Old Shimano 105 brake hoods (5500)

[Nopian]

Hi all,

I'm having trouble finding anywhere that sells brake hoods for 105 Shimano (5500). I've been told Shimano no longer make them. As it is the shifters/cables/etc are working perfectly my only problem is the hood covers which are nearly falling apart. Does anyone know where I might be able to get a set? If not the only other fix I can see is replacing the shifters, unfortunately the new ones are 10 speed (mine are 9 speed) which means I would need to buy a a new chain and cassette as well which I would definitely prefer to avoid.

Any advice would be great!

Thanks!

[jasonc]

try this mob on ebay:
http://stores.ebay.com.au/The-New-Old-S ... cycle-Shop" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[scirocco]

Or just google NOS Shimano or something similar. NOS (New Old Stock) is the term they use for selling brand new obsolete bike parts. There are whole websites specialising in it, and as 5500 is not all that old or rare you should not have too much trouble finding something.

[QuangVuong]

5500 is old, and rare. Its almost impossible to find new hoodsor ones in good condition. ou could try 6500 hoods as well, but its equally as hard to find. The most recent hoods that will fit are from the Shimano ST-R500 STIs. Maybe get into contact with a LBS or Shimano asking about spare hoods.

Other than that, it is probably easiest to buy new shifters, something like the R600, or 9s Tiagra or Sora.

[Duck!]

Are they Flight Deck or non-Flight Deck shifters? (non-Flight Deck are really early in the run and very rare). Aside from the flight Deck button nodes on the inner sides of them, they may be a slightly different shape around the head. I'm not sure on 5500/6500, but on 7700 Dura-Ace, the Flight Deck version had a longer head on the shifter body, to accommodate the computer connections, resulting in a slightly different peak profile on the hoods.

FWIW, there are three versions of 5500/6500 series shifters; the non-Flight Deck ST-5/6500, the early Flight Deck ST-5/6501, and the 2001-2 update (Flight Deck only) ST-5/6510. The button configuration on the later version is slightly different (one each side, rather than both on one side), but otherwise they're the same shape. In each of the three versions, the same hoods were used for both 105 and Ultegra.

[Nopian]

Sounds like I'm not going to have any luck. I'll post a photo of the hoods for those who are curious.

[Nopian]

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[Nopian]

Here they are. Still not sure how I will fix the issue.

[TDC]

http://techdocs.shimano.com/media/techd ... 728639.pdf" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Part number on this techdoc if that helps.

[Duck!]

OK,you've got the non-Flight Deck version (easily identifiable by the absence of Flight Deck logo on the name plate).

[Nopian]

http://www.microshift.com.tw/road_r9.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Has anyone had any experience with these? Could I change to the R9 levers without changing anything else?