Since there is a triple on the front, and we were just doing about 10 easy miles, I opted to finish the ride, and we had a pretty good time. Once I got home it was time to dig in and find out what was going on.
First thing I did was actually run my finger along the downtube portion of the inner wire. I could feel a channel spiraling through the length of the wire, which I thought was kind of odd, and it made me suspect that a single wire had unraveled. The thing is though, I am sure I would have noticed a single strand unraveling the entire length all the way up to the shifter, but I never did.
Next I disconnected the wire from the derailleur and sure enough, up inside the shifer, the wire had gone berzerk...
I have never actually replaced an STI inner wire, because this is the first one that has ever gone bad on me. With this particular set of shifters it doesn't seem too hard. The most difficult part of the repair so far was pushing the wire out of the shifter without having it break and get stuck inside. What I had to do was unravel some additional strands that were keeping me from sliding the end of the cable ferrule down the wire on the inner side of the shifter. A little work with some very small needle nose pliers and I managed to get the ferrule to slide about 6" down over the wir, so then I was able to push a few inches of the wire out the outside edge of the shifter. I left it partially in the shifter for now. I have my reasons for this. Also, in order to get access to the hole which the wire installs through, the brake lever needs to be pulled in pretty far.
While I was working on the inner wire, I did not notice that Lucy (my black lab) had decided to munch on the cable housing and ferrule from the rear section. This is what it ended up looking like by the time I caught her in the act.
She pretty much destroyed the metal ferrule, and there were some tense moments where we thought she had actually swallowed it. Thankfully we found it.
So...at the moment, I am -pretty sure- that the actual shifter is fine, and I'll try replacing the inner wire before making the leap to getting some new shifters. Also on the table is possibly upgrading ALL of the cables to a fancy upgraded set. The cables I have now are Jagwire, but I am considering some of the colored aftermarket Jagwire biz. I think it would look pretty rad...
