Cyclocross - Paul's Thumbies (26mm) question

I know they're designed specifically to work with Shimano bar-cons... but do they work with anything else? Anything at all, even just plain old DT friction shifters? Anything? Please help. The Paul site's not very clear on this.

I have Pauls Thumbies on my touring bike and yes they're made to pefectly fit Shimano barend shifters. I wouldn't bother trying to get them to work with anything else.

I have Pauls Thumbies on my touring bike and yes they're made to pefectly fit Shimano barend shifters. I wouldn't bother trying to get them to work with anything else.

I apologize- maybe I didn't make my first post as clear as I should have.

I'm aware that they're made to work with Shimano. The Paul site pretty much points this out. What they don't say (and I understand their reluctance to do so, given people's occasional tendencies to use any excuse to return a product or even bash it to other potential customers), and what I'm trying to find out is whether or not they will work with anything else.

I'll try to explain. I just got a very nice Bianchi Reparto Corse CX frame (in transit), and I'm not interested in putting any Shimano on it. Nothing wrong with Shimano -I'm not some sort of Shimano hater- but not for this frame. So.. I have a lot of 8-speed Chorus and Centaur components, but no brifters. The idea of buying Ergolevers from that long ago on ebay kinda scares me, and I'd rather have the shifting up top than bar ends, provided I could even find any 8-speed Campagnolo bar ends. Thus the Paul/friction DT shifter idea. I'll do the used Ergo thing if I have to, or maybe even sell all my 8 speed stuff and get Ergo 9 or 10, but I hope it doesn't have to come to that (more $$).

Phooey on Paul for not thinking of Campagnolo when they designed their thumbies. I'm almost at the point of singlespeeding this thing (it has horizontal dropouts)... that was Plan B anyhow.

Actually i think i dissed the other possibilities a little too quickly, it's just that from the instructions it appears they were made only for Shimano.
I've spoken with paul on the phone once, perhaps you could reach him and ask about your setup?

I don't think they will work with anything but shimano. I had a pair, and thumbies mount has a square protrusion machined into the base that interfaces with the shimano lever assembly.

what everyone else said... they're made to work with what they're made to work with. I'm sure you could fit just about any bar end or dt shifter on them if you really really wanted to, and were willing to modify the parts, but why? It's an extremely high-quality, precision-made product that does one obscure job amazingly well. Why you would want to mess with that is beyond me. If having a shimano-free bike is that important to you, then these probably aren't your shifters. At the same time, I'd recommend that you buy a pair and play around... you might figure something out, and if not you'll have a cool part to sell or put on a different bike.

Zach

Firstly - don't jump to conclusions. He may have a set of Suntour levers that he has and wants to use. I have a set of Suntour indexed barends that feel better than anything else I've used. Too bad they're seven speed. But I'll put them on my touring bike of something.

Secondly - that "square" at the bottom of the lever boss is on all downtube shifters. So it is PROBABLE that the Paul's mounts will accept any other shifter as well. Remember that Rivendell also makes some stuff like this:

http://www.rivbike.com/webalog/shifters_derailleurs/

Not everyone has money to burn and they might want to know what they're getting before they pay good money for it just to have it laying around inappropriate for their use.

Well, two things have happened since I bought the Bianchi Reparto Corse frameset:

1) The frameset was the size that the seller advertised, but the photo he used in his auction was a size larger. I expected a longer head tube based on the photo. The short headtube/threaded fork combo would make my intended handlebar height almost impossible to achieve with any semblance of aesthetics, so I'm selling it. Watch ebay in the coming weeks if you need a very nice NOS Italian steel CX frameset, 52cm c-t, 53.3cm c-c.

2) While the too-small frame was in transit, I got hold of some Campagnolo Chorus 8-speed Ergolevers and an 8-speed 12-28 cassette at a decent price.