Hi all

My experiance is that the new hidden cable series of Shimano shifters 7900 and 6700 DO NOT shift as well as the older exposed shifter cabled series 7800 and 6600 shifters.
I have tried a few things but bottom line is that the shifting on the newer generation Shimano shifters is heavy, slower and more suseptiable to set up.

Is it just me??

Same here, my 6600 shifts smoother and with less power required than my 7900. The 7900 feels more snappy though.

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Bikes: Raceur, Beateur

That's a common complaint with the newer Shimano, and to a lesser extent SRAM.

Cabling makes a big difference. Tight bends anywhere, or a crimp in the cable results in bad performance. Some people swear by more expensive cables, some say it doesn't make a difference.

I've been using 7900 since late 2008 with either the stock cables/housing or some Jagwire. Recently I switched to Yokozuna cables/housing and noticed a difference. Not as good as my old 7800, but still much improved for 7900. It now has an easier, lighter shifting feel.

Quite agreed. I would like to evangelize how stiff the housing for both brake and shifting are for Yokozuna. They're so stiff that I couldn't use their brake housing for the little piece that connects from the back of the toptube to my brake caliper on a 49cm, just because the bend was so tight that it created a slop of friction. Everywhere else? Pefecto!

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http://www.wvcycling.net/

Yokozuna cables/housing does it for me!!! I love the 7900 shifting. Think its at least as good as 7800....

im using yokozuna on my new ultegra 6700 and it feels very similar to my second hand 7800 (mint condition) with ordinary cables.. almost undistiguishable Id say and I never had issues anymore w front shifting on the bike with the 7800 as I had with ultegra 6600, though Im using the SAME fd (i changed the whole groupset but for the fd and crankset). So id say new generic cables and dura ace STIs solved it for me..

The yokonza shift cables do offer a noticeable improvement...I have two bikes, both with 7900, one with standard housing and one with yokonza....the yokonza is smoother and lighter (i used the housing and cables for shift only)...I ran 7800 prior, from the day it was introduced, so I had gotten really used to that action...it took a while to get used to something a little heavier, but I've used 7900 for two years, and it's just become second nature now....the shifting action on 7900 is still about 1000 times better than SRAM will ever be!

Thought it was just me but I find the DA 7800 is still much sweeter than the 7900 and I positively don't like the front shifting on the 7900. In fact I put Campag SR11 on my new Colnago M10 and it's very very good - beautifully smooth and mouth-watering to look at, much better than DA 7900. BUT the SR's still not as smooth as 7800, in my humble experience. So the 7900 is on the workaday road race bike - if it gets pranged in a crash I'll not cry too much!

Not much to add. I have two sets of Shimano 105 5700 STI shifters. Both shift well, front and rear. No experience with the other Shimano systems you mention.

I'm glad I'm not the only one who felt this way. My 6600 shifted amazingly better than 6700!

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- 2012 Specialized Tarmac w/ Force
- 2012 Cannondale CAAD 10-5 w/ Ultegra

To me 7900 front (shifter/mech/crank) shifts the best. 7800 and 7900 rear shift about the same. 7900 is a little slower. I had to replace my stock Cervelo hanger to a Wheels Mfg. unit to get it to shift correctly. I only use genuine Shimano DA cables and housing. I am going to try the Yokonza next time I re-cable a mechanical bike. Nothing shifts as good as Dura Ace Di2!

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R2.5 / R3 / S-Works 29er (20 lbs) / S-Works SL4 Di2 (14.7 lbs)

Absolutely correct. Shimano took a few steps backwards, when they could not leave "good enough" (7800, 6600) alone.

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Due to the urging of all the ladies...I do NOT shave my legs!

if they could make a group that shifts at the front as well as 6700/7900 and at the rear as well as 6600/7800 then all would be great.

Not to co-opt this thread a bit but other than Yoko cables/housings, which I had on my 7900 set up and found the performance to be on par with or slightly better than the stock DA cables/housings, what other cable/housing set ups have people found effective with 7900?

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Wilier Cento Uno, 13.25 lbs / 6.01 kilograms
http://weightweenies.starbike.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=95887