rotary shifters - who makes/made them?

[simonineaston]

Does anyone know which manufacturers have made, or still make, rotary shifters, like Sram's 'grip shift'? Has there ever been a similar offering from Shimano?

[squeaker]

Rohloff for their hub gears, and Shimano for their hubs and ordinary rear mechs

[AndyK]

Covering just derailleur gears:

SRAM (formerly Gripshift) still make them. For their own MTB derailleurs they're available right up to the 12-speed Eagle groupset. They also have low-end Shimano-compatible 6/7/8/9-speed twist shifters (the MRX and Centera ranges) which still bear the famous Gripshift logo. My "vintage" 1997 Rockhopper sports a pair of MRX shifters that replaced the original Gripshifts when they finally wore out: cheap as chips and practically maintenance-free.

Sunrace make Shimano-compatible twist shifters for 5/6/7/8-speed. Again, cheap and cheerful but they work.

Shimano still have twist shifters for 6/7/8-speed derailleurs in their Revoshift and Tourney ranges.

Various suppliers still make short handlebar grips sized for use with twist shifters, for those of us who don't like hacking the full-length ones down.

[rjb]

Even Sturmey Archer made them for 3 speed hub gears. They may still be doing them.

[simonineaston]

Covering just derailleur gears:

Yes - good point! Info. sort for disraeli gears only.

[Mr.Benton]

Microshift make them for 3x6, 3x7,3x8 and 3x9
https://www.microshift.com/products/components/

[Slowtwitch]

I can't remember the last time I saw them on a bike...

[PT1029]

Microshift and grip shift/scram, easy to fit/replace cables.
Sunrace, er, I tried at work but seemingly impossible to dismantle to access the cable.
I asked the trade distributer who said they tried in the office, took over an hour...... Like some Shimano twist grips*, there are 4 tabs on the outboard end to stop the "grip" from sliding off. I think you have to have the lever off the bars or slid so over hanging the end of the bars, somehow push all 4 tabs inwards and with your 3rd (possibly4th?) hand slide the "grip" off the end to expose the cable.
(*But Shimano allow cable access without having to remove the grip/twist section).
Needless to say I don't order any more Sunrace twist grip levers, and every time I see a bike with these at work, I wipe/oil the inner cable to defer the day when the cable finally needs changing....
While writing his, I have just remembered the Microshift trade distributor I use no longer supplies Microshift. I think they said Microshift now use one of the big online retailers (Wiggle? or some such).

[andrew_s]

Rohloff for their hub gears, and Shimano for their hubs and ordinary rear mechs

Normal Rohloff shifters won't be any good for anything other than Rohloff hubs as they have neither indexing nor any friction, the indexing being inside the hub.

[gregoryoftours]

The Raleigh Grifter had a twist handlebar grip shifter for its sturmey archer 3 speed hub. One of my friends had one, the 3 gears were colour coded. I don't know where heard this idea from and have never found evidence to support it but I'm convinced that the green gear was for grass, the yellow for road and the red for burnin'!

[AndyK]

Sunrace, er, I tried at work but seemingly impossible to dismantle to access the cable.

I think you're not expected to. They're assuming that the cheap shifters are disposable and that it's easier for a mechanic to to fit new shifters, which come with the cables already attached, than it is to replace the cable. Welcome to the throw-away society.

[AndyK]

While writing his, I have just remembered the Microshift trade distributor I use no longer supplies Microshift. I think they said Microshift now use one of the big online retailers (Wiggle? or some such).

Hotlines UK, which does indeed have the same owner as Wiggle and Chain Reaction. But while Microshift's own website shows a whole array of twist shifters, Hotlines doesn't list any of them.

[AndyK]

I can't remember the last time I saw them on a bike...

Here y'go. SRAM MRX shifters if you look closely. Taken during my late-afternoon ride on Sunday. Old MTBs look so much more elegant than modern ones, I reckon.

[Stradageek]

I can't remember the last time I saw them on a bike...

All of my recumbents are fitted with them. Being fast on the flat and downhill but climbing at more normal upright bike speeds, you often need to change a 'fistful' of gears in a hurry. In this circumstance, nothing beats a 'grip' shifter

[Jamesh]

The Raleigh Grifter had a twist handlebar grip shifter for its sturmey archer 3 speed hub. One of my friends had one, the 3 gears were colour coded. I don't know where heard this idea from and have never found evidence to support it but I'm convinced that the green gear was for grass, the yellow for road and the red for burnin'!s-l1600-2021-10-31T125229.527.jpg

My first bike....I've been in therapy ever since!!!