question about cable guide things on down tube on 90s road bikes
 

this is on the DOWNTUBE not the top tube.. made a mistake in the thread title :eek:

I've seen this on both an 1989 and a 1999 road bike.

http://img535.imageshack.us/img535/9150/p1010493w.jpg

1. what are they called
2. can they be removed/replaced? how about just the silver outer part? it seems like it's stuck on pretty good even though it's not fastened with a screw.. the small guide ends that are encased in plastic have rusted onto the silver parts so it would be easiest to just replace them if possible
3. can they be used to mount downtube shifters?

These are downtube mounted cable adjusters and might take a little encouragement but do come off... they mount to the same braze on as dt shifters and would have been used with bar end shifters or early brifters.

cool i kinda suspected they could be used with downtube shifters

how are they on there? they dont move at all.. what should i used to remove them? just a flat screw driver or maybe a plastic lever

They slip over the braze on and are only held in place by their bolt but are a pretty close and snug fit.

Start by wiggling / rocking / turning the guide and it might just come away from the frame easily or might show you enough of an edge to slip a very small screwdriver under it so you can pull it away from the frame with no prying.

You can also give it a light tap from the frame side and would use the edge of a tyre lever and a rubber mallet to prevent damaging the frame or the dt adjusters as they aren't cheap and you may decide to use them.

They usually don't give up much of a fight but often appear as if they have been welded in place... :)

a plastic tire lever did the trick :) actually it was pretty easy (not like the hour i spent removing the stem :eek:)

but it seems like i need something else to make it look right?

http://img808.imageshack.us/img808/1328/p1010499a.jpg

you are missing the base for your shifters

the shifters are from another bike and were on a ring that went around the down tube

can you get just the bases?

get them from the other bike

the other bike is the ring that went around the downtube, so it didn't have the bases..

Rivendell calls them Shimano shifter spacers (http://www.rivbike.com/products/show...ts-pair/17-068) and they're $6 for a pair.

Regards,
Bob P.

thanks, i thnk it's called a SHIMANO BOSS ADAPTOR actually :)

http://www.amazon.com/ACTION-SHIFTER.../dp/B001CZOSNW

I have a feeling those boss adaptors you're looking at are for index shifters only.

why do you say that?

Just because of the notches. They might not matter, though.

I'm using those shift boss covers with the exact same Shimano 600 shifters as the OP and they work just fine.

Regards,
Bob P.

it always helps to pay attention when buying stuff off CL.. I bought some stuff off this guy a while back and he had a lot of vintage bike stuff.. so I took a chance and emailed him, and what do you know he's got "a bag of shifter parts" and a whole bunch of shifter sets.. ended up selling me a set for $5 which had the bosses i need

http://img34.imageshack.us/img34/7858/p1010507v.jpg

anybody know what gruppo these shifters belong to? looks cool

http://img856.imageshack.us/img856/921/p1010509u.jpg

Shimano 105 "Golden Arrow."

^ thanks :)