Sometimes parts can feel impossible to find – especially when the manufacturer stops making them.
Take, for example, bracket covers (aka rubber hoods) for Shimano road shifters of a few generations ago. These covers are perishable and a high-wear item, and while replacement should in theory should be cheap and easy, the sheer number of options makes it a difficult one.
And indeed there are many variants. The previous Dura-Ace R9100 or Ultegra R8000 11-speed groupsets each offered four different shifter models that covered the assortment of mechanical shift, Di2 shift, cable/rim brake, and hydraulic brake. Within a single generation of Dura-Ace or Ultegra, there are four different versions of bracket covers, each proprietary to the respective shifter and often with zero cross-compatibility. Expand this out over multiple brands, model generations, and shifter types, and we begin to have quite the problem.
I recently needed some covers for a Shimano Dura-Ace ST-9001 11-speed shifter set and was surprised to find how impossibly rare they have become. Shimano has seemingly discontinued making many of its covers for this era of shifter and those before it – and so while the fine mechanical components of these shifters were still clicking, the covers to hold them from had long perished.
Inspired by something I first shared on Instagram, this article exists for anyone who has scrolled the depths of the internet looking for hood covers to keep an aging – but not old – shifter going.
Search and find
My search for these rubber hood covers led me to all the usual suspects, including sites that historically carry new old stock (NOS) of Shimano service parts, such as SJS Cycles in the UK. Time was spent on forums, and hoping the Google algorithm would bring me some rubber gold. Of course I tried eBay, Amazon, and a variety of international sellers. Heck, I even got desperate to see if AliExpress had some copies to try (sold out).
Not all that long ago there was the Hudz brand that specialised in making such covers in a variety of colours, but sadly that brand was acquired by grip specialist ODI and soon fizzled into the history books. I was getting desperate and I was about to start calling around the country to dozens of bike shops to find one that may still be sitting on stock. Thankfully such an investment of time wasn’t needed.
A problem like this can sometimes bring out the positives of the modern digital world. I posed the question about such hood covers on Instagram, and mechanic Pedro Dias came to the rescue, pointing me toward the Taiwanese company Far and Near. Far and Near is a small component manufacturer with a widespread product range that occasionally appears in random corners of the internet. Famed USA-based bicycle boutique Fairwheel Bicycles has some limited stock remaining, and a search for the brand brings up other resellers, too.
Far and Near predominately works as a B2B contract manufacturer and seller, and they encourage you to make such purchases through its store on the Taiwan trade portal. Still, as I found, it’s possible to purchase pieces direct. An online contact form and a PayPal invoice later, I had some covers on the way for the not-so-small price of approximately AU$50 a pair (approx US$30).
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