Commuting - Mixing Shimano levels

After talking to Jeff Jones on the phone this morning, he informed me that titec was indeed going to be carrying an aluminum version of his bar and would have stock within four to six weeks. He also stated that the best and most ergonomic ****ers for this bar would be Shimano's sti shifters/brakes. Since I'm about as far removed from bike mechanics as you can get, my question is....can you mix Deore LX or Deore XT dual shifters with ,say, Deore derailleurs or even components lower in the line? Or, for that matter can you mix LX and XT or XTR components. Thanks

You can mix any shimano road components with other levels of road components no problem. Same with mtn bike components. Some mtn bike components will work with road stuff and vice versa, but you need to check into each combination to be sure.

On my LHT I run an XT rear der with a dura ace indexed barcon - works great.

Ooops......Did I put this in the wrong forum? If so would one of the moderators kindly move or delete this this post so I can address the correct forum.

Thanks Vik.

They will all work together as long as everything is designed for the same # of speeds. i.e. 7, 8, 9 or 10 gears on the cassette

I don't think shimano road and mtn bike front der and shifters are fully compatible.

I don't think shimano road and mtn bike front der and shifters are fully compatible.
I've been able to swap back and forth successfully in the past. The only problem I ran into was getting a front road shifter to move the chain across three chainrings. I couldn't get it to stop rubbing on the chain.

Some of the old Dura-Ace derailleurs and shifters are incompatible with the newer stuff. Sheldon Brown has a good explanation on his site.

What you mainly need to worry about is that indexing matches, and that the RD meets or exceeds the number of gears planned. I.e. you can use a Deore (9 speed) RD with an 8 speed cassette, so long as you have an 8 speed indexed shifter.

Derailleurs don't index...that is all internal to the shifter. As long as the range of gears is within the geometric reach of the derailleur, there isn't a problem.

If you use friction shifters more compatibility issues disappear.

Front derailleurs can be a different story. You need to do further look into cable pull, type of swing, etc. in addition to the tooth and range capacitance of a given FD. "Mountain" shifters may or may not pull the correct amount of cable for the designed swing on a given "road" shifter. However, that is not always the case...

And if all else fails, you might check out the Jtek Shiftmate, which allows you to mix 8 and 9 speed Shimano shifters with larger cassettes.

http://www.jtekengineering.com/shiftmate.htm

Wow!!! For those of us (read... me) for whom bicycle mechanics is a foreign language, this information is very helpful in chosing, combining and updating components on our bikes. Thanks for the insight.

I'm glad I ran into this thread, I forgot all about those Jones bars.

Here it is:

http://www.bikemannetwork.com/biking/p/HB2340