Ultegra 6800 shifter problem

[K1909]

Evening guys, after suffering a string of bad luck, car breaking down, chain snapping on my bike, everything was starting to look a bit better once the new chain arrived and the car was returned.

I went out for a ride Sunday morning, about 10 miles from home going down a fast hill my rear gear cable snaps inside the shifter. Bad luck hopefully comes in 3's

I make it back to a local bike shop stuck in gear. The guy was very helpful,and offered to replace the cable there and then., just to give him half an hour or so to sort it out.

I head back to the shop after a coffee, to be told the nipple which the cable was attached to has fallen inside the shifter mechanism and the leavers inside won't go back to the original position to fit the cable. The guy did offer take the shifter apart but there's no guarantee to that it will go back together correct.

So my only option it to purchase a set of ultegra 6800 shifters for a handsome sum of money. Just wondering has anyone else experienced this, and did they managed to get the shifter apart and back together again?

I'm not doubting the guy in the shop, just interested

[SystemParanoia]

cant help.. friction downtube shifters here.

[CoolC]

Do you have the old lever?

I'm guessing you've already tried shaking the nipple out? [childish snigger]

[G321]

I had the same problem a few weeks ago with a 105 shifter (5700). In this case there is a panel the opposite side that the cable enters that can be removed with one screw. Once this is off the barrel can be moved by hand back to the position where it's possible to get the nipple out. Might not be the same with Ultegra but it's worth a look

[Matt_N]

Quite a common problem, afaik.

The bike shop should be able to dismantle them to the degree required to extract the nipple.

One reason why Shimano have re-designed the cable routing in all their shifters and they feel much better for it.

[IroningMan]

I had this happen with my 5700 105 shifter, too; dismantling it wasn't rocket science.

[Some Gump]

What is there to lose? Currently you have a broken shifter. If you dismantle and try, worst case is broken shifter...

[S10GTA]

Common problem. I've had it happen to an ultegra shifter, as has my dad. Suck it up unfortunately.