Recumbent - Shifter upgrade or counseling?

I recently purchased a "new old-stock" RANS Rocket. I love this bike! I'm coming to recumbents from a Specialized Tri-Cross, which I also love.

I'm not abandoning my Tri-Cross. I don't have the discomfort issues I hear some talk about. I got my recumbent because I enjoy variety. I see myself as a mixed mode rider. Most of my miles are commuting miles - 30 miles round trip to and from work.

My issue is this - Last year I put about 3400 miles on my Tri-Cross and 600 on my Rocket. The upright has Ultegra brifters - the recumbent has SRAM SX5 twist shifters. The brifters are smooth as silk. I only have to 'think' about changing gears, and it's done. With the twist shifters, I feel like I'm going "CLUNK" every time I change gears. I find that I shift a lot more on the upright than the recumbent, and I think I'm more efficient as a result. I don't have extreme hills where I live, but I have a lot of short 3-4% grades.

Is there an upgrade option that would help me out? Do I have El Cheapo shifters? I'm thinking about trigger shifters (I really don't like 'twisting'). Should I seek psychological help?

I'm spinning like I'm supposed to (at least, I think so). I've got a Garmin 305, and I moved the cadence attachment to the Rocket. I find that I'm most comfortable at a cadence of about 95. If anything, I think I might be staying in too low a gear. My average on the Rocket is about 15 MPH as compared to 16 MPH on the upright. I'm eager to see what another couple thousand miles does to that.

Thanks in advance for your input!

Jacob Kelley
Dublin, GA

Put what you like on it. Trigger shifters also go "clunk". Depending on where you normally place your hands while riding, you might have to move them for bar-ends. The reason I like twist shifters is they allow me to downshift fast if I have to stop quickly.

Did you measure the gears on your recumbent to see if adjacent gears are the same distance apart as those on your upright? If not, adjustment might be in order.

... My average on the Rocket is about 15 MPH as compared to 16 MPH on the upright....

I counsel that you ride harder while on the Rocket. Put yourself in the hurt zone, and you won't be thinking about shifters.

I share your dislike of twist shifters, agree SRAM SX5's are not wonderful, and fuss with being in the right gear at any given time.

Even though the previous owner of my Rocket upgraded to X9 I was tempted to make a switch but after a couple hundred miles got used to twist shifting.

Whatever shifter choice you make, I suspect you are right in expecting some increased speeds as the miles accumulate. Your cadence is impressive for having recently made the switch. It look me a LONG time to get comfortable with a mid-90 cadence and even now that is the end of my useful range.

Recently switched my V-Rex from SX5 gripshifters to X-9 triggershifters and am happy. That 'click-click' sound is gone. No 'clunking', either. The X-9's seem a bit smoother than the SX5 triggers that I put on my Tailwind.
You will get faster on the Rocket. (If you want to.) Takes months for most folks to acclimate to 'bent riding.

The SX-5 level Grip Shifters are definitely notchy. X7, X9, or X0 are defnitely a step up. Upgrade and you'll be happier. Of course, if you upgrade, you're not limited to twist-shifters anymore. Ironically, I have some LX-level trigger shifters that I refuse to put on any of my bikes because downshifting the front derailleur produces such a big clunk I'm afraid it's damaging something.

Thanks for the thoughts! I'm leaning towards replacing the shifters with trigger shifters.

It's nice to be planning an upgrade for once, instead of trying to fix something so I can get to work in the morning :)

I use the X.9 Triger shifters and just love them. Easy to install and adjust when new and they stay adjusted. I find the shifts to be far crisper than Shimano as well.

I'm about to order a set of X.0 twist shifters to match my X.0 rear derailleur. My V-Rex has SRAM 7.0 "half-pipe" twist shifters and I think they're somewhat worn internally - my friend's Trek hybrid has an SRAM MRX Comp twist shifter ($8 ea) that shifts better. Aside from nicer internals, the X.0 has a much shorter 'twist' section (and correspondingly longer grip section) compared with the older 7.0 shifter, which should greatly reduce the number of accidental shifts I make!