Bicycle Mechanics - can you swap downtube shifters to stem shifters?

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superpants
08-05-09, 01:03 AM
i have a mid 80's schwinn prelude with shifters on the downtube, but cause of back issues leaning down to shift kind of sucks for me. is it even possible to swap these to say stem shifters?

thanks

Sixty Fiver
08-05-09, 01:11 AM
Yes.

You will need to install a dual cable stop where the shifters are now and run new housings and cables... your old cables will be too short.

http://harriscyclery.net/merchant/370/images/small/cah51.jpg
http://harriscyclery.net/itemdetails.cfm?id=2458

With braze on shifters you need these...

http://harriscyclery.net/merchant/370/images/small/FS1069.jpg
http://harriscyclery.net/itemdetails.cfm?id=1737
MJH100
08-05-09, 01:31 AM
Or you could steal a housing stop off another old bike, that clamps around the whole down tube.

http://www.sheldonbrown.com/harris/images/cah51.jpg (the first link sixty-fiver gave)

Very good chance of finding that in a LBS parts bin.

illwafer
08-05-09, 02:31 PM
your lbs will probably be happy to give you a set of stem shifters. no one wants them because they are seen as inferior and ugly.

i like them.
MJH100
08-05-09, 03:22 PM
Stem Shifter > Down tube shifter. my opinion