Bicycle Mechanics - Mounting a Nexus 8 speed twist shifter on drop bars, BUT...

Not using the $54.99 hubbub adapter thingy from Harris Cyclery!!
Any ideas? I will not spend $60.00 just to mount a shifter.

I am using it on a crosscheck with 1 1/8 steerer and a 90mm stem and a 26.0 Salsa Bell Lap bar (how generic!).

Any one have any mageuyver ideas?

Not using the $54.99 hubbub adapter thingy from Harris Cyclery!!
Any ideas? I will not spend $60.00 just to mount a shifter.

I am using it on a crosscheck with 1 1/8 steerer and a 90mm stem and a 26.0 Salsa Bell Lap bar (how generic!).

Any one have any mageuyver ideas?

Some shops have shims for different size handlebars to different clamps... I wonder if one or two of these would help you in this case... might depend on how much 'flat' you have at the bottom of the bars....


Edit: Or be ghetto like Kent, cut the bar in half, put the shifter on, and weld it back together.....

I've seen a homemade adapter machined from a cut-off section of a handlebar and an inner piece of tube that fits into the cut-off and into the drops of the bike's h-bar.

Would something like this (http://www.nashbar.com/profile.cfm?category=92&subcategory=1052&brand=&sku=12832&storetype=&estoreid=&pagename=Shop%20by%20Subcat%3A%20Handlebar%20Accessories) work? Not nearly as pretty, but much cheaper.

Not using the $54.99 hubbub adapter thingy from Harris Cyclery!!
Any ideas? I will not spend $60.00 just to mount a shifter.

I am using it on a crosscheck with 1 1/8 steerer...

See: http://sheldonbrown.org/thorn

Too bad about the 1 1/8" steerer. Before I got my HubBub doodad I was using a cut down mtb bar end on the 7/8" quill of my stem, on my Raleigh International. I found that I would occasionally bump into it with my knee, so I made this:

http://sheldonbrown.org/raleigh-international/pages/international-nexus12.html

That used a short threadless stem with a shim to make it fit the quill. Where you have a 1 1/8" threadless setup, if your steerer is tall enough, you could do something like this below your regular stem.

The cross piece is a cut-down 1" (25.4 mm) "pipe type" seatpost. The 1" diameter fits the stem perfectly, and the necked down bit where the saddle clamp is meant to fit is 7/8" (22.2 mm) just what the Nexus shifter is made to fit.

In the end, however, I like the HubBub adaptor much better. The ergonomics are really nice, much better than bar-end derailer shifters, in fact.

It is expensive, because it's made in small batches, in the USA, in a machine shop by a human being, while most of bike parts we see are made in huge numbers by fully-automated robot factories. Nobody's getting rich on these.

Sheldon "HubBub" Brown

My initial thought is a bar end like used on mountain bikes. and I would probably mount it near the stem hanging down and slightly back from the bar...

http://www.antbikemike.com/images/Bikes/Rohloff/shifterbig.jpg

http://www.antbikemike.com/images/Bikes/Rohloff/shifterbig.jpg
That's a decent solution if your bike has a traditional 1" threaded headset. The original poster mentioned, however, that he has a 1 1/8" threadless, so that's not an option.

When I was using a setup like this, my knee would sometimes bump into the shifter on climbs. Also, once I upgraded to the HubBub bar-end adapter, the shifter was easier to reach from my usual riding positions, either on top of the hoods or the corners of the bars.

Sheldon "Tried That" Brown

Would something like this (http://www.nashbar.com/profile.cfm?category=92&subcategory=1052&brand=&sku=12832&storetype=&estoreid=&pagename=Shop%20by%20Subcat%3A%20Handlebar%20Accessories) work? Not nearly as pretty, but much cheaper.

I've tried this but found that it was much too flimsy to withstand the continual twisting action of the grip.

I could whip out an adaptor like Harris sells on my lathe and mill but it would cost more than $55!

On a 1 1/8" threadless headset, assuming there is enough height of spacers, you could attach a piece of tubing at a 90deg angle to the spacers. Depending on your orientation, you could TIG weld some 1"Al onto the spacers, or take some CF fabric and cross-wrap it
Aaron

I just make a sleeve out of aluminum. A little smaller than the inside diam of the bar and the right size on the other end for the Rohloff. Takes about 20min.

I then bond the piece on the end of the bar with two part epoxy. Then mount the Shifter. Easy, never failed on me in many attempts and much lighter and simpler than the hub-bub which I don't really understand. Is there some reason you would actually want to remove the adaptor?

you can cut down the end of the bar if you wish.

Dave Bohm
Bohemian Bicycles

P.S. I agree with Sheldon, the bar end location is the one I prefer. It really is quite good.

So this is for a 7-speed, but you could mount the 8-speed shifter on the end of something like this.