Are you sure the front derailleur is well set? That really, really, shouldn't happen; there is no way Shimano engineers didn't notice that...maybe if you adjust the derailleur action a bit more to the outside?
Your front derailleur is observably set up incorrect. In addition to being too high, the high limit is loose enough that the chain wants to over-shift, as you can see around 9:00.
Shimano narrowred the pitch on the r8000 crankset very slightly. It could be that the chain is a bit mismatched here. Switching to the new ultegra chain or dura-ace chain should solve your issue.
Shimano recommends a 1mm gap between the top of the chainring teeth and the bottom of the front derailleur cage.... you have easily 3 times that. I think maybe try setting the bike up correctly, and use a Shimano chain before you take to RU-vid to criticize.
I just learned this from a LBS mechanic I trust. He said that in some cases even less than 1 mm but I don't know what case (checking cross-chaining?). I think it has helped shifting to the big ring but I also think it take a little more effort to start the shift. I am running a Shimano chain.
Couldn't agree more with all the comments on Danny's front durailleur set-up and seeing the chain struggling to move from small chainring to big. Had the same problem until I lowered the trim of the durailleur 1.5mm above the teeth of the larger chainring. Massive shifting difference for such a small adjustment. It's just more painstaking to get the perfect set-up.
I use the R-8000 crank set on my Ultegra 6800 equipped bike (the 6800 cranks cracked and broke), even with my old 6800 front derailleur, the up and down shift works perfectly on the R-8000 chain rings
You gotta raise you front derralieur 0.5 mm and adjust the Limiter screw for the derralieur going outboard (dont go so far, the chain will catch on the inside as shown in the vid), the chain has nothing to do with it per say, it can be made to work, it is just a bit slicker
I would try raising it first. The main problem would be that he has not set the limiter screw. you can basically change gears no problem with the derralieur set +2-3 mm above the 1mm limit shimano tells you to (as long as there is space for the smaller chainring). But he has fucked up the limiter and as such the inner part of his derralieur touches his chain and jams it against the chainring. Because of this it gets stuck and he cannot change smoothly...
I have a Rose bike with R6800 groupset, and with Shimano CN-HG901 chain. And I have absolutely no problem with shifting in the front. From big to small, from small to big it is just smooth.
Wow ! Thanks for telling ! This will make every mechanic happier :-) (But also those arms in the front derailleur mechanism. I wonder to know what could happen in belgian autumn bad weather)
regarding the sole "negative" aspect of the new Ultegra R8000 (negative in your opinion) - 7:15. Have you tried to reposition the front derailleur on the frame? With the previous FD-6800 an hour or so needed to be spend just on the front mech. Essentially a process of trial and error: reposition the FD, adjust it, see how it shifts, back to the start. If I had given up after 10 minutes, the shifting of FD-6800 wouldn't be very good. "Ok" at most. I do understand that as a bike gear tester you have limited time to spent on the equipment you talk about, but whenever posting a negative feedback, it would be worth seeing if others have the same problem and/or contacting the manufacturer. You tried to investigate the problem on you own though - kudos for that.
If you don't use the same components, you can't review the group properly. These issues you are talking about are the result of the KMC chain. Take a look at the Ultegra R8000 manual. They also prohibit the use of chain locks.
As others have noted, your front derailleur is not set up correctly. That cable should go 'hidden' under the lever, otherwise it catches when you shift. It is true that 8000 front derailleur is quite finicky to set up (I had to follow the directions step by step like a noob), but once you set it up correctly, there are no issues in shifting.
Jin Cho and beyond that, those Teflon coated cables need to go. After about 150km or even less, the coating will start to degrade and get gummed up inside the cable housings. You can already see it starting to fray on his front derailleur cable. I’ll bet it is causing the trim function on that derailleur to operate incorrectly.
Thank for the vid. Wrt the front derailleur, something should be wrong with your setup. From my experience, shimano cranks do offer the best shifting performance. Use a shimano chain and make sure that your front derailleur is setup correctly(correct height, outer positions and cable tension).
It's NOT an Ultegra groupset if your using a 105 cassette and a KMC chain. I have 0 issues with front shifting on my Ultegra with a shimano chain. What I did learn is NOT to buy a KMC chain for my Ultegra.
REAR DERAILLEUR. I actually like the move from eccentric upper pulley to fixed-position one. Eccentric makes more sense to me on single-chainring systems and systems with wide-range cassettes (MTB typically). The fixed-position pulley on R8000 means that it stays in the same position relative to the cassette cog regardless of which chainring is engaged in the front. This should (in theory) result in a more reliable shifting performance.
