Shimano hydraulic sti RS685 – anyone else finding the hoods a bit loose??

Bought some of these in the recent sales and got them all fitted now. The brakes and shifting are great, but the hoods seem too baggy. They’re moving about as i’m holding them, it’s quite irritating, now finding i need to use gloves to avoid blisters etc.

Seems to be there is no “clip” on the underside of the hood to fit into the gap marked J-kit in this pic

which is where a lot of my pressure from my hand goes and the hood ends up wth a lot of slack on the outside.

The clips keep popping out as well, like in this pic

(not my pics btw)

Spoke to retailer, they want the whole lever back which is a ball ache.

I have the same levers but in DI2 flavour.
Had the same thing, when I was cycling along the hood felt like they were sliding around under my hands, being hydraulic my first thoughts were oil. If you peel back the hoods you will see a wee rectangular “hatch” held down by 2 torx screws, where your thumb joint will sit when on the hoods. It is the expansion bit for the reservoir. Mine was leaking oil from there and then causing the hood to slide around everywhere. When I pressed the brake lever I could see oil seeping out from there. Spoke to Rose UK saying I was going to lift the hood and try and realign the rubber seal (there is very little room for error, virtually no overlap of the seals). They said that was fine and to keep them informed if it happened again and they would send out a new lever. Hasn’t happened since but haven’t been out much due to the poor weather and it being my “good weather” bike. At lest Rose know for if / when it happens again, due to the tiny seal with little room for error I can see it happening again!
This was my RH lever and at the same time my LH lever was fine, stayed put, very little movement which was what alerted me in the first place, they felt completely different.
Hope that helps.

hmm, interesting, thanks, i shall take a look at mine and see if i can see anything similar!

looking at your pics your reservoir bit might be in a different place, but check for oil leaking anyway. If it isn’t that maybe the DI2 and non DI2 hoods are different and yours have the hoods mixed up or something.

yep. same on my cross bike. Very annoying

Have sold a dozen or so bikes with the hydraulic Ultegra setup so far this year, almost all of them have had this issue with the slack hoods. Not that this helps in any way, but I think it’s a known problem. Believe that any new hoods coming through from Shimano now fit better FWIW.

TBH, it’s quite possible there is still some mineral oil under the hoods from installation, as i had a bit of a spill due to lacking a bleed cup (now ordered!)

Mine don’t move around but the levers rattle and it drives me crazy over anything other than buttery smooth roads which is most of the time.

same bike, same sti’s here. mine are fine, but I did spend ages seating them after pulling them back to have a look when new

Same as mboy and iainc above:

Hoods nice and snug when getting them out the box – peeled back to fit to bike and tape bars post fitment – hoods seem slack and don’t fit back that well.

Bit disappointed but no real biggy (performance on brakes outdoes my disappointment of the hoods) – will probably get some replacements when I can find them seperately/be bothered……

A

i wonder if you could retrofit new ones without taking lever and tape off ? would it wiggle on from below, over the lever, or would it be too much of a stretch and wreck the new ones ?

Hmmmm, maybe!

Mine mainly got baggy peeling back for bleeding – so will think about what I can do to fix that……

I actually bothered to google rs685 hoods on the back of this thread – have just ordered some from SJS cycles and will report back once they arrive and I’ve fitted them!

A

EDIT – double post

cheers for that, will be interested to see if they are tighter and whether they fit over without dismantling…

Mine were a bit like that, however I changed the bars and when I tapped the new bars I made sure the tape wasn’t too thick underneath where the hoods sit against the bar tape. That seemed to fix it.

I had the leaking issue with my Ultegra Di2 front brake lever. The reservoir expansion cap was leaking, so I took it off, smeared a little grease around the edge, refitted it and that was that. However, due to the leaking and peeling the hood back numerous times, that particular hood is a bit loose. Can new ones be had?

a tenner a set on SJS

Thanks, ianc.

I have been using a set of the Di2 hydraulic levers for about a year. Mine seem fine, but I did spend ages pushing all the little bits of rubber on the inside of the lever hood into the right holes after fitting and bleeding them. It was a bit of a faff, but have been good so far. Although even with the rubber bits in the holes they were still fairly tight on the hoods, they just bulged a bit.

andysmiff1 – Member
Hmmmm, maybe!

Mine mainly got baggy peeling back for bleeding – so will think about what I can do to fix that……

I actually bothered to google rs685 hoods on the back of this thread – have just ordered some from SJS cycles and will report back once they arrive and I’ve fitted them!

any update ?

They arrived on the weekend (great service from SJS as usual), but riding on Saturday got in the way and Christmas prep/work/toddlers have meant I’ve not ventured into the garage yet……

Hopefully will get it done in before Christmas Day – will report back!

A

Mine don’t move around but the levers rattle and it drives me crazy over anything other than buttery smooth roads which is most of the time.

