# Chorus/Record 11 Speed Shifters - Mileage?



## turbomatic73 (Jan 22, 2004)

I just sent off a set of Centaur shifters for warranty replacement after about 5k miles. The thumb button on the right shifter stopped ratcheting correctly and would dump 3 or 4 cogs at a time.

This has me thinking of maybe "upgrading" to 11 speed Chorus or Record. I have been reluctant to go that route because I don't like the idea of having to replace all my cassettes, buy a new derailleur, use a narrower/more costly chain, etc etc. But if the quality of Centaur is such that I'm going to have to replace my shifters once a year, I may end up having to bite the bullet. 

Anyways--can anyone speak to the longevity of the Chorus/Record 11 speed shifters? Anyone with e.g. 10k or 20k miles on a set? What kind of maintenance is there, if any? Assuming you no longer have to replace the "g" springs.

My old Dura Ace shifters had over 50k miles and never skipped a beat before I decided to switch to Campy. Granted, Centaur is not DA, but still expected to get more than a year from the shifters.


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## roadworthy (Nov 11, 2011)

turbomatic73 said:


> I just sent off a set of Centaur shifters for warranty replacement after about 5k miles. The thumb button on the right shifter stopped ratcheting correctly and would dump 3 or 4 cogs at a time.
> 
> This has me thinking of maybe "upgrading" to 11 speed Chorus or Record. I have been reluctant to go that route because I don't like the idea of having to replace all my cassettes, buy a new derailleur, use a narrower/more costly chain, etc etc. But if the quality of Centaur is such that I'm going to have to replace my shifters once a year, I may end up having to bite the bullet.
> 
> ...


There is no difference in durability of late model Centaur compared to Chorus or Record. So you aren't going to gain anything in that regard including function only you will have another cog in back. They pretty much all shift the same and have the same durability.

I would say and you will hear this from others as well is 5K miles failure is unusual if not pretty much unheard of. I have 10K miles on my 2010 Centaur Ultrashift shifters and they are as good as when new...perhaps even better. Also be mindful, that shifters require cleaning and re-lubrication to maintain good function.

As to longevity relative to G-spring previous gen Campy, most I believe will agree the latest gen Ultrashift is much more robust and requires less rebuilding if at all.

So hard to know why yours failed other than they may have been contaminated with road grime between the disks preventing proper seating of the detent wheel locking in the shift.

Hope that helps


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## turbomatic73 (Jan 22, 2004)

Thanks for the reply. Good to know someone else had better luck. I'd prefer to stick with the 10 speed stuff so hopefully the replacement shifters will last longer. I live in a pretty hilly area so the right shifter routinely gets a workout...still, 1 year is disappointing. I spoke to a Campy rep at the NHMBS in Charlotte a few months ago and asked him what kind of longevity I should expect from Campy's lower end stuff and he assured me I'd have the stuff for a long, long time. Of course, what would you expect him to say, but whatever. Maybe just bad luck.


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## roadworthy (Nov 11, 2011)

turbomatic73 said:


> Thanks for the reply. Good to know someone else had better luck. I'd prefer to stick with the 10 speed stuff so hopefully the replacement shifters will last longer. I live in a pretty hilly area so the right shifter routinely gets a workout...still, 1 year is disappointing. I spoke to a Campy rep at the NHMBS in Charlotte a few months ago and asked him what kind of longevity I should expect from Campy's lower end stuff and he ensured me I'd have the stuff for a long, long time. Of course, what would you expect him to say, but whatever. Maybe just bad luck.


Only thing which is unknowable is whether or not your right shifter was actually flawed but rather contaminated. Crud can get between the disks and if clogged up they can jam as with any shifters. In other words, they may not have been defective at all..but rather just clogged. There are good videos on line how to take one completely apart.
Also the shifter body assembly is available for about $70 to restore function to any defective shifter and yes, the RH shifter gets much better workout than the left shifter.

Campy Ultrashift is not only beautifully designed ergonomically and has great shift quality but part quality and durability is a very strong and your experience is unusual.
Unless disassembled, hard to know why it stopped shifting well...but short of unusual part breakage, I don't believe wear causing slip was the issue. My guess something got in there that causes the disks not to be seated properly.


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## bikerjulio (Jan 19, 2010)

My friend RW has made an assumption.

Centaur was Ultrashift (meaning multiple shifts at one with thumb button) for a couple of years 2009-10 and since then has been Powershift - a completely different beast with an "escape" type internal mech - one shift per click.

So we need to know what you have.

If your Centaur shifters are the newer Powershift, there is really no comparison to Chorus/Record which are Ultrashift.

The Ultrashift mechanism seems to be pretty durable from what I can tell. I don't recall ever reading someone saying that the wore one out.


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## roadworthy (Nov 11, 2011)

bj,
Do you have any experience, anecdotal or otherwise that suggests that Ultrashift is more durable than Powershift in spite of the mechanism differences? Had never heard that.




bikerjulio said:


> My friend RW has made an assumption.
> 
> Centaur was Ultrashift (meaning multiple shifts at one with thumb button) for a couple of years 2009-10 and since then has been Powershift - a completely different beast with an "escape" type internal mech - one shift per click.
> 
> ...


