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top mount 7-spd indexing downtube shifters, super rare??

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top mount 7-spd indexing downtube shifters, super rare??

Old 02-20-09, 06:26 PM
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top mount 7-spd indexing downtube shifters, super rare??

My 1980s Panasonic came with top mount downtube friction shifters for six speed. I'll be upgrading this bike to as much RX100 as I can get my hands on (thought about older dura ace, too specialized). I've got the rear wheel with rx100 freehub, rx100 rd ready to go.

I started looking around for top mount downtube shifters, 7 speed indexing, and I can find almost nothing. Looking at the velobase archives, I see Shimano manufactured top mount models for SL-1051 (105) and SL-6400 (600 -- see links). I'd love to find either of those.

Can anyone help with this search? Recommendations, advice welcome. Please tell me I'm not stuck with Suntour Symmetric.

thanks

https://www.velobase.com/ViewSingleCo...m=104&AbsPos=8


https://www.velobase.com/ViewSingleCo...=104&AbsPos=14
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Old 02-20-09, 06:48 PM
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Any reason why you don't want to go to 8? I see plenty of downtube shifters on ebay for 7 speed.
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Old 02-20-09, 06:59 PM
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Originally Posted by operator
Any reason why you don't want to go to 8? I see plenty of downtube shifters on ebay for 7 speed.
The OP's frame has a single shifter mounting boss brazed to the top of the down tube that requires a specific design shifter. These are increasingly hard to find and I don't know if any were made beyond the 7-speed era.

The only alternative is to have a frame builder remove the current boss and braze on more conventional side mounted bosses.
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Old 02-20-09, 09:40 PM
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Originally Posted by HillRider
The OP's frame has a single shifter mounting boss brazed to the top of the down tube that requires a specific design shifter. These are increasingly hard to find and I don't know if any were made beyond the 7-speed era.

The only alternative is to have a frame builder remove the current boss and braze on more conventional side mounted bosses.
Correct. And sticking with 7-speed is preferred for me. Again, these single-boss mounted shifters seem really scarce. I'm guessing they were manufactured in much smaller numbers than their side-mounted counterparts in the same line. Here is a pic of the boss on my 1985 Panasonic, as well as the original friction shifter.





-- Would a suntour symmetric even fit the Panasonic mount?

-- I came across a pic of the adapter below. Anyone know where to get one?



thanks

Last edited by Flash; 02-20-09 at 10:01 PM.
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Old 02-20-09, 10:33 PM
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This won't fit the boss but it might work. https://www.loosescrews.com/index.cgi...d=474303727371
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Old 02-21-09, 07:58 AM
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Originally Posted by davidad
This won't fit the boss but it might work. https://www.loosescrews.com/index.cgi...d=474303727371
thanks, that's on my list of "doesn't look great but may be the only way to go" options if I can't find a boss mount. I could mount it ahead of the boss, don't see any reason why it would not work.
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Old 02-21-09, 09:41 AM
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You might be looking at clamp on bosses. I have a couple sets of the Suntour symmetric, and I'm pretty sure they won't fit.
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Old 02-21-09, 02:33 PM
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reuse old mount

Could you unscrew just the levers from your old top mount attachment? This should expose the threaded part that holds the shifter. Then you could use just the levers from any other 7sp. set. Leave out extra curved adapters used for the downtube application.
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