S&S Bike with DT Shifters ~ are cable splitters necesssary?

[raygunner]

I recently took my S&S coupled 650b Rivendell on it's maiden voyage and thus I had my first experience with both breaking down & building the bike back up. Somewhat frustrating to say the least!

The rig was initially set up with bar-end shifters which proved quite difficult to fit the handlebars & quill stem into the S&S case.

Anyways, upon the return home I disconnected the shifter cable splitters and packed the handlebars into my backpack, making the S&S case packing much, much easier.

I now have the bike set up with DT shifters to make the removal of the handlebars easier for future travel.

My question is...are cable splitters necessary with DT shifters? Would it just be easy to remove the DT shifters prior to travel opposed to utilizing cable splitters.

Any advice/suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Again, this was my first time w/ the S&S rig and I really enjoyed it and I'm looking forward to future travel with my bike.

[saab2000]

Quill stems and S&S couplers are not a marriage made in heaven. Threadless forks and stems work much better.

But to your original question: No. You can just remove the shifters. The danger here would be losing some of the small parts that are part of the shifter. You will have to remove the whole shifter and reassemble it each time, which by itself is not so horrible. Just don't lose any of those pieces or your trip will be ruined.

What I used when I had an S&S bike was the removable adjusters that used to come with Shimano and Campagnolo shifters that were both cable stop and cable adjusters in one. I unscrewed those and was free of the frame. Of course, I also had to be careful not to lose the bolts. The good news was that they were the same threading as water bottle bolts.

[donevwil]

As you've surmised you don't need to add splitters, but I do think you'll appreciate the convenience if you do and they are pretty much install and forget. Also since I require a very long, and harder to find, rear derailleur cable the splitters allow me to use all short, readily available sections.

I myself have to remove the rear derailleur as well so a splitter allows me to have a loose mech. without too much spaghetti hanging off it (I also remove the chain).

[eddief]

the bars are always the toughest part to integrate into the packing puzzle. seems if you can thread one drop between the spokes and the other drop in the corner wrapped around the outside of the tire, then the quill should be able to find a niche toward the middle of the case. is it a nitto techno with super long quill? see photo 3: http://www.sandsmachine.com/pack_r3.htm

how about a quill with a removeable faceplate? then you can remove the stem. too bad no more salsa sul quills.

[etu]

i have silver DT shifters on my travel bike and yes, i did almost ruin my trip when the spring and small parts of the right shifter were scattered in the box. at first i did not realize anything was amiss and installed the shifter and it failed to ratchet!
so next time, i plan to hold them together with electric tape.

[raygunner]

Thanks for all the advice...maybe I will throw those cable splitters back on.

But for now I'm very happy with the rig!