Bicycle Mechanics - Poor man's Paul Thumbies

If you want to mount Shimano bar-end shifters on upright bars as thumb shifters, you don't have to spend $50 on Paul thumbies. Take the shifters off of a set of Suntour thumb shifters and mount the bar end shifters in their place with 5mX25mm machine screws. You may have to put a washer under the shifter for clearance. I discovered this today and I thought I'd share.

pictures would be nice

pictures would be nice

I know. I'll try to get some up tomorrow. It's 8:00 p.m. and my alarm goes off at 3:45 a.m.

Here's what I'm talking about:

http://thumb9.webshots.net/t/22/23/0/41/15/2827041150068014369sZKMCB_th.jpg (http://sports.webshots.com/photo/2827041150068014369sZKMCB)

It works great. I'll replace that hardware store phillips screw with a stanless socket head eventually.

Nice to know this is an option if the right situation came up. Not sure I'd consider it an upgrade over the original Suntour shifters. It sure wouldn't make sense to buy these for this application at the prices I see on eBay! The Paul Thumbies might actually be the poor man's substitute. :)
But if I wanted to set up a bike for indexing in a configuration that my XC Pros wouldn't handle, Shimano bar ends mounted this way would be a good solution.

Thanks for the tip.

I was up at 5:00 this morning changing those mounting screws to stainless button heads. I just don't think phillips head screws belong on bicycles.

I took the Suntour thumb shifters from my '88 MB-2. They seem to be fairly plentiful on ebay. I assume because they're incompatible with indexed Shimano. They're certainly less rare and expensive than Shimano XT thumb shifters.

The bike is an odd combination of parts stripped from other bikes. The cassette is an XT seven speed, the shifters are eight speed, the RD is a long cage Sachs-Huret and the FD is a Shimano XT. I took it for a test ride this morning and it performed flawlessly. It's a mixte I'm putting together for my wife.

I wonder if this would work with the brackets from the truly cheap Sunrace and Shimano Touney thumb shifters. Those go for about $10 a pair. The prices some of these good old parts are drawing are really getting to be ridiculous!

The bike is an odd combination of parts stripped from other bikes. The cassette is an XT seven speed, the shifters are eight speed, the RD is a long cage Sachs-Huret and the FD is a Shimano XT. I took it for a test ride this morning and it performed flawlessly. It's a mixte I'm putting together for my wife.

Sweet! I love stuff like that! I just set up a pre-1997 Dura Ace rear derailleur and some Sante 7-speed indexed downtube shifters, to shift a six-speed Shimano 600 freewheel. That too works flawlessly! Your combination is much more impressive, though! :)

Thank you for the picture of the improvised thumbies. Those are great.

Fantastic tip! Thanks. I was just looking for some thumb shifter mounts to mount a pair of barcon shift levers. I thought that Paul was the only way. This is way cheaper though. Good tip. Thanks for sharing with us!

Will the Suntour shifter fit on a 26mm handlebar? Specifially, is it the Suntour XC expert thumbshifter?
I'm not familiar with Suntour parts. Thanks!

Couldn't you just buy a set of indexed thumb shifters for less than the cost of the bar-ends + that suntour thing...?

Flat bars are narrower, won't be a direct fit to a 26 mm road bar.
:(

If you want to mount Shimano bar-end shifters on upright bars as thumb shifters, you don't have to spend $50 on Paul thumbies. Take the shifters off of a set of Suntour thumb shifters and mount the bar end shifters in their place with 5mX25mm machine screws. You may have to put a washer under the shifter for clearance. I discovered this today and I thought I'd share.

Dirtdrop, this is actually a very well known trick. That's why SunTour thumbies are going for almost $50 on ebay. Though, it is possible to pick up a pair cheap. Don't count on it for very long.

I bought an old set of Exage 6 sp thumbies to see if they would work. It seems that Shimano barcons and thumb shifters use a different shape mounting bolt.

Tim

I just found your post, and am eager to try it, but I think I'm missing something? I have Shimano bar ends and Suntour XC pros, and they won't line up. I need a washer with recessed bit to match the interface of the two, otherwise it just spins without shifting. Any advice? Thanks in advance!

I didn't say it was easy. The base of the Shimano shifter has to be prevented from turning. I drilled and tapped the bases and ran screws throgh the back of the mounts.

I don't know what cs1 is talking about above. Suntour indexed thumb shifters and Shimano derailers don't work well together. It's definitely not a well known trick.

FYI , the 7 speed Suntour XC Pro & XC expert (same shifter guts) index perfectly with eight speed shimano cassettes if you use a shimano RD. They have the ghost gear like shimano DX/XT 7 speeds. Why butcher a wonderful shifter?

I don't know what cs1 is talking about above. Suntour indexed thumb shifters and Shimano derailers don't work well together. It's definitely not a well known trick.

Correct, Shimano derailleurs don't index with SunTour shifters. That's not what I said. Read it again.

The well known trick is using SunTour thumb shift bases with barcon shifters. If you have checked ebay lately you'll see that SunTour thumb shifters are going anywhere from $35 to $50. At that price I'd rather use Pauls. When the SunTour shifters were only $5 to $10 then they really were a best buy.