Gather round gentlemen and learn from my mistakes...

As I was ordering some brake parts anyhow from Gaudin, I threw in the new 'rubberized' rotary shifter with faux leather topper. They were selling it at a pretty decent price below MSRP.

Removing the old topper is a bear... I had to finally pry it up with a knife point before I could finally slide in a flat underneath. The glue was very strong, and I remember thinking it would be very difficult to remove without damaging the rotary shifter itself. As I was replacing my shifter as well, I didn't mind that the old one was dinged up.

After removing the old topper, replacing and installing the new one was a snap.

Unfortunately, after a few days the hold down screw worked slightly loose and the new topper was a bit jiggly. Very annoying every time shifted it.

LESSON #1: USE THREADLOCKER ON THE HOLD DOWN SCREW

After a few days, decided to pry up the new topper and retighten the hold down screw with some threadlocker for good measure. Thinking how difficult it was to remove the old topper and concerned about scratching the new one, I thought it would be nice to heat it up a little with a heat gun to soften the glue. BAD IDEA.

Heated it up a little with a heat gun, and was able to pry up the new topper with a very thin screwdriver blade without damage. However, to my disappointment the heat gun crazed the 'chrome' plastic on the surround.

LESSON #2: DO NOT USE A HEAT GUN ANYWHERE NEAR THE INTERIOR PLASTIC

Everything else went without further incident. It doesn't look too terrible, but I would rather not have the crazed chrome of course... Oh well, at least I have a nice new rotary shifter with faux leather topper...

Cheers,

- Will