Hi Danny, it seems like the system needs a bit of adjustment to work correctly. Please try and update the review. I had a similar situation with the Dura Ace 9100 and now works perfectly.
the rear derailleur is mounted slightly further inward and underneath the cassette, which makes it less prone to damage in case of a crash and the bike landing on the right side, which I really like about it. According to Shimano, the higher tension in the spring of the rear derailleur prevents chain slap, which is also a great new feature.
By reference to the way the chain is derailing, I think it is likely for the resistance in shifting to have been the result of poor fd adjustment. Could you try tuning it and post another video?
I enjoy watching reviews done by guys who have limited knowledge of what they talk about & limited aptitude. You would be well served to apprentice with a professional mechanic before you exhibit your limitations on a RU-vid Channel.
Does anybody here have problems with the rear derailleur barrel adjuster? The plastic tooth seems to wear off easily and then the outer plastic shell just spins around uselessly without changing the cable tension.
i feel like it doesn't offer much from 6800 groupo other than the visual facelift. the rear derailleur looks better and the new 4 arm crank design looks nice, but i think 6800 is still good value for now. until shimano pushes out 'real' changes to the ultegra groupo i don't think i'll be interested in updates.
Still harping on about cable shifting bicycles. They all have the same problems of shifting gears when they age. Cable stretch, dirt contamination, housing contamination cable replacement. Bike shops love to sell this stuff because it is their bread and butter of selling you the parts or doing the work for you later on. It is not if, but when. It always happens. Just demo a bike with DI-2 and disk brake. End of problems. I have 5 years of DI-2 and nada.
Please don't clamp the carbon on the toptube and turn the pedals. The stress it puts on the clamped carbon is dangerous. nice bike though. And I agree with the the fd setup, just tweak it properly. :)
great video! quick question.. I just purchased the rear mech (r8000) and I noticed that there is about 1mm of lateral play in the cage- is this normal? do you have the same play in yours? I am not having any trouble due to this, but I have been scratching my head for hours trying to understand why that is. everything is under tension and my hanger is new as well. The rear mech is brand new and the play feels very stable, almost as if it needs to be there for some wiggle room within the pull ratio but i dont know for certain. Regardless, can you please let me know if you have the same free play?
My 5800 105 chainset is fat too. It is some different shape but it is fat. And there is no problem with that. And they have a groove on it. So, basically same thing. Your problem is that front derailleur is mounted too high. I like that front derailleur. Like that short lever. Just like my old Tiagra 4400. It is much better than the long one. It is easier to change gear on long lever (smaler force) but travel of shifter is much too long. The Same thing is for rear derralieur. I hope they fix that problem. I'm looking to buy R8000. I'm not shure jet.
Rak Rakovica I have 5800 but bought the r8000 fd. as my caad 10 did not play super nice with the long arm fd as it's bb guide for the cable comes out at an angle which causes the first trim to be very hard, and I would end up going right past it .
M Lee it's because it has the direct mount version that goes under the chain stays. It can be hard to access, so they went with an inline release...I think it is pretty neat, actually...oh, someone beat me with this one, lol
Hey Danny, do you have experience with the Rose CRS? what would you say, would you recommend it? it comes with Sram Force components! I have no experience with those what so ever! But I like the idea of not having shimano components on every single bike. and it's light of couse. Would be nice to hear your opinions on that!
Are you going to change the cassette and the chain ?. really like the bike. maybe the front shift could improve with the shimano ultegra shain . The rear derailleur design is awesome.
I read you can use the 6800 crankset with the new R8000 front mech, but you can't use a 6800 front mech with a R8000 crank. Even though it's all 11-speed, there's some weirdness going on. Does the R8000 front mech offer trim adjustment now, so you don't need a barrel adjuster?
I have the Ultegra 6800, and have changed the front and rear derailleur, and the cassette in R 8000, and kept the rest in 6800... boy with a difference, I love the R 8000 changes I made!!!! But the levers, brakes, are 6800 still. Also I have the fsa gossamer 4 arm crankset. Very happy with the mix! :-) :-) :-) :-) I totally agree with you on that funky rear cable release, not good... as for the hollow fatter plate/cranks, I don't know about that either, but the rest of the R8000 components are tops!!!! Thx for video, nice info...
it's because of kmc chain。 I changed to kmc and find the same problem not happened before when I was using the Shimano chain. and sometimes it slides several teeth and reluctant to climb on the big chainring.
