SRAM red sti failed in this morning ride

Wheels of Happiness

This post experienced failure on this am ride intended to go around Teresa.  I could only shift to the 5th cog and no more  up ot Mambog.  So this post decided to return because that meant I could not negotiate steep hills at Teresa and Antipolo because the shifter was not working properly.

Could it be failure of the shifting mechannism inside STI?  Did the pawls or the plastic dram fail.

Five km from Mamabog on the way beck this post tried to examine the tightness of shift cable.  And lo and behold, it was.  The cable was loose by at least 4-5 mm.   I tightened the cable, (pulled by hand and later with a plier when I reached home) and tightened the nut the cable nut well.  And the problem seemed to have been resolved

Cables and uts do get loose and they result in such function failures   Be sure to bring tools

Thought I have to see Mario Toledo again or worse buy a new shifter.   Good for me.  Savings

Wrong placement of spacers and loose goat link caused difficulty in shifting

Wheels of Happiness

As I left house this morning I noticed the chain slipping on the cogs. but only for the high (smaller cogs).  The problem disappeared when I shifted to lower (bigger cogs)  And was especially pronounced in 52 chain rings.  So I had to ride at 36t smaller chain ring. 

I examined my cogs when I arrived home and I noticed that spaces between cogs were uneven.  The 2nd and 3rd cogs had wider spaces.  So I examined further and found out that I placed another spacer on the cog that had built in spacer.   So one cog was wider spaced from another and closer  causing the missed shift.   

Disassembled the cogs from the freewheel, reversed the spacer and the problem solved. 

Also saw that the goat link shifted forward and thus the idler pulley was hitting the cogs, and could not even remove and reinstall the rear wheel easily (as it was in the past)  Loosened the goat link and reinstalled this at 90 degrees  Tried the bike today and as good as new