Broken Gear Cable

[fossyant]

Have you clicked the down shift lever (the one behind the brake lever) to rotate the mechanism. Needs to be in the lowest gear to fit and remove cables - if it's in any other gear, no chance. You may need yo pull on the strands as you click down.

 

[Dogtrousers]

Good luck!

 

[T4tomo]

hmm almost looks like the nipple end is stuck in there. you will need to push it out, but must be in the least tension gear, so click little lever as you pull on those strands to get there, you should then be able to see the nipple from the other side, and then push the whole lot out.

Ah fossyant - agrees!

I do think this is the issue, the nipple end is being held in because you're in a middle of the range gear, and it wont click back because there is no pull on the cable (usually from the derailler) because the cable has snapped. so you need to create that "pull" on the cable to get the gear lever mechanism back round to its resting spot.

 

[roubaixtuesday]

I've taken the hood off and taken the small cover off that's as far as I'm going with it I'll just keep pulling pushing and twisting the frayed bit in the hope the nipple comes free

Good job! Following the advice in above posts, you should be able to get it out from there.

 

[Jimmy Welch]

The wheel goes up and down like I'm changing from high to low and it clicks away perfectly all the way through so I bit the bullet and LBS'd it now interestingly they said 105 must have a design fault as they often fail right at exit of the hoods and its not the 1st this week he's dealt with but the nipple isn't coming out without the use of watchmaker type tools and a lot of fiddly stuff that beyond a blurt like me but cheers lads it was good to get a bit closer to the mystery of the system

 

[Jimmy Welch]

You feel that ending up at the LBS after trying so hard is a bit like calling the missus when you've had a mechanical that you can't fix roadside.....defeated

 

[fossyant]

Just bought a bike with 105 that's 10 years old with the same 'new style' shifters (hidden cables). Changed every cable straight away as the cables don't last long.

My two other road bikes are ancient and have down tube shifters, so no crazy bends. My best bike is still running the Dura Ace cables it came with - very different cabes - loads more finer cable threads.

 

[fossyant]

You feel that ending up at the LBS after trying so hard is a bit like calling the missus when you've had a mechanical that you can't fix roadside.....defeated

They are fiddly little buggers. Might expain why MTB shifters are much cheaper, as you don't need the crazy cable bends.