9:01 It looks like the teeth of the crank are pushing into the "links" of the chain instead of going into the holes, I'm not sure if that's supposed to happen ? If not, then the chain is probably the culprit.
I suppose changing to shimano chain may solve the problem. it's kind of stuck in the derailer and produce resistance in the shifting. I know kmc also produce shimano chains, but maybe that's the little difference of shape of the links cause the problem.
Hello sir, if you have a moment I was wondering if you could answer this question: are there any R8000 components you think are worth the upgrade over the R7000? Thanks
I'm thinking of upgrading my front and rear derailleur plus shifters on an Ultegra 6700 to this as I can't get parts for the 6700 anymore. That way I likely won't have the crankset issue you're talking about.
The groupset looks amazing and I also like the attention to detail. The cable holder on the front duraileur is a very nice touch. However, that shifting perfrmance issue on the crankset, if is actually awful, provided it is really being caused by the crankset itself and not any other factor involved in this particular build. A brand new high end groupset with such bad shifting in the front is unnacceptable. This things cost to much money to have such fails. Another thing: just out of curiosity, why did they send you the bike with 105 cassete instead of the one that matches te groupset?
Hey there, Can someone help me t figure out, why is there NO VIDEO at all, about how to convert a 3x to 2x drive system. I mean, what do you really need to change, and ideas, tips, etc. Only found 3x to 1x. I really would like to know more about this, even articles are hard to find, and those are also 2-3 years old.
Stop this bullshit, not everyone has a decent bikehsop in their town. my freakin fox is at the service for nearly 3 weeks, they wont even reply form me only after 2 weeks, the local bike shop just recommending bullshit at only know the middle range bikes and shimano brand. Why no one can make a decent video, so everyone would understand what to buy and do with his bike?
swap your crank set, STIs/shifters and front derailleur from 3x to 2x. That's it. You might have to get a new rear derailleur, that's compatible with the new shifters, though.
So the rear brake doesn't have it's on relase dial? Not a fan of that big relase. Also why does your bike have a barrel adjuster the new fd has a built in one. Also almost looks like you don't have enough cable tension as the two white lines should match up on the big rings trim
maybe the realease for the rear brake is built this way due to the fact that Dan's rear brake mounts below the chainstay, which is rather unique... but correct me if I'm wrong, I'm a disk brake guy :)
Weird. I just bought ultegra crank 46-36, but I use sram rival front derailleur and it works fine. Is your chain long enough? I will be upgrading rear cassette to ultegra 11-34 plus chain and the derailleurs to Di2 in future just can't afford all at once
I have same front derailleur issue with my di2 r8050. First i used my old 6700 chainrings and i thought it happened because of its designed for 10sp. Then i switched to rotor cranks with rotor chainrings (no-q). It became better, but for some reason it happening from time to time. One more thing i would say about r8000 that you may put HUGE cassette with optional longer cage RD. Officially up to 34t, which is overkill for road bikes.
@SickBiker love the handlebar tape with the red touches only at the drops. Could you link the product which you purchased to set them up in this way please :)
great review. there s no need to hve those things to "open" the brakes when you can use the lever on the brake..and they are noisy and crash the frame too. You should upgrade to R8000 cassette that is a lot lighter...
Hey. Thanks for great videos. I learned a lot from you. Can you review Lynskey Titanium Cyclocross and Endurance bikes which they got on sale now. Are they worth it? And also compare them with Motobecane Titanium Cyclocross bike which is on sale in BikesDireck far cheaper then Lynskey. I will appreciate if you make a review about them.
Hi Danny, iwant to chiang my cranks, is ist posssible to go with Ultegra 8000.2x11 50/34 and a Ultegra 800 RX rear derailleur, what do you think, BB30 is not usual at the shimano cranks or not? The stock cranks are FSA Gosshamer 52/36T Thanks for help mate.
@Roger Smith, you will need a 24mm adaptor for your BB30 if you wish to install a Shimano chainset (all Shimano chainsets use a 24mm spindle) The better performance upgrade if you plan to use a compact 50t/34t gearing is to buy Absolute Black chainrings. Much lighter and stiffer for increased shifting performance and power transfer. But Absolute Black chainrings are not cheap, but their performance is worth the money.
I installed this in place of the 6800 and I still find Force 22 on my other bike still better in terms of shifting and ease of use. But Shimano brakes are better. I think R8000 is overrated.
It's the shimano Polymer coating that peels off. I personally don't really like those cables, the coating is too fragile. I prefer the new "Optislick" ones.
Agreed! I've had a number of bikes where the coating has shed itself inside the sleeving, making threading a new cable impossible. Had to re-sleeve a Propel recently. Arrggghhh! I too am preferring the Optislik.
