dynaryder

I'm thinking about converting my Defy into a flat bar. The only thing missing from my parts bin is the shifters. It's currently all Shimano 105,road triple front,10sp rear. Pricing shifters I found a listing that claims Shimano's flat bar 10sp's will only work with two specific front derailleurs. Can anyone confirm this? I'd like to have triggers,but would go with thumbies rather than swap the front der. I've also got an X-9 rear,so I could go with flat bar doubletaps,but it's a short cage so I don't think it'll play well with the road triple. Any insights? TIA

BCRider

Micro click style FD twist shifters? If you don't mind the style they are great for your requirement. Just ignore the index numbers and shift as needed. You'll soon get the hang of it and thanks to the micro click "indexless" design they are compatible with anything and everything.

Just don't ask me which models of SRAM twisters these were. It was too long ago. Hopefully someone will respond with the model number. But they did work well and allowed for as fine a degree of trimming as anyone could ask for short of going pure friction.

Jeff Wills

Yes, you need the particular front derailleur to make "flat-bar" shifters work with your crankset. "Flat-bar" shifters are identical to mountain shifters, which pull more cable than road brifters. If you combine the longer pull shifter with the 105 derailleur, the shifter tends to jam before it completes the shift to the big chainring. (A couple people have reported that it can be made to work, but I've never managed to do this.) For a triple crank, the FD-R453 derailleur should work perfectly and it's pretty economical.

Thumbies are friction shifting on the left side- that's a pretty good option.

I've run similar setups on my recumbents for years. They work pretty darn well.

cappuccino911

this is correct, I have the giant rapid whichis basically the defy in flatbar format with a smidgen longer top tube. you need the r453 FD to make it properly. you probably want to go with a stem about 20mm longer than what you are using now with the drop bars if you convert this to flat bars.

Lastly, you could just try to sell your defy and go buy the rapid instead.

you could also check nashbar, they have mTB flat bar shifters and matching deraileurs too probably for a lot less money. I've had great success with microshift brifters, don't know about their mtb shifters.

ultraman6970

Even with campangolo FB shifters u need a specific fd also.

dynaryder

Was considering selling the Defy because I just never ride it. Thinking of doing the conversion because I have everything except the shifters,so it would be pretty simple to swap parts and then if I don't like it put it bakc to stock and sell it.

Thanks for the info all. If I do this I'll prolly use Paul Thumbies with barcons.

aaroneus

I have my own question on this same topic and a mystery related to it that might help both dynaryder and myself.

For a flatbar road bike build I bought the shimano SL-R770 10 speed road shifters and they are running on a complete sram rival group. That's right, a sram rival front and rear derailleur. I bought the super fancy matching FD-R770 that is supposedly required, but I never needed it because this bike shifts like butter on a bald monkey. So you're not supposed to be able to mix shimano shifters with sram derailleurs (or vice versa) because the cable ratios are different, but I did anyway and it works FANTASTICALLY! Can anybody explain that?

I mention this to you because you may consider trying the flat bar shifters with a normal front derailleur before sinking money into parts you may not need (which would be the FD-R773 for the road triple). I did the Paul thumbies thing originally and ended up thinking the road rapid fires were worth it.