Shifter choices

[stephenmarklay]

I am going to use some dirt drop bars on my commuter do all bike and I am thinking bar end shifters.

However, I have seen some shifters like these mounted near the brake levers.

What gives and what choices are there?

Right now I am back in 7 speed land but would like to eventually upgrade.

[Ken Robb]

I am going to use some dirt drop bars on my commuter do all bike and I am thinking bar end shifters.

However, I have seen some shifters like these mounted near the brake levers.

What gives and what choices are there?

Right now I am back in 7 speed land but would like to eventually upgrade.

Did you intend to post a photo?

[thwart]

like these... ?

http://www.cyclofiend.com/cc/images/cc079-3DSC_2173.jpg

[bikinchris]

There are a couple of ways to mount sifters like you describe. Paul's makes an adapter to mount sifters on the bars and there are some that can mount shifters on the the brake levers. Gevenalle is the one that makes a mount on the brake levers but they use their own shiftier.

[cmbicycles]

Maybe retroshift levers is what you are thinking of?

http://gomeansgo.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/retroshift-brake-lever-mounted-friction-shifter2-600x512.jpg

[weisan]

Get a cheap 9-speed STI.

You may end up not liking bar-end after trying it. I didn't.

Commuter doesn't mean sacrifice comfort and positive user experience.

[cachagua]

Imagine that Tektro lever in the picture, with a downtube shifter mounted upside-down on its inner face, right where the logo is -- on the side you see there, there'd be the front shifter, pointing to about 4:30 or 5 o'clock when you're on the small ring. From the drops, your fingers reach under the brake lever and pull the shifter back towards you, to maybe 7 or 7:30, and you're on the big ring. Push with your thumb to go back down to the small ring. The rear shifter is the same, only mounted on the left side of the right lever. It's an extremely natural motion; when you're grasping the bar, your fingers are right in position.

You take the lever off its tension band, remove the hood, and drill the body straight through. Put an M5 screw in the inside, where the square part of the band will go, and attach a downtube shifter boss. Rotate it to the desired angle, and clamp the bejeez out of the screw 'til the boss's corners bite into the plastic of the lever body and hold it in place. Mount a stop for the cable housing that points the cable back and slightly up, so it's parallel to the brake cable where it emerges from the lever. Cut the hood to accommodate the parts that are poking out, reassemble, and sha-zam.

I've done variations of this since about 1977, and haven't wanted to ride with anything else. Any downtube shifter will fit, as well as half the bar-end shifters in the world, so you have pretty fair versatility. I'll admit, I haven't tried the Retroshift, and they might be nice, especially if you're on the hoods all the time. Most recently I've used a pair of Suntour Command shifters that are reachable from the hoods as well as the drops, although I don't have enough miles on them to really evaluate them. But I like that my method hides all the cables under the bar tape. A lot harder to hit the shifters on something, too, where I put mine.

Now if I could only learn how to post a photo.

[stephenmarklay]

like these... ?

http://www.cyclofiend.com/cc/images/cc079-3DSC_2173.jpg


Yep. I have seen several different mounts and locations in pics but never in person and was curious about them.

Also those retroshift etc.

Sorry I did not post any pictures I assumed it was just me that was out of the loop and these things were more common.

[weisan]

cacha pal, thanks for sharing your knowledge. I think it would help tremendously if we can see some pictures.

Instructions from cadence pal on how to post pictures:
http://forums.thepaceline.net/showthread.php?t=187770

[stephenmarklay]

Imagine that Tektro lever in the picture, with a downtube shifter mounted upside-down on its inner face, right where the logo is -- on the side you see there, there'd be the front shifter, pointing to about 4:30 or 5 o'clock when you're on the small ring. From the drops, your fingers reach under the brake lever and pull the shifter back towards you, to maybe 7 or 7:30, and you're on the big ring. Push with your thumb to go back down to the small ring. The rear shifter is the same, only mounted on the left side of the right lever. It's an extremely natural motion; when you're grasping the bar, your fingers are right in position.

You take the lever off its tension band, remove the hood, and drill the body straight through. Put an M5 screw in the inside, where the square part of the band will go, and attach a downtube shifter boss. Rotate it to the desired angle, and clamp the bejeez out of the screw 'til the boss's corners bite into the plastic of the lever body and hold it in place. Mount a stop for the cable housing that points the cable back and slightly up, so it's parallel to the brake cable where it emerges from the lever. Cut the hood to accommodate the parts that are poking out, reassemble, and sha-zam.

I've done variations of this since about 1977, and haven't wanted to ride with anything else. Any downtube shifter will fit, as well as half the bar-end shifters in the world, so you have pretty fair versatility. I'll admit, I haven't tried the Retroshift, and they might be nice, especially if you're on the hoods all the time. Most recently I've used a pair of Suntour Command shifters that are reachable from the hoods as well as the drops, although I don't have enough miles on them to really evaluate them. But I like that my method hides all the cables under the bar tape. A lot harder to hit the shifters on something, too, where I put mine.

Now if I could only learn how to post a photo.

Super cool. Send me a picture and I will post it. (stephen mark lay at gmail) no spaces.

[stephenmarklay]

Get a cheap 9-speed STI.

You may end up not liking bar-end after trying it. I didn't.

Commuter doesn't mean sacrifice comfort and positive user experience.

I had bar end on an older cross check and never had issue with it. But I must say having them up near the hoods makes more sense.