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## turbomatic73 (Jan 22, 2004)

Yes...it's Powershift (one click thumb button) so I didn't see the point in pulling them apart since there's no parts available. After it started mis-shifting i tried flushing it out w/ WD40, thinking it was gummed up, but it didn't seem to make a difference. If anything it was worse, which made me think something was stripped and the lube only made things more "slippery." I've never taken apart a Powershift shifter so admittedly I don't know how they work. I've taken apart the older 10 speed shifters a handful of times.

I weighed the option of just buying the lever body assembly--even found someone on ebay selling them for around $60--but decided to send them off instead. I got them at Wiggle so they're going overseas. I guess I'll find out in a week or so whether that was the right decision. I have a back-up bike so I'm not missing any ride time.


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## bikerjulio (Jan 19, 2010)

> bj,
> Do you have any experience, anecdotal or otherwise that suggests that Ultrashift is more durable than Powershift in spite of the mechanism differences? Had never heard that.


Doing a google search for "campagnolo shifter broken" does bring up a couple of cases that look the same as OP's with Veloce shifters which have the same internals.

Not very scientific, and I'd agree that the total number of failures reported is not particularly significant.

There could also be less reporting with a relatively cheap shifter.

My gut feel is that there is more likelihood of failure with the escape mech vs. the detent disc and clutch pack. Wear on the ratchet ring in the former is always possible, causing problems like the OP's. 

We need Graeme to chime in!


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## roadworthy (Nov 11, 2011)

turbomatic73 said:


> Yes...it's Powershift (one click thumb button) so I didn't see the point in pulling them apart since there's no parts available. After it started mis-shifting i tried flushing it out w/ WD40, thinking it was gummed up, but it didn't seem to make a difference. If anything it was worse, which made me think something was stripped and the lube only made things more "slippery." I've never taken apart a Powershift shifter so admittedly I don't know how they work. I've taken apart the older 10 speed shifters a handful of times.
> 
> I weighed the option of just buying the lever body assembly--even found someone on ebay selling them for around $60--but decided to send them off instead. I got them at Wiggle so they're going overseas. I guess I'll find out in a week or so whether that was the right decision. I have a back-up bike so I'm not missing any ride time.


The older Campy shifters with the G-spring are trickier to take apart. Campy really did a nice job of simplifying the mechanism with Ultrashift. 
Who exactly did you send the shifters to and what do you anticipate the turn around cost to be? Are they going to replace the left shifter as well?
Me personally, in your shoes, I would have either bought the Ultrashift shifter body replacement for the RH shifter...or even the 11s shifter body also with Ultrashift.
But this is just choices and a matter of preference.
Good luck with getting it fixed.


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## turbomatic73 (Jan 22, 2004)

I bought them from Wiggle and they seemed very open to taking them back and inspecting them for a warranty claim. + they said the would refund me my shipping costs, which was a nice touch. I agree...part of me thought of avoiding the hassle by just springing for the whole shifter mech but we'll see what Wiggle comes up with. They asked me to send both the left and right shifter so hoping that means I get a new set out of the deal. We'll see.


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## bikerjulio (Jan 19, 2010)

Good that Wiggle is taking an interest.

I found their customer service pretty good when I had an issue with an order a few months ago.

Let us know how it works out.


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## roadworthy (Nov 11, 2011)

Yeah, very cool that Wiggle would even consider warrantying them. 
Something to consider when buying future Campy stuff from the UK as I typically purchase from Ribble and not sure if they have the same support. All the Campy stuff I have ever bought has never faultered although the first year 2009 Ultrashifters I owned shifted poorly which was resolved in 2010 with a design change.
Keep us posted and best of luck.


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## CheapSkate (Feb 26, 2012)

I have 10s Centaur Ultra Shift levers, multiple shifts on the thumb button just like the 11s stuff.

The levers on one bike have perhaps 20,000 miles on them. On another bike only a few thousand. They shift pretty much identically. No problems at all.

I would have had to service an old style G-spring lever by now.

Looking at the guts of an Ultra Shift lever I would expect them to go starship miles (famous last words!)

So I can't comment directly on 11s, but I think my 10s have near identical internals to current 11s.

Yeah Wiggle are very good on customer service. Ribble used to be pretty mediocre but I hear that they have sorted themselves out a bit. I have no direct experience however.


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## orange_julius (Jan 24, 2003)

roadworthy said:


> Yeah, very cool that Wiggle would even consider warrantying them.
> Something to consider when buying future Campy stuff from the UK as I typically purchase from Ribble and not sure if they have the same support.


Ribble does offer to warranty, or repair, items they sell from the UK to the US (or elsewhere for that matter). I do not recall them offering to reimburse for your shipping the items back to them. 

I had issue with a left Chorus Ultrashift a few years back: the plastic near the cable entry point was damaged -- not sure due to what -- so I couldn't put the cable in. They offered to repair it if I shipped it to them, but it was a new groupset, and I had a new frame ..... I decided to order the $70 kit and build the bike sooner than later!


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## turbomatic73 (Jan 22, 2004)

OK...closing the loop on this thread in case anyone uncovers it in the future....

Today I received from Ribble a brand new right shifter as a warranty replacement for the original defective one. Originally they had said Campy was going to repair it, but they sent a new one instead. They also refunded me the $20 it cost to ship the shifter back to the UK, which was pretty decent of them. Total turnaround time was about six weeks--not bad considering the oversees transit time. 

Can't wait to get my main ride back together again...been riding my 'cross bike on the road for the last month and a half while I waited for the replacement. All's well that ends well.


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