5800 shifters with 5700 FD?

[madmacca]

So I've managed to break my 5700 front shifter (the 40mm long lever behind the downshift paddle snapped off). Can I keep the same FD if I go to a 5800 shifter, or do I need to keep both FD and shifter 5700 or both 5800?

[Bentnose]

For what its worth I have 5700 brifters and a 6800 front derailleur and they work fine. If you can buy just the left hand brifter I reckon it would be fine, only seen them as (new) pairs though.

[Kronos]

5800, 5700, 6800 for what its worth you can even run DI2 shifters if you want to change your front and rear derailleur. All 11/10 speed Ultegra is compatible. 6800 shifters look nicer and are bit neater because you can tuck most of your cable under the bar tape. However they can be a bit of a pain in the arse if you don't set them up correctly. You need a mechanic or someone (yourself) who knows how to set up 6800s.

Lots of 10 speed Ultegra riders end up going back to 5700 shifters because they tend to be more reliable. You might not be interested in DI2 shifters unless you have internal cable routing. You could drill internal holes in your frame if it were an alloy type bike (steel, or aluminum) but even then the external cable guides will make it point out that you did and so it'll never be as neat as it could be.

I'm running into this problem with my Trek at the moment... do I want 6800s do I want DI2 shifters. Not sure yet really. As its going on an older SLR (2007 1500 series) Discovery Channel team replica bike I'm leaning towards running 6800 shifters simply because I don't have the luxury of internal cable routing. It wasn't really a thing unless you had a Madone 5.2 in 2007. I could put the battery in the seat post but then I still have to run external cables which kinda is self defeating.

[Duck!]

The 5700 works on a shorter cable pull than 5800. So while the shifter will have cable to spare, its trim intervals may not align with where the derailleur should be. It will work, but perhaps less than perfectly.

[madmacca]

Thanks all for your advice. I did find a very attractively priced 5800 upgrade kit (shifters + FR + RD) on Merlin, but they were out of stock. Instead, I have sourced a single 5700 shifter off ebay. But until it is delivered, I am stuck in the small ring - hills and aerobic base riding only for the moment.