Good alternative for disc brakes, unless you ride in the rain. I happen to value my life. How does Ultegra compare to 105? All I've heard is it is very similar.
Are the components of this new R8000 compatible with the 5800 105 set? If so, would you consider using the R8000 derailleur with the with 105 group set?
The 8000 front derailleur will work fine with 5800 i've tried it. the rear derailleur should too but i have heard that the R8000 cranset does not liek to go backwards with the old derailleur so the R8000 would ot like your 5800 Front derailleur.
Hi , i have a 4iiii 105 crank ( one side ) power meter on my present road bike. I will be getting another road bike ( as part of my sponsorship deal) with a FSA crankset. Can i still fit my 105 pwoermeter onto the FSA crankset? If i do fit will it affect my peddling or power output ?
You can put entire crankset on a new bike if you change FSA BB for Shimano hollowtech BB. But FSA and Shimano crank is not compatible. FSA BB is really really bad. I have problem with Threaded 386 and PF386. Both have the same problem. Sqiking in 2000 km. No rain, mud or bad condition involved. Just light rain (1-2 times) , slightly wet road and washing in low pressure. FSA is officially out of my bikes forever.
Coś chyba nie tak założyłeś na FT, wszyscy mówią jak fantastycznie R8000 shifts. Mój group set ma dziś przyjść z Amazon. Mam już Stages Power Meter na obie strony. Będę zakładał to na mój Tarmac S-works. Mam nadzieje ze nie będę miał takiego samego problemu!
Any word on trimming? My 5800 groupset has terrible front shifting performance out of the front derailleur. I was thinking of upgrading to the R8000 FD.
The trim is in the shifter. It's all there. There's a new 105 level front derailleur available very soon (5801). Note that new Ultegra, like new Dura Ace have their chainrings slightly closer together than their predecessors (maybe this is related to the shifting issue noted?). The 9100 & 8000 front derailleurs are designed to work with these new chainsets, so there might be minor compatibility issues? Not sure.
These new derailleurs are cross compatible. It's just that the chainrings are not. But I have seen some people use the new cranksets on 6800/9000 systems without any issues it's just that Shimano can't guarantee it.
Im using a good condition 6800 crankset with the new front derailleur and its running very nice. I think it's the other way around, the old 6800 derailleur i not recommended with the 8000 crankset from what i've been told.
Is there a reason why the cable on the front derailleur looks so frayed? It looks really odd to me especially with the rest of the bike looking so pristine.
Guoenyi some frames had issues with the angle for the cable on the first 11 speed groups my caad 10 for instance. The angle caused the first trim to be very hard to do and would easily go right past it and click to the front ring. But I just realised you probably ment the cable hitting the leg .
well, if SickBiker thinks that Shimano is liable to make sure shifting is perfect even with a KMC chain, he has the right to think so. and if SickBiker thinks that observed poor shifting on a 'system' comprises of several factors (mixture of components from different brands, and quality of setup) can be drilled down to 'thick' chain ring design without looking at factors above, he has the right to think so.
I just switched to a road bike and it has the R8000 groupset (minus the Shimano chain). The amount of stroke needed for shifting via the brake levers (not the paddles) is killing my hands, so I'm switching to di2. It's not a common issue, but it's bad enough to warrant a $1K DIY project and disassembling half the bike. I also have a KMC X11 chain, but haven't encountered issues after 1000+ miles.
Hollowgram cranks are SUPER flexy. Ignoring other's comments about poor FD setup, thou only spend half a revolution with a difficult shift but you spend EVERY revolution with a stiff crank. Hollowgrams are okay if your 60 kilos and don't max a lot of power. I peeled chains off of them and went to Dura Ace!
Thomas Manning I.had the 10 spd dura ace 39/53 and they were very still.and they were hollow too. It's possible that they have used a less flexing alloy.
Ugh...those terrible Shimano coated cables! Look at all that gunk coming off! Always seems to jam up in the housing, just stick with naked steel cables, and upgrade your housing if you want to pretend you feel a difference.
Shimano Cables lasts a long time. If you like maintenance, you can have perfect shifting in naked steel cables by replacing your cable every ride. No matter the distance, just replace it after the ride. Then it will be almost as good as Shimano Cables.
Ultegra groupsets Review 105 cassette KMC Chain And than you complain about the Shifting Performance? What a joke. My real Ultegra groupset Shifts in lightspeed at the Front. Im sorry for the People that Watch this Video for 2 years and take your false advertisment for real.