'Thumbies' Old style gear shifters

[theluggage]

Hello All,

When I bought my new dawes discovery ( years ago) I did not like the fancy trigger gears - to much to go wrong and dificult to fix & need adjusting more. ANyway, i decided I would ride with them till they broke & then get some old fashioned thumb shifters (single lever that goes up or down).

That time has now come. Over the past week, the rear changer has been playing up - sluggish to change and only giving me a limited range. Had a look at it yesterday, the cable finally snapped inside the lever. Managed to replace it, but still could only shift between 4 gears. Decided to take it to peices.....not a good idea ...once I took the retaining nut off, the internal spring helped me remove all the components quickly and spread them broadly accross the shed floor . I spent the next hour putting the thing back together. Whilst it still manages to shift between 4 gears ( a miracle really) I am non the wiser as to how it works or why it doesnt work properly........since my miserable attempt to fix it, the 2 levers now point too far away from the handle bars

Anyone know where you can get thumb shifters??? (other than skips - not got time!)

I am keeping an eye on ebay & am going to visit my lbs to see if they have any knocking about.

Many thanks

Colin

[Si]

Did you check that it wasn't grot in the cables before taking the shifter apart? This is normally the first cause of bad shifting and if it is this then changing the shifter alone won't help - change the inners and outers when you get the new shifters.

The only thumbies that I am aware of at the moment are those that are made from BE shifters placed on special mounts. I think that SJSC might do them, but they aren't cheap!

If you can find them second hand, the old shimano DX and XT thumbies last for ages but if you have 9spd won't be much good to you so the above option would be best.

[theluggage]

Thanks for the quick reply, it was not grot related, i was testing the lever with only the inner cable - with me pulling it to simulate the deraillieur spring.

I have seen those adapters you mention and agree, they are not cheap.....I think i will keep an eye out for second hand first......I am not sure but I thought the older levers will tolerate 9 spd if in friction mode....but I shall be cautious!

Thanks,

Colin

[Si]

Yes, you are correct - they should run any speed in friction mode. But, with there being more sprockets the tolerences are finer and so shifting takes a small amount of extra skill, but I have no trouble running 8spd in friction so you ought to be OK with 9 and a light touch!

[Edwards]

In the summer Scots Cycles in Rubery Birmingham told me the simple thumb Shimano shifters were available to order at about £20. I can not remember how many gears he said they shifted.

[andrew_s]

St John Street sell mounts so that you can use road bike bar-end shifters as thumbies.

[hamster]

try www.retrobike.co.uk there are usually a fair few sets of 7s thumbies going for sale...or try the wanted section!

[andymiller]

Paul Components in the US do thumby mounts for Shimano bar end shifters