Not sure what you mean when you say 'locked up'. Usually the failure mode to a shifter is totally not shifting up, or down, the lever moving but failing to engage the internal mechanism.

If your 'lock up' of your shifters means the shifter is immobile, lever can't/won't move, stuck, then something else is at play. Often the jamming is the shift wire becoming frayed inside the shifter causing the shifter to become inoperable.

The 5700 aren't known to fail as you have described, they have a pretty good reputation.

 

I would agree with this. I will also add a story about someone a similar thing happened to. Their right 5700 shifter jammed. She took the bike to a shop to have it repaired. The mechanic there told her the shifter was shot, but they didn't have a new shifter and couldn't get a replacement for a week. Wanting quicker action, she went to a different shop who correctly diagnosed the problem as a broken cable inside the shifter. He took apart the shifter, cleaned out the old pieces of frayed cable, replace the cable, back on the road!

I suspect the same mis-diagnosis in your case and sorry to hear about this as it has obviously cost you well more $$$ than you needed to spend.

As Dave T said, 5700 shifters aren't known to fail. What they ARE known for is chewing up cables. I have personally known a few people this has happened to and I've seen it as early as around 1500 miles. Definitely a design defect. I haven't heard of it happening on the latest generation Shimano STI shifters, so hopefully, Shimano has corrected this issue.

 

I just had to replace my 105 5700 shifter because if I went into the largest gear in the back, it won't click back out. My LBS tried removing, cleaning, soaking and relubricating the shifter and it helps for 30-50 miles. Diagnosis is that a spring or plastic part has worn out. They said it's not common. I picked up a set of 105-5800 shifters and derailleurs and we'll just lock out the 11th gear on the back. At some point I will be able to upgrade the wheel and cassette to move to an 11 speed system

 

I can't speak about Shimano's low end. It's been too many years since I rode anything less than Ultegra. Did ride Sora I think on my Trek 1200 which had column shifters. My experience with Ultegra and Dura Ace has been good. Both are solid. Nobody with high end bikes(this is inviting the one guy who has seen an exception to post...whatever) chooses anything but Ultegra or Dura Ace. 6700 shifters should work fine.

If you like your bike and think you'll be riding it say 5 years from now why not upgrade everthing to 6800. It's a nice group set and while I only rode 6700 a short time my take is that 6800 is a significant improvement.

 

If you like your bike and think you'll be riding it say 5 years from now why not upgrade everthing to 6800. It's a nice group set and while I only rode 6700 a short time my take is that 6800 is a significant improvement.

Shimano's latest generation groupsets, 5800/6800/9000 are a significant improvement to the previous generation 5700/6700/7900. They really got it right this time. Shifting is sublime and dropped chains are a thing of the past!

 

I tried White Lightning spray cleaner and T-9 lube, the shifter now wiggles about 3 degrees or so. I'm hesitant to pull it off completely as it's still ridable as a 10 speed, but I suppose I will have to bite the bullet and take if offline at some point.

Thanks for the feedback on the x700s vs x800s. The x800s don't support 3 rings on the front, so I'd have to give up a ring there. I'd have to look at pricing, but if I'm going to replace the whole kit I would definitely consider Di2. I have it on my TT bike and love it. But then the question becomes how much $$$ do I put into this bike before I just buy a new one. Like a bad case of 2-foot-itis with boats.

Thx,
-Brad

 

OK, I forgot about the part that what you have is a triple in front. Sadly, you will lose that if you go to the x800. You probably have a 30T low ring in front which on a compact double, would be a 34T. Depending on what you have on the cassette - for example, a 28T, you could go to a 32T and you would be in the same place as far as low hill climbing gears - almost a 1:1 gear ratio.

What is interesting is that most people who have this problem you are describing have it with the rear, not the front. The rear does a lot more shifting. So this is certainly odd.

 

Well I brought it to my LBS who said they'd look at it for $25, figured it was worth that at least if it could be fixed. It was toast, they said the splines/pawls/whatever in the shifter sheared off and jammed the shifter, same thing as last time. They quoted me $105 to replace it with another ST-5703 which I initially rejected because two ST-5703 failures over 5 years is crap. :mad2: But I had a Century ride coming up with hills at the end, so I changed my mind. There was some mix ups in parts and a short delay but in the end they replaced both of my shifters (so they'd match) to new 105s, new cables and sheaths and replaced my bar tape to boot, all for the original $105 quote (didn't even charge the original $25 diagnostic). So while I'm not super confident I have a durable long-term setup, I am very pleased with my LBS support.

As a side note, the new front shifter does shift up much easier than the previous mechanism, so I don't know if this ST-5703 is somehow superior to the previous or if this mechanic just did a better job of installing it.

Thanks again for the feedback,
-Brad

 

Not sure what they gave you but new 105 (5800) does not have triple chain ring. They may have given you 4703 which is a downgrade from what you had.

 

Pretty sure is 5700, both shifters have the 105 logo on them, nothing says Tiagra. Apparently the levers between the existing and new were a different color or something which is why they switched the rear also. I don't think I would have cared that much, they didn't ask, they just did it. They are working as good as the previous set, better if you consider the less-force-required on the triple.