Shimano Ultegra R8000 11 Speed Rear Derailleur

This Shimano Ultegra R8000 rear derailleur is designed to provide you with optimum road shifting performance. It's light, strong and has the best shifting characteristics. Upgrading to one of these derailleurs will make a world of difference!

Shadow-Link design
The Ultegra R8000 rear derailleur has Shimano's Shadow-Link design. With this design, which you also see on the Dura-Ace R9100, the derailleur is further recessed below the cassette, which has two key advantages:

The first is that the shifting characteristics are drastically improved. The placement of the derailleur ensures better contact between the chain and the cassette, so mud and dirt have much less influence on the shifting. It'll come in handy if you ride in bad weather conditions on the road, or ride cyclocross or gravel.

The second advantage is that the design makes it possible to mount bigger cassettes, with both the short and long cage versions. With the long cage derailleur this means that you can mount an 11-34, which will be useful on climbs. From a technical point of view it creates a bigger chainring, which allows you maintain the normal crank ratios but with a bigger cassette.

Low weight, high durability
The materials which this derailleur is made from are lightweight and durable. Light metals are used which makes the derailleur very strong. These metals are optimally constructed and finished so that you don't take a gram to many up the mountain with you.

Important!
The barrel adjuster behaves differently from the previous Shimano derailleurs you're used to! Shimano Dura-Ace R9100, Ultegra R8000 and 105 R7000 rear derailleurs have a safety device (lock function) on the barrel adjuster. This sort of barrel adjuster needs to first be lifted slightly upwards before you can turn it in or out.

What cassettes are compatible with this derailleur?
• Short Cage (SS): 11/25, 11/28, 11/30, 12/25, 14/25, 14/27, 14/28, 16/27
• Long Cage (GS): 11/28, 11/30, 11/32, 11/34

Compatibility

Short cage (SS) suitable for 11-25T / 11-30T
Long cage (GS) suitable for 11-28T / 11-34T

Assembly

Loosening and tightening the gear cable
You can find the 5mm Allen key that you need for adjusting the limit screws here.

Removing the chain
Before you can install the new derailleur, you'll need to remove your chain. You can read about how to do that in this blog. You'll need a chain breaker, which you can find here. Some multi-tools contain a chain breaker. Make sure that you select a chain breaker for the right speed chain though - the size of the pins is different according to the speed of the chain.

Always use assembly grease
If you're fitting a new derailleur, you should definitely apply assembly grease on the screw thread of the derailleur pad. You can find our selection of assembly greases here.

Fitting jockey wheels
To fit jockey wheels you need a 2,5mm or 3mm Allen key. Find a handy Allen key set here.

User tips

Skew derailleur hanger?
A problem that crops up often is a skew derailleur hanger. It can happen if the derailleur knocked into something, for example in the case of a fall on the bike. Luckily it can be fixed!

Clean the jockey wheels well too!
Just like the chain, the jockey wheels on a derailleur get super dirty. As a result the shifting is not as good and it does the lifespan of your derailleur no good. For that reason, it's a good idea to clean the jockey wheels at the same time when you clean and lube your chain. Do this by running a cloth along the jockey wheel while gently turning the chain. Of course it gets to a point where the jockey wheels are worn out. In this blog post you can find out more about when jockey wheels should be replaced and what you'll need.