[pinkshogun]

Kelly Take Offs..on the blue bike are nice but some may find them too far too grab and not all brake levers work well with them. they mount under the levers. some levers grab better than others

Retroshift is nice-i have a couple sets

7 speed Shimano stem shifters are available with an index/friction right/rear and friction only left front-these are nice quality if you have a 1" threaded stem

Paul Thumbies mounted on the drop bar tops also work with v brake noodles to angle the housing straight down towards the downtube cable stops

[guido]

I have a set of Rivendell Silver bar-ends (work great with 7 speed) with very low miles that are going to be freed up shortly that i would make available for short money if you were interested... PM if you would like to discuss...

[Ken Robb]

I have a set of Rivendell Silver bar-ends (work great with 7 speed) with very low miles that are going to be freed up shortly that i would make available for short money if you were interested... PM if you would like to discuss...

I had a set of Sun Tour Power Ratchet shifters. The Silvers are exact copies so they should work with the same perfection providing silky accurate shifts no matter what drivetrain you have.

[palincss]

Get a cheap 9-speed STI.

You may end up not liking bar-end after trying it. I didn't.

Commuter doesn't mean sacrifice comfort and positive user experience.

Or, you might just love them (as I do). To me, they represent the "comfort and positive user experience" of which you speak. I've tried STI and seriously did not like it.

Of course, for me the first time I tried bar end shifters back in 1975 it was like Michael Corleone seeing Appollonia for the first time: Cupid's arrow and all that. That pokety-pokety thing you have to do with STI makes no sense to me at all.

[cachagua]

So, here's the shifter I was describing:

https://66.media.tumblr.com/316228d8519fa53ebfc66af502c240fc/tumblr_o8673wC3jK1tg04h3o1_540.jpg

The way the bike's leaning doesn't quite show the angle right -- when I'm riding, the top of the lever body is almost exactly horizontal. So you can see the way the lever is right between your thumb and your index and second fingers, when you're on the drops. The position here is when the chain's on the 4th cog; when it's on the biggest, the lever is pointing to about 3:30, and in the smallest cog, about 8:00. This is a Dura-Ace 7400 set up I have on an old Eddy Merckx.

[cachagua]

And, here's a shot of the Suntour Power Control I'm using with XC-Pro derailleurs on my BMC:

https://67.media.tumblr.com/c22488ec104903e168b40d65c64fdf52/tumblr_o8672qJZuF1tg04h3o1_540.jpg

With this one, I can shift the lower extension from the drops, same as the downtube lever, and also hit the upper one from the hoods. Tasty! It says 7-speed, but I put the guts of an 8-speed downtube lever into it.

As you can imagine, the front shifters on the left side are mirror images.

[stephenmarklay]

Very cool cachagua.

[cachagua]

For historical perspective, here's the left side of the first pair I ever did, in 1976 or '77:

https://65.media.tumblr.com/54bd0c2788b22d9ffa13dd228b2403c7/tumblr_o86kwoTtws1tg04h3o1_540.jpg

Kinda primitive, by comparison, but -- proof of concept. I'd been taking jewelry-making classes, hence the cutout in the Suntour Power Ratchet lever, and the silver-brazed gusset in the cable stop. I didn't tailor the hood to fit over this, just rode without it. I'd been mildly annoyed for a few years, at that time, at having to take my hands off the bars to shift, because the need to shift so often coincides with the need to have both hands firmly on the bars... Hadn't we all? For exactly that reason? So the first rides with these things were revelatory. Fantastically exciting. I was in my teens, I'd hit upon a problem, I'd conceived a solution to it, and realized it, and it worked really well.

And Shimano can suck my downtube. Seriously, I would love to know when their earliest integrated brake/shift control prototypes were in circulation, or even just pipe dreams in their engineers' heads. I never applied for a patent, I never went into production, I have no viable claim on the idea, but I honestly think I beat them.

[cadence90]

:D
cachagua now going crazy with the photos, like a kid in a candy store! I love it!

Very good, really clear photos, too. Kudos!


Edit: Wait, you made those? Wow, very, very impressive.

[weisan]

cacha pal, I am so glad you finally figured out how to post pictures of your innovative shifter levers. My first reaction was, cool, now we can recycle a lot of the old dt shifters out there. The only question I have in mind with regards to your setup is, for riders who spend the majority of their time with the hands on the hood instead of the drop, is this setup optimal or does it interfere with the hand position and comfort?

Thanks again for sharing this.

[cachagua]

Doesn't interfere, at least for me -- the cable is tucked nicely out of the way, and my thumb sits forward of the shifter. With a downtube shifter, it's not as easy to operate a downtube shifter from the hoods as from the drops, so that'll be a factor for some. But you could use a bar-end shifter, mounted low and back and swinging through perhaps 7 o'clock and 11, or even 9 and 2, and have something that's right at your fingertips when you're on the hoods.

There's a lot of tweakability in the design -- for example you can see how much farther forward the Command shifter is (second photo) than the downtube shifter. Every time I've done a pair I've adapted to whichever brake lever, and whichever shifter, to get an optimal configuration.

And to be fair, this is where the big manufacturers, and even Paul, have got me -- whatever their design, they're in production, and every one of mine is essentially a prototype. They're running a business -- I'm having fun.

And yes, guilty as charged, I'm REALLY getting a kick out of posting photos!

[stephenmarklay]

For 1x11 this is slick

https://paulcomp.com/shop/components/sram-shifter-adaptor/

This could be a killer setup for my commute bike/gravel grinder

[ptourkin]

Maybe retroshift levers is what you are thinking of?

http://gomeansgo.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/retroshift-brake-lever-mounted-friction-shifter2-600x512.jpg

Yes - they are now called Gevenalle. Changed their name a couple years ago.

http://gevenalle.com/