R7000 R8000 Front Derailleurs

[stevenaaus]

I picked up my second bike with FD-R8000 this week, and that's 2/2 that came without the seat-tube derailleur strike plate. Gah... Has anyone got these front mechs sorted out! ?

I gave up (after much agro) with the first one and swapped the FD-R8000 for a FD-9000 with a long swing arm, and it goes great. Well, i'm about to give it another serious go. Wish me luck. The old BMC i picked up has a square seat tube, so i should be able to bodge some sort of strike plate without too much hassle.

But i'm flabbegasted how much hassle they are. On this bike the R8000 shifters / gears seemed to be professionally set-up. Just there's a missing plate, a little bore mark in my carbon down tube from the screw, and a crap shift. I've started to believe peak Shimano was Ultegra 6800 (5800/9000) and it's started a (long) death-throw since. (I *do* love the R8000 shifters size and feel though).

[Duck!]

The key thing to note with these derailleurs is that they need a truckload of cable tension, as do the preceding long-arm series. The trick is to initially align the outer cage plate with the outer face of the big chainring teeth using the low limit screw, and reef on the tension pretty much as hard as you can by hand as you tighten the anchor bolt. Then set the low limit to its proper place.

The absence of the pressure plate under the brace screw is nothing more than lazy assembly - Shimano have been speccing - and supplying them for years now. Your local should have some spares kicking around.

[warthog1]

The key thing to note with these derailleurs is that they need a truckload of cable tension, as do the preceding long-arm series. The trick is to initially align the outer cage plate with the outer face of the big chainring teethusing the low limit screw, and reef on the tension pretty much as hard as you can by hand as you tighten the anchor bolt. Then set the low limit to its proper place.

The absence of the pressure plate under the brace screw is nothing more than lazy assembly - Shimano have been speccing - and supplying them for years now. Your local should have some spares kicking around.

Great tip. Thank you

[stevenaaus]

and reef on the tension pretty much as hard as you can by hand

That's ironic, as the new tension adjusting screw is meant to make getting the correct cable tension /offset easy.

And it's touted as an "easy action" but afaics under any circumstances it won't be as easy action as the previous generation?

Annoyingly, I had found a good youtube video last year when I couldn't get a strike plate attached, but now I've lost that video amid the usual swarm of crap youtube videos.

[stevenaaus]

OK, I have it sorted out. Not too hard to Upshift, and cross chaining more or less OK.

Shimano's own doco, as well as most every youtube video on the adjustment, are all missing something re the shifter position at any one time. Very annoying and time consuming. Modern tech companies are quite pathetic imho.

This is the best guide I could find.
https://cycling-obsession.com/installat ... erailleur/

The question is - could they make installation any harder if they tried

[baabaa]

Not all companies....
https://www.youtube.com/c/microSHIFTTECH
They do a very good job of keeping it simple. Think the new Sword stuff will see people move away from the big brands for good

But yes agree I've started to believe peak Shimano was Ultegra 6800 (5800/9000) and it's started a (long) death-throw since. For me it was the 6600 Ice Grey SL groupset - was way above the specs I will ever need and was solid and suitable to mix and match to run with other parts and brands. Also any half ordinary back yard bike mechanic can get a smooth running bike with those bits.

[stevenaaus]

Haha.. I've never got my hands on 6600 SL.

I fitted some almost NOS ST-R700 this week. I'd been keeping them in the cupboard for myself, but a close friend of friend needed them, so they've gone now.

I should give the new Chinese gear a proper look-see. I got put off sram cassettes after problems with a pg-1030 or something.

[rkelsen]

Not all companies....
https://www.youtube.com/c/microSHIFTTECH
They do a very good job of keeping it simple.

Wow. That does look good. I wonder if those shifters can easily be rebuilt?

[Duck!]

Haha.. I've never got my hands on 6600 SL.

Aside from the anodised colour, 6600 SL shifters are identical to standard 6600, however other components in the sub-series got minor tweaks to take a little bit of weight out.

But that whole 7800-derived family, which trickles right down to 2400 Claris, for me is Shimano's peak era for shifting. They still break cables, because that's a trait of stainless steel, and when they do it's a much more difficult process to extract detached cable heads, but the much more direct entry into the shifter greatly reduces friction and strain on the cable.

[warthog1]

I hated the cables out of the side of the head of the body with 6600.
Hand positioning much preferred for me with em gone.
Have 6800, 5800 and 7000 currently. All good.

[Duck!]

I kind of like the "seat belt" effect of the exposed cables; hooking your thumb under gives a safety net against slipping off the front of the hoods if you hit a big enough bump, which I've come uncomfortably close to doing several times when riding on hidden-cable shifters. The 7900 & related family was a big backward step in shift quality - horrendous friction where the cables enter the shifters. The 11-sp.-derived family, which extends to 10-sp. 4700 Tiagra, 9-sp. R3000 Sora and 8-sp. R2000 Claris is a significant improvement in shift feel, but I don't think any better than 7800 & related, and the convoluted cable routing exacerbates the inherent trait of stainless steel to fatigue.

[warthog1]

Yeah 6700 wasn't as good shifting but no major problems for me.
Wasn't on it for too long before I went 6800.
That has always shifted well with mid cage derailleur.

[stevenaaus]

Yeah, 6700 front shift is just a bit nasty.

Aside from the anodised colour, 6600 SL shifters are identical to standard 6600

Hmmm -
https://roadcyclinguk.com/gear/new-shim ... nents.html

The “Ice Grey” Dual Control Levers (-43g),

Yours for a sweet grand
https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/115896414494

[stevenaaus]

Yeah - i guess the shift is ok / good. Love the hoods.

But pretty doubtful about the R8000 rim brake calipers. Geez they bend when you tighten anything, and the quick release lever looks flimsy.

[baabaa]

I should give the new Chinese gear a proper look-see. I got put off sram cassettes after problems with a pg-1030 or something.

You might find this of interest - from the Rivendell weekly email in regard to a trip just back from Japan and Taiwan...
https://us7.campaign-archive.com/?u=ad1 ... dbb9c3d569

We met with Microshift; I don't want to jinx anything, but we got some good news there. Nothing is 100% yet, but it's looking good. Microshift is one of the most interesting factories I've seen; I definitely want to use their stuff after seeing how much care and attention they put into everything. They've got shoes-off R&D zones and wild precision testing machines to make sure everything is perfect.

Sometimes when, against my better judgement, I scroll through bikey forums, or look at Instagram, I'll occasionally see comments disparaging Taiwan-built bike stuff. The implication is always that it's by definition lower quality, and it drives me nuts because these people have no idea what they're talking about, or their experience is based on some bike they got in the late '80s or something. Sorry bud, it's 2023 and the best production bike stuff is happening in Taiwan right now. I'm sure it's possible to get low quality stuff there, but definitely not from any supplier we use. The lead frame-makers we use would be famous if they were over here and building under their own names; The wheel makers standard is 4x more rigorous than the normal ISO test; Microshift can make 300 perfect derailers an hour; and everything we get from Taiwan is meticulously, almost frustratingly, tested over and over for function and strength. Whatever these internet commenters (always a great source of info, right?) picture in their minds when they think of Taiwan companies is way off the mark.

[stevenaaus]

^^^ Thats encouraging news. Shimano have kindof adandoned reasonably priced road groupsets.

I think the new shadow based derailleurs are a good design, but have heard elsewhere, and noticed myself today, nasty chain slap. It might be worthwhile to keep the chains on the shorter side when using shadow road.

Hmmm - this BMC has super low clearance to the chainstay when running 11t to 36t