Changing my Shimano Ultegra Hoods

Ken Hardacre wants to replace his old brake lever hoods for some new clean and comfortable ones, he wants any tips we can give him to undertake this tricky job.

Question:
Hello I want to change my Ultegra hoods for new ones, can anyone please give me an easy method and any tips like use talc to lubricate?

Thanks for the regular newsletter and wonderful Q’s & A’s.

Hi Ken.

Thanks for reading and thanks for the kind words.

When the brake lever hoods get old they tend to feel sticky and horrible and feel lose on the lever, at the worst they can twist round as you are riding. So changing the hoods make your riding more comfortable and safer with better a grip, along with new handle bar tape your bike will look and feel much nicer.

There are a few tips we can pass on to you and anyone else wanting to replace the lever hoods. First leave the brake levers on the handle bars, this gives you an anchor for the levers and two free hands to pull the hood on.

Unless you are saving the hoods (why I don’t know?), carefully cut them off. Talc is not a bad thing to use, but I’ve found washing up liquid to be better, another tip for replacing MTB grips is to use hair spray (lacquer) on the inside of the grip, this helps it slide on and then it will hold the grip to the bars as it dries.

The fiddliest bit with the older Shimano brake levers is the gear cable which comes out of the side of the brake lever, which you have to disconnect the gear cables to feed them through the hood. Then put some washing up liquid on the top of the lever and a little on the inside at the top of the lever hood. Then feed the back of the hood over the lever and onto the body bottom first, and then pull the top over the top of the brake lever and into place. The washing liquid should dry out and leave the hood tight on to the lever body.

It is a tricky job and can hurt the hands, be very careful not to stretch or break the hoods when fitting them; they are strong and need to fit tightly on to the body of the brake lever. Finish the job off with new handle bar tape, black and dark colours looks good for longer, but white handle bar tape gives your bike the look of a champion’s, all the top riders have white bar tape to finish off their handle bars.

Anyone else got any top tips for replacing brake lever hoods?