Buy Shimano ST-R500 STI Flight Deck Lever Set (8-Speed, Silver)Shimano ST-R500 STI Flight Deck Lever Set (8-Speed, Silver) Product Description:
- Front/Rear: Set Shifter Detail Color: Silver
Product Description
Customer Reviews
Most helpful customer reviews
13 of 14 people found the following review helpful.
Good Replacement For Now
By Bill S.
I own a 93 Specialized Allez Epic with Dura Ace components. The bike sat in the garage for a number of years before I got back into cycling. I purchased these to replace my old Dura Ace 7403 shifters. I got tired of purchasing bad used replacements on E-bay. A mechanic at my LBS found these for me.I ran into a big problem. The mechanic could not get them to shift into the two highest (small) gears on the rear cassette. He thought the old 8 speed derailer might be bad, but the same problem happened when I gave him a spare derailer I had. He got them to work with an entry level Sora 9 speed long cage derailer. I did some internet research and found out that when Shimano introduced 9 speed in 1997 they changed cable travel of the rear derailer so that the whole line of their products was compatible from then on. Refer to Sheldon Brown's web site for more information on this problem. http://www.sheldonbrown.com/dura-ace.htmlYou can't buy new 9 speed Dura Ace or Ultegra rear derailers in the bike shops because Shimano no longer manufactures them and 10 speed derailers won't work on 8 speed. I went back to E-bay and purchased a new 9 speed Dura Ace rear derailer. It works perfectly with the shifters and my 8 speed cassette.The shifters themselves are OK. The right shifter shifts very smoothly through the whole range of gears. I notice a bit of difference between it and the Dura Ace model, but not enough to matter. The left shifter has a noticeable "klunk" in it. This might not matter to most touring riders, but to someone used to high performance racing parts, it is huge.It's not a deal breaker for me though. I'm happy to be able to be riding with shifters that work. These will do fine until I can find a New Old Stuff set of Dura Ace shifters on E-bay. I didn't buy a set last summer when it showed up on E-bay because I thought the price was too high, but now I wish I had. They will only cost more next time. It's still cheaper than buying a new bike, which I hope do sometime down the road.These shifters do a good job. Buy them on Amazon. It's the best price. I bought mine from my LBS for much more because I didn't know I could get them here. These shifters will make most people happy, but if you are looking to match them with old high performance 8 speed, you may run into the problem I experienced. I hope this review helps.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful.
Wonderful Replacement/Upgrade
By Steven P. Albano
I purchased the ST-R500 shifters to replace on older style worn out set. Everything necessary for complete installation was included. Directions were adequate, and the actual installation went smoothly. Once the shifters were on the bike and the cable tension adjusted my son took it for a ride. And another ride, and now many more. So far with lots of club riding and a few hundred miles they are still working like day one. If you have an 8 speed road bike in need of new or upgraded shifters, these should do the trick!
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful.
Front shifter has annoying design flaw.
By Kenneth Toyama
I bought these as an upgrade to my Shimano 2203 shifter set so I could shift from the drops.The good:The braking feel/action is much better than my old 2203 as the levers are stiffer. The rear shifter can downshift three gears in one push. The inner & middle chainrings have a trim setting.The bad:Upshifts on the rear shifter require a somewhat firm push & seem to lack a decisive click. This is a super minor gripe.The front shifter won't reliably shift well to the middle ring from the small ring in one push. To get enough travel from the small chainring you have to first engage the trim click, release the lever & THEN upshift to the middle ring.With my old 2203 shifter, there is a extra lever travel left after the click on the upshift so I can push the derailleur slightly past the correct position for the middle ring just to get it to engage. Once it engages, I release the lever & the derailleur falls into the correct middle ring position. This is all done in ONE push of the lever. The ST-R500 stops right at the click & doesn't allow that little extra push to ensure the shift gets done.Shimano's included tech document shows a workaround for this problem. Quote below:"If operation of lever a dose notcomplete the chainring shift stroke,operate lever a again for the distance(X') to complete that part of the leverstroke (X) which was short."My workaround is better. I already know the lever will not "complete the shift stroke" leaving the chain hunting/grinding between the two chainrings, unable to take any pedaling force without throwing the chain off completely while I release the lever & push again to finish the shift . It's far better to set the trim first and then make a smooth, normal upshift.I'm not sure how annoying this will prove to be yet but, I am disappointed that there is a downside to my "upgrade". The time I spent trying to figure out why it wouldn't upshift to the middle ring half the time was definitely annoying.Consider spending a little more to upgrade everything to Tiagra 4500 9 speed which would be a much better set-up.4/4/13 Switched this bike to double. These work perfectly on my double set up(same as double specific I think) and I didn't have to buy another shifter!
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