Mountain Biking - Suntour X-Press to?

I want to yank the Suntour X-Press shifters off my bike and replace them with SRAM or Shimano shifters. Not sure sure what will work with the XCE rear and X-1 front derailleurs. The rear cluster is Suntour and the crankset is Suntour X-1. Bike is an unknown year Fisher Hoo-Koo-E-Koo that I'm guessing this group wasn't original on. The shifters work, but I was never a fan of them. The bike was given to me 6 years ago, and I never look a gift horse in the mouth. Its a decent ride and I'd like to make it better.


Thanks.

The other shifter designed to index with that rear derailleur would've been Suntour top-mount thumbshifters. If you're craving modern shifters, the project will snowball on you... also consider selling off the bike and picking up a bike that has what you want.

I've been away from bikes since before Suntour became a memory. I appreciate the advice on the shifters. Not interested in selling the bike. Or buying a new bike just yet. I understand about snowballing. Better choice might be to find the Accushift thumbies, then. Or, find a mashed bike with Shimano/SRAM stuff still workable... Thanks. Better to ask before spending the money.

I'm kinda stuck on old bikes anyway.... And this bike fits me really well.

I believe Shimano Altus or Acera shifters may work. What color is the Fisher?

http://i581.photobucket.com/albums/ss253/neonrog/Bikes/HKEK/Bike0033.jpg
Black... Altus or Acera? Friend might have some. He also has some Grip shift, low end shifters he said I could try.

I've never tried shifting on a suntour cogset with Shimano indexed shifter, dunno how different they are.

Options I can think of:

1. cruise Ebay for Suntour Thumb Shifters.

2. Suntour 7-speeds came in Freewheel and Cassette varieties. If yours is freewheel you could get a Shimano compatible freewheel (available up to 9-speed) and Shimano or Sram shimano compatible shifter.

3. Get some friction thumbshifters.

4. Squeeze a newer 135mm 8,9,10 speed wheel in there (only have to spread rear triangle 5mm to get the wheel to drop in) and get a compatible trigger or grip shifter of your choice. 9 or 10 speed may require a different derailer. Your current derailer can handle 8-speed no problem though. Might even be able to do 9.

I will try to fine tune the X-Press for now. I want to upgrade another bike while I'm riding this one. So we'll see where the money goes. Is there a site with Suntour manuals?

The entire first page of links is worthless with regards to the parts in question. Probably doesn't get much better on subsequent pages.

Nice try scrubs.

Here. (http://lmgtfy.com/?q=suntour+owners+manuals)

Wow, holy time warp Batman!

weird.

cue twilight zone theme.

The entire first page of links is worthless with regards to the parts in question. Probably doesn't get much better on subsequent pages.

Nice try scrubs.

Heh. Well, it wasn't really about getting the right links anyhow.

THanks, but didn't see anything different than I'd already seen..

Ive used suntour rear derailleurs and cassettes with shimano 7spd shifters with no problems, and I still swear by suntour XCM front derailleurs and have them on two different bikes. Try looking on ebay for alivio 7 speed triggers should be able to get some for less than 10 bucks used.

I'm a little slow responding to this cause I only found this thread do to unrelated Googling.

http://www.sheldonbrown.com/cribsheet-spacing.html

According to Mr. Brown SunTour and Shimano 7 speed were both 5mm center to center, so Shimano should work fine.

If those X Press shifters are in good shape I'd be glad to buy them. Nice shifters. They let you adjust trim on the front.

I hadn't seen that link. Good info and thanks a ton!