I’ve just noticed this on mine the last couple of rides, a bit irritating but I’m not sure that anything can be done about it.

thanks andy 🙂

I fitted my R685’s back in January, no loose hoods, no rattle after 3800 miles, a fair bit of fairly rough offroad on the Quantocks.
All I’ve had to do is change the pads as required.

Apologies for delay!

I tried to simply roll the old hoods forwards off the STIs towards the front of the bike and over the lever (so I could swap without removing the levers etc) and it wouldn’t go without a load of brute force – so I stopped as didn’t want to stretch the hoods any further or tear them. The lump with the reservoir seems to be the main problem from what I could see.

I’ve got new hoods waiting, but will probably wait until I bung some new bar tape on and have the levers off before I try again.

EDIT – I might try again with some alcohol hand gel (that’s what I use to fit ESI grips with) as a lubricant to help the old hoods off once more before removing the levers. Will report back again!

A

As mentioned in the dealer manual, the hoods can only be replaced through the clamp-side of the levers.

Page 36: “Replace the bracket cover with the dual control lever and brake hose removed from the bicycle as shown in the illustration. Alternatively, remove the brake caliper from the frame and pass the racket cover from the caliper side.”
http://si.shimano.com/php/download.php?file=pdf/dm/DM-BR0008-00-ENG.pdf

Thanks! Although I printed that off when I got the brakes/shifters, I only read as far as the bleeding instructions…….

Looks like I can put up with the “loose” hoods as I can’t be bothered stripping it all back down/disconnecting cables and hoses!!

A

This seems a well known issue. Especially with the 785s Dura Ace models.

The new 105s are bled from underneath to save removing the hood.

I’ve just fitted a pair of these levers to my bike, ran the internal cables and set up the gears. I’ve yet to connect the hoses and bleed. I’ve just noticed that the left hood is baggy. Am I going to have to pull the gear cable to install a replacement? I’m not even as far as taping the bars yet. Thanks.

I’ve just been experimenting with some old bar tape (Giant stuff, that kinda squishy tape they put on the Defy, it’s about 1.5mm thick? I found that cutting a couple of inch long strips and experimenting with trimming its width, then placing above and below the clamp area at the lower half of the hood, under the hood between the body and the hood, where your hands tend to sit, that seems to tighten things up a bit. Not perfect, but less flappy. I’ll give that a proper go once I finish setting up the brakes before I tape the bars. It’s really just filling a small void inside the hood to pull it tight.

Mine are terrible and slide right back.. proper shit design

is this a problem with an old batch or are newer ones affected as well?

just about to buy some..

Mine are nothing like the pictures above, and certainly don’t slide around. There’s a little bit of “play” in the hood on the sides, i.e. you can squeeze them a little, but no big issue. I bought from bike 24 in December.

Mine are a bit baggy, I always wear gloves so can’t say it bothers me too much. Thought about trying to shrink them again with a hair dryer or very careful use of a hot air gun. Then I thought that I don’t want to boil the fluid. Then I thought the fluid will have a far higher boiling point than water so don’t be stupid. So I might. Possibly hold them down with electrical tape for a few days too.

Edit to say why has a link to a website selling hair moisture removing devices appeared in my post? Has some sort of nefarious advertising deal been done?

Going to rewrap my bar tape (hopefully this weekend – if kids don’t take up all the weekend….. ) so plan is to replace hoods at same time.

Plans is to:
Uncouple hoses
Slide new hoods over hose (not onto lever though)
Reconnect hoses and rebleed
Slide new hoods in place
Rewrap tape

Sounds like a faff, but since I’ve got the new hoods waiting seemed like a good idea for a wet weekend…..

Will keep thread updated!

A

Has some sort of nefarious advertising deal been done?

Yes

well whilst we’re talking about them is £300 the best price I’ll find at the mo? seems okay but I do love a bargain…

Paid 300 from Merlin for mine a few weeks back, couldn’t find anywhere cheaper including alltricks, German sites etc

So – finally got round to doing the hood replacement. Massive improvement! Not baggy at all now.

But if a faff – bit was changing brake hoses to the BH90 hoses following suggestions on another thread on here about brake feel here:

improving brake feel

Process I did was:

Unwrap bar tape.
Remove old hoses and cables.
Remove shifters from bars.
Remove old hoods by pulling them backwards.
Slide new hoods over hoses/cables (but not onto shifters yet)
Mount shifters on bars (temporarily)
Bleed
Remove shifters from bars
Slide hoods in place
Refit shifters to bars
Retape bars

Have a beer!

All in took about an hour and a half, but as I wanted to change hoses and bar tape seemed to be worth it!

Cheers,

A

I’ve just fitted a set of the levers to my Cx bike and have the “Dredded baggyness”. Will contact my place of purchase to ask about replacements. Will let you know.