One little screw turned a 10 minutes job into 2 frustrating hours.
So I got new ergonomic grips for my bike and wanted to install them, but the ones on the right were a little longer than what I had before. So I wanted to move the brake and shifter a little to the left. But the screw that holds the shifter in places stripped its head. I tried sawing a gap and use a flat screwdriver, but it absolutely didn’t budge. WD40 didn’t help either. So in the end I sawed through everything. Also managed to scrath the handlebars, but luckily that area gets covered by the brake.
It was an Sram T3, luckily these types of shifters seem to be quite cheap. But I’m pretty bummed, this shifter came with the bike and was very reliable. Now I have to go through the hassle of replacing it.
bikeonychus on
Something similar happened to me when trying to change racks on my bike – the screw was stuck, stripped screw head, and I couldn’t get it out.
I ended up getting a screw extraction kit – it’s essentially a drill bit that has 2 ends, one to create a divot in the screw head, and another to extract the screw. It’s still a bit of a process, and to extract it I still had to drip a bit of oil around the edge of the screw and cross my fingers it seeped down between screw and bike – but it worked, and did not damage my bike or the rack I was trying to remove.
I think the one I used was called Screw-Out or something? You do need an electric drill to use it though.
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One little screw turned a 10 minutes job into 2 frustrating hours.
So I got new ergonomic grips for my bike and wanted to install them, but the ones on the right were a little longer than what I had before. So I wanted to move the brake and shifter a little to the left. But the screw that holds the shifter in places stripped its head. I tried sawing a gap and use a flat screwdriver, but it absolutely didn’t budge. WD40 didn’t help either. So in the end I sawed through everything. Also managed to scrath the handlebars, but luckily that area gets covered by the brake.
It was an Sram T3, luckily these types of shifters seem to be quite cheap. But I’m pretty bummed, this shifter came with the bike and was very reliable. Now I have to go through the hassle of replacing it.
Something similar happened to me when trying to change racks on my bike – the screw was stuck, stripped screw head, and I couldn’t get it out.
I ended up getting a screw extraction kit – it’s essentially a drill bit that has 2 ends, one to create a divot in the screw head, and another to extract the screw. It’s still a bit of a process, and to extract it I still had to drip a bit of oil around the edge of the screw and cross my fingers it seeped down between screw and bike – but it worked, and did not damage my bike or the rack I was trying to remove.
I think the one I used was called Screw-Out or something? You do need an electric drill to use it though.