# ultegra 6800 front derailleur setup and performance



## cyclingman

I have 3 bikes with 9, 10, 11 speed mechanical Ultegra. It seems to me that the adjustment of the 9 & 10 speed Ultegra front derailleurs is pretty easy and when I'm through there is very little chain rub. 11 speed is a whole nother can of worms. In the first place, the outside of the cage is indented quite a bit which makes the cage very narrow for the big chain ring. The adjustment was a little involved and when one is through, even with the trim feature, it is, it seems, impossible to operate without chain rub in at least three places. Of course, DI2 self-centers, so I'm only speaking of mechanical. What are others' experiences in this matter? I'm almost sorry that I upgraded one of my bikes to 11 speed.


----------



## goodboyr

This and the setup of the 9000 FD is covered in other posts that you can search. In essence, if you follow the shimano dealers manual to the letter including using the support bolt, setting the cable anchoring and adjusting cable tension precisely in the big/big cross chain position this system is by far the best shifting mechanical out there. There should be no rub in any position.


----------



## MMsRepBike

I'll hazard a guess and say you're trying to set them up the same. Well as you've discovered the 11 speed is quite different.

Do you have the tool to determine which side the converter should be set to? The weird clear plastic thing with pins in the back? Do you have the support plate installed behind the support bolt?

http://si.shimano.com/php/download.php?file=pdf/dm/DM-FD0002-05-ENG.pdf

Click that to download the official instructions on how to set it up.

Oh, most importantly, do you have an inline barrel adjuster installed? You will probably need one for this setup.

As said before, if you do everything exactly as instructed by the manual above and get it set perfectly you will discover it blows away your other groupsets. You will be thrilled instead of sorry. I have both Di2 and mechanical in 11 speed and both 105 and Ultegra mechanical 11 speed. They are simply sublime, so much better than the 10 speed groups could ever be.

p.s. you're not alone. It's not as if they include those instructions in the box or anything. This is a very common problem. Less so now a days as people are more used to it but it used to be pretty bad. It's a big change in how it's done. The Campy guys are going through similar things right now.

edit: here's a video to help once you have the converter set and such.


----------



## nhluhr

goodboyr said:


> This and the setup of the 9000 FD is covered in other posts that you can search. In essence, if you follow the shimano dealers manual to the letter including using the support bolt, setting the cable anchoring and adjusting cable tension precisely in the big/big cross chain position this system is by far the best shifting mechanical out there. There should be no rub in any position.


I'm of the opinion that it also depends somewhat on using the stock Poly cables and new housings per the manual as well, none of the random jagwire or older shimano PTFE cables.


----------



## skinewmexico

I just took mine to the shop and had it adjusted; it touched everywhere. Turns out the cable was too loose. Took the shop guy about 5 minutes, works like a charm.


----------



## masi85

Like others have said all the instructions need to be followed exactly. The first time I setup my 11 speed 105 front derailleur I could never figure out how use top gear without rubbing because the front cage is so narrow. Then I went back and reread all the instructions and noticed a point I missed. Now after setting the front derailleur up correctly I can get all 22 gears without rubbing using the built in trim (just like SRAM claims with their new 11 speed groups!).


----------



## beston

masi85 said:


> Like others have said all the instructions need to be followed exactly. The first time I setup my 11 speed 105 front derailleur I could never figure out how use top gear without rubbing because the front cage is so narrow. Then I went back and reread all the instructions and noticed a point I missed. Now after setting the front derailleur up correctly I can get all 22 gears without rubbing using the built in trim (just like SRAM claims with their new 11 speed groups!).


... nothing like resurrecting a year old thread!

Can you tell me 'what' special instruction you missed?

For the life of me, I can't seem to get an ultra 6800 derailleur properly set up on my 2015 Cervelo S3. I feel like I'm choosing between two compromises;

1. less cable tension -> resulting in no effect of L-Trim and derailleur rub high gear (52x11), 
-OR-
2. More cable tension, resulting in less functional range with H-Trim (...but may I shouldn't be cross chaining anyway!).

Actually, to add to this, The L-Trim function doesn't seem to work with anything other than HIGH cable tension!

I feel like I'm missing the magic setup instruction to make it all work. I have been through the set up a few times, but I feel like I'm doomed to repeat my mistakes. So far, I am.

1. Getting the FD set up 1-3mm above the crank 

2. Adjusting the l-limit screw to get the outer plate in line with the big ring. 

3. tightening the FD down with the tail of the derailleur 0.5mm inwards.

4. Tightening the stability screw (?) down to bring the FD parallel with the big ring

5. Making sure the converter is set to the appropriate position (in my case, 'ON')

6. Unscrewing the L-limit to get proper clearance in Low-Low set up.

7. Shifting to big ring and adjusting tension to allow for max cross-chain position (52-25).

8. Adjust H-Limit to make sure I can't over shift.

...By the end of Step 7, I still don't have enough tension on the cable and my chain rubs in 52-11. I also can't see any derailleur movement from L to L-trim.

If I add more cable tension, I barely see any movement from L to L-trim, but now hear lots of rub on cross chaining.

Any insights?


----------



## MMsRepBike

Don't use the support screw to straighten out the cage. Make it straight to start.

You're going to need an inline barrel adjuster and quite high tension.


----------



## beston

Thanks for the input and the video reference. I have tried again and did my best to align the derailleur without the 'stabilizing' screw and it worked just fine.

I had slightly better luck setting the cable tension by specifically following the big-big crosschain gear configuration. I now _almost_ get all gears without rub. For the life of me, I can't seem to get any derailleur movement from L to L-trim position. So, cross chaining in Low-low results in FD rub on the smallest two gears.

Not getting any L-trim adjustment movement was odd. It seems like the cable tension was there, but the angle of cable pull is too steep to create small / subtle movements. Out of frustration, I decided to move the cable routing to above the fixing bolt. Although shimano does not recommend it, it seems to now shift better (I can get all 22 gears) than before, including L-Trim.


----------

