Bicycle Mechanics - can anyone advice me

hi i have a Diamondback M:05 Hardtail 7000 series aluminium
with a shimano tourney megarange 7 speed sis index back mech
standed front shimano mech
with sram gripshift max shifters.
now i want to replace the gripshifts with rapidfire but i've been told that i can only put deore shifters on it. so tryed to find some 7 speed ones but with no joy. is there any other make of shifters i can put on it that will work? thanks

You're looking for trigger shifters rather than twist grip shifters - right?

Shimano STX/Alivio are still available in 7-speed. They'll work fine. QBP has over 50 sets in stock so your LBS can order a pair for you. Figure about $30.00 for the set.

Finding the 7 speed ones these days may be some trouble. Shimano is still making 7 speed lever activated shifters but they all seem to come in the shifter and lever pod assemblies. If yoiu want rapid fire style shifting you may need to go that route.

No one else is making any 7 speed Rapidfire style shifters as far as I've seen.

If you really must have this you may need to switch to 8 speed and then you'll be able to find all the parts you need. But if your rear wheel uses a freewheel instead of a cassette then this isn't an option.

At that point you pretty much need to decide on just staying with twist shifting or upgrade the bike. The mods and parts to upgrade COULD be found but money wise it would make more sense to sell the old and buy the new(used) with the components you want.

thanks guys.
but what i don't get is the gripshifters are SRAM so y can't i just put SRAM trigger or rapid-fire shifters on it? my bike is only 12 months old and already i can't find parts for it. so i guess i bought the wrong bike then didn't i. oh well

...if you really must have this you may need to switch to 8 speed and then you'll be able to find all the parts you need. But if your rear wheel uses a freewheel instead of a cassette then this isn't an option..

It's a bit rare, but there IS an 8-spd freewheel available. Another option is the 8 of 9 on a 7-spd body.

Finding the 7 speed ones these days may be some trouble.

Not a problem at all. QBP has them in stock today. I checked.

Here you go for $24.65 plus shipping:

http://www.jensonusa.com/store/product/SL407A04-Shimano+Stxalivio+Mc40+7+Speed.aspx

Also, Ebay is your friend on these matters. Between NOS stuff and people who "upgraded" because they thought that "XT" sounded cooler, there are a lot of parts to be had.

Not a problem at all. QBP has them in stock today. I checked.

Yes, QBP has them so they would be available at your lbs.

I wonder why you were told that you had to have Deore shifters with an Tourney RD. Deore would be nice to have, but the Alivio level etc would serve you well. Tourney is lower level than even Alivio as I recall, so it is not as if the shifter is lower level than the mech at that point.

I have both LX (8 speed) and Alivio (7 speed) that I have purchased over the past year, and the LX is a bit better on the finish, and although I haven't finished my build yet, I will pick which one I use based on the wheels I build with... I won't even bother to hunt for an 8 speed wheel to use the LX if I find a 7 speed first since the difference in quality is not that much. However, if I do build with 8 speed, I will obviously use LX instead of downgrading to 7 speed... In either case, I will be using my LX RD.

Within the Shimano mountain line-up you can pretty much mix any level of component and they will work as long as the number of cogs matches the shifter. The same applies for the SRAM components that are Shimano compatible (some are, some aren't).

Good luck.

thank you to all of you for your advice. i managed to get a pair of shimano stx 7 speed shifter/brake combs. but i've not had chance to fit them yet so when i do i'll let you all know how i get on. by the way little darwin i was told by halfords that i needed to fit deore shifters because the bike is exclusive to them and thats where i got it from as i live in the uk.