Comments on: How-To: Ensure consistent shifting all winter long

By: choke

choke — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 21:39:04 +0000

Yeah, with very little practice, you’ll have perfect shifts without even thinking about it.

By: Nick

Nick — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 17:47:46 +0000

Yeah, I prefer to use friction shifters all year round. I view it as a choice: either a simple mechanism that a human intelligence can easily control, or a complicated mechanism that is useless once broken.

Besides, if you use them enough, you get to the point where you can practically just flick at the lever and shift perfectly.

By: Michael

Michael — Sun, 20 Jan 2008 04:40:44 +0000

this is beyond ghetto

By: Robert

Robert — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 15:21:19 +0000

Sram with thumb shifter is very hard to work properly. I eventually switched to an old XTR rear derailer and durace thumb shifters with a Paul conversion kit. It works awesome in the winter. I did this because my Dad would not give up his Suntour thumbies to me. Hey Dad if you are reading this give me back my Suntour group set Please.

By: Choke

Choke — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 19:12:48 +0000

I’m riding On-One’s Midge flared drop bars with Dia Compe linear-pull dropbar brake levers & LX rear derailleur and XT front.

By: bill

bill — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 17:59:05 +0000

“Actually I think this is what you need: http://jtekengineering.com/shiftmate_straight.htm” Thanks. Kind of like the Travel Agents for Vs and road levers. Yeah, I guess the 1:1 is more of a factor than I first surmised. When I compared the X9 to my XT, it appears that the X9s pivot positions are very different from the XT which makes the X9 move in a different arc.(?) But, I was drinking. Can anybody confirm this? (The arc, not my drinking)

By: JoelGuelph

JoelGuelph — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 17:53:05 +0000

Actually I think this is what you need: http://jtekengineering.com/shiftmate_straight.htm

By: JoelGuelph

JoelGuelph — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 17:51:58 +0000

@Quinn: You can definitely get thumb shifter style that don’t require you to remove your hands from the bar. The one I linked to (for $7.50) would fit the bill or using something like the Paul’s Thumbies (http://www.paulcomp.com/thumbmtn.html). Mine is mounted to my top tube and I don’t have a problem with it. I guess I don’t shift too often when commuting.

@Bill: I’m fairly certain the reason it won’t work is because the SRAM uses a 1:1 cable pull ratio and the Shimano is based on a different (2:1?) ratio. You can check out the Jtek Shiftmates (http://jtekengineering.com/shiftmate.htm) although they look like they are “geared” towards road components.

By: Quinn

Quinn — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 17:24:40 +0000

Interesting idea, my kind of idea, “the less there is to go wrong, the less that will go wrong”.
the problem I would have is, I don’t mind taking my hands off the bar, I Do mind keeping them off long enough to find the gear, maybe the difference is the new derailers (shrugs)

Choke- what handle bar set-up do you use?

By: bill

bill — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 16:08:29 +0000

Just a note. I tried to set up a SRAM X9 rear derailleur with my vintage XT thumbies. They say this won’t work. I now believe them. I thought because the derailleur was “dumb” and the shifter was “smart” that it wouldn’t matter. Has anybody made something like this work?