STI Levers and Front mech shifting help

[bad boy]

Evening all,

I have my new bike and being new to road bikes and STI levers need a little help.

I have a triple with a 105 FD when I shift down fron the largest front ring to the middle I have to click it twice but its like the first click is a half click.

Other than this every other shift combination on the front works fine.

I think this is a trim position do I need to do anything or is this normall to cick twice to shift down ??.

Can I get it so I just click once ?, im not overally bothered if someone said thats how its supposed to be its just the fact I dont know.

Any help much apreciated

 

[fossyant]

It's trim..... can you shove the shifter further over to drop down ?

I don't have road STI, but with the MTB stuff, a quick jab drops the trim, and a bigger push changes down.

 

[andrew_s]

Road shifters are the same. To change give it a proper push, to trim give it a little nudge.

There are only 4 positions, that I generally treated as outer, middle to small cogs, middle to large cogs, and inner.
A big push will move the mech past the click stop so the change occurs, and then will let it drop back. A small push takes the mech to the click stop but no further.

 

[bad boy]

Road shifters are the same. To change give it a proper push, to trim give it a little nudge.

There are only 4 positions, that I generally treated as outer, middle to small cogs, middle to large cogs, and inner.
A big push will move the mech past the click stop so the change occurs, and then will let it drop back. A small push takes the mech to the click stop but no further.

HI andrew many thanks for this reply,

I understand what your saying but as my extra shift is from the large ring to the middle I am using the small black down shifter which I believe operates differently to the bigger silver up shifter in that it only allows single clicks like my mtb shifters so the result is that I have to click it twice I cant do a longer sweep like I can going up ?.

Sorry does this makes sense if so is it a potential problem I have ?

 

[gwhite]

HI andrew many thanks for this reply,

I understand what your saying but as my extra shift is from the large ring to the middle I am using the small black down shifter which I believe operates differently to the bigger silver up shifter in that it only allows single clicks like my mtb shifters so the result is that I have to click it twice I cant do a longer sweep like I can going up ?.

Sorry does this makes sense if so is it a potential problem I have ?

If the trim is operating on the change from large ring to middle , then the cable tension needs to be altered. The trim should work on the middle ring only to allow for the rear larger sprockets to be used without the FD cage rubbing. Your problem would seem to be too much tension in my opinion. You should try turning the cable adjuster clockwise a quarter of a turn at a time. If that doesn't work then refer to the Parktool website for instructions on how to adjust this but best to start from the beginning.

 

[bad boy]

If the trim is operating on the change from large ring to middle , then the cable tension needs to be altered. The trim should work on the middle ring only to allow for the rear larger sprockets to be used without the FD cage rubbing. Your problem would seem to be too much tension in my opinion. You should try turning the cable adjuster clockwise a quarter of a turn at a time. If that doesn't work then refer to the Parktool website for instructions on how to adjust this but best to start from the beginning.

Hi gwhite thanks for the advice that was exactly my logic when I first experienced it.

Being as it was a new bike I assumed the cable tension was too tight no adjustment could be made by the barrel adjuster to loosen as it was screwed all the way in so I removed the cable from the FD etc.

Basically after reading everything I could find and all the Shimano tech docs for the st-5603 triple lever, that is how its supposed to work according to their documentation.

its Inner -trim - middle - trim - outer - trim There is a good trim diagram on Shimano website which illustrates this better then I can type it, you can move from the middle trim position to the untrimmed outer position hence needing a one click down shift to get back to the middle but this is sometimes hard to find the idea is the extra trim position on the outer ring is to allow no rub in the low gears on the back when in that front ring.

I wont use them any how so will have to quickly double shift down from the top to move down to the middle, but I might use the L limit stop to freeze out the trim position on the outer ring !? not sure yet.

So basically for the st-5603 thats how it is. No doubt you can play with it as mentioned above as some people have done.

I rang the shop also and Ianr who rides the same bike confirmed his was setup like that too.

I suppose ive answered my own question but thank you to everyone for their help it seems a complicated subject.