Electronic & Hydraulic Shifting (Di2, Ui2, customisations)

Ah yeah i see a silver option listed now thanks

Etap blips on an aero cockpit, what’s the best solution, ideally either side of the stem as climbing buttons, just electrical tape them?

I used a small square of double sided gorilla tape, then bar tape over the top.

Ah ok. Which bar tape?
I really like lizard skins older style but it’s probably less than ideal for this job

I use lizard skins dsp 2.5. Works fine

Great. If it’s not too much hassle could you get a picture at some point so I can see the finish.

Excuse the terrible tape job -

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Thanks. I’ll give it a go

My ultegra is still a bit off. Any tips for working out where the fluid is leaking as I can’t seem to find any. Also is it likely worth Trimming the cable close to the shifter and replacing the olives ? I’ve got spares.

Clean everything, squeeze and wait? Are you sure it's leaking or have you not bled all the air out?

Tbh I’ve got NFC. Just thinking of going right back to the start, re-cutting the cable and refilling.

Do you have the little pot and syringe? Did you unbolt stuff and tilt the levers or bike so it's higher/lower yada yada? We found overfilling it a bit helped with the long lever throw. You can also try tapping the caliper and levers to release trapped air bubbles and tapping the levers too so it helps release any air in the system.

I thought I did. I’ll push new oil through a couple of times and see if that helps. I don’t need to use it at the moment so giving it time to settle then pushing more oil through might be a good idea.

Look for any high parts of cable where there's turns or mounting brackets and tap them also, working from the caliper to the lever. Oh, front or back or both?

Assume you've read the manual and tilted the calipers etc?

Rear only. Front seems okay so maybe you’re on the money about loads of air trapped in some odd curve somewhere.

Yeah, you've got like twice the length of hose to get air out of. Sounds like you need to keep hitting things. I mean, you could try a more gentle approach but I like hitting things by default.
If you do a google there's probably some mechanics that have bleeding tips but off the top of my head I think getting the angles right and tapping stuff to free bubbles is about it.

If you can, this is what I'd do:

Tilt the bars down, and tip the bike so that while the bars are roughly level the bike is tilted back so the rear end is lower than the front. As close to vertical as you can get, really. Install the Shimano bleed cup with fluid in it, hold the lever closed using a strap or elastic band or similar. Leave overnight, giving random bits of the caliper/hose/levers a random tap now and then. If you're really keen, try the tapping with the levers are various angles to the ground, while of course not spilling mineral oil out of the bleed cup onto the ground.

Time is not only a greater healer, but is also jolly handy IME for giving air bubbles the way to make their way to the top of the brake system.

After that's done, give the lever a few sharp flicks to try and dislodge any bubbles stuck in the master cylinder, and then remove the bleed cup and re-level the bars.

And if that doesn't work, I'm all out of ideas other than a vacuum bleed rig.

It could possibly feel a bit mushy because the hose is much longer than the front and therefore has much more opportunity to swell when you squeeze the lever. Kevlar hoses will sort that out.

Or measure your levers from the bars you might find that the rear is wound in more and feels like it's pulling further, when in reality it's set at the beginning of the stroke to be closer to the bars.

Kevlar hoses will sort that out.

Can you get Kevlar hoses for road setups? I thought they were MTB only?

If the bleed is done properly, the front and rear pads will move immediately on touching the levers. I don't notice any difference on the Mason. The Kinesis is a bit squishy on the rear but it uses the old levers and was last bled ages ago and they were also fiddly and needed overfilling to avoid the massive lever throw requirement.

How do you overfill?

It's not really overfilling, just back all the adjusters out and instead of using the standard width bleed block, use something skinnier. This bring the pads closer by default so you don't have such a long lever throw before brake activation. It might mean your brakes rub early on but that's the price I pay for better feel and not bottoming out the levers towards the end of the brake pad life.

I'll have a set of 6870 levers going in a week or so - with the usual scuffs and such but working perfectly. £60 ONO?

Might have found the issue. Bled it, fastened it’s all up. Saw some oil dribble out of the end of the bar tape. I guess someone yanked it some time and it pulled a little loose. Put some kitchen roll under it and have gone out so will see if it continues to leak.

So that was bollocks. The problem was a bad amateur mechanic (me) and an even worse professional one. They’re perfect now.

Thanks for the help all