled hydraulic systems are very common on new bikes. I doubt if your system could have lost enough fluid to need topping up, not without it being obvious, anyway; even two drips of oil makes a right mess; I'd therefore suppose that your system needed topping up because it was never filled properly in the first place.

Re the shifter failures; is it possible that your circumstances of use are different from normal? For example do you sweat copiously from your hands and might this (or something else) get into the mechanism?

cheers