noglider 

Kurt, didn't you once show us some bar end shifters you made with Simplex Retrofriction shifters? I'd love to do the same. I have a pair of Retrofrictions here. I also have a pair of SunTour bar end shifters and would love it if I could use those. I don't want to buy Campy or Shimano, since I have these already.

ColonelJLloyd 

Oooh, oooh. I'm watching this one closely. I fashioned some braze on Retrofricitons to a modified Huret clamp and am ready to build that bike up, but with 25" frames and a bad back, I really prefer bar ends. I'm happy to buy some of those Dia Compe pods.

I believe I recall Grand Bois posting some Retrofrictions that he modified to bar ends. Hopefully he'll chime in with the details.



I'm thinking these should work.

raverson

Good question Tom, and one I've been thinking about for awhile. My '84 Trek 420 came with DT retrofrictions and the redo will hopefully place them on the barends. I did the same on my Elance 300 with Shimano Light Action and it was as simple as fitting and assembling with a washer added for proper spacing. But that was Shimano...

Add me to the audience waiting for an experienced answer.

Bianchigirll 

do you need barends? some here might trade barends for those

Noah Scape

I think it has been done... I'm not sure, but I think it was Grand Bois.

stausty

I've done it before, but don't have any pictures to share. You need the newer Shimano-style pods instead of the older Suntour style. Rivendell sells the pods only for this purpose:

https://www.rivbike.com/products/show...ts-pair/17-068

With those pods you can use basically any braze-on DT shifters as bar-end shifters.

Stronglight did it with a pair of Suntour Sprint DT shifters. Same trick would get you retrofriction bar-ends.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/strongl...7605076156132/

I had them on a Miyata 1000 for a while before going back to indexed bar-ends. I though the retrofriction shifters were a little long for my tastes, but I could see how they would be appreciated.

noglider 

I stand corrected.

raverson

With the barcon configuration, did you still have the desirable retrofriction shifting qualities?

Oregon Southpaw

Paging Grand Bois and +1 watching this page with interest

I have only used Retrofrictions for friction-shifting, now that I'm fixing up a bike with "regular" friction shifting I find I hate it. Since it will be a big frame touring style bike I'd like bar-cons but I'm pretty addicted to the retrofrictions so the best of both worlds would be...the best.

Noah Scape

Here's a pic of Grand Bois' set up from this thread.

ColonelJLloyd 

The same question was posed in the above linked thread, but was left unanswered. If mine work on the tapped Huret clamp, I can't see why they won't work on the Riv pods.

stausty

Sure does. Works the same as shifters on the DT.

I believe used the Riv Pods when I set my Retrofriction bar-ends up. They're exactly the same mechanics as the modern Shimano pods but with a different finish.

And, for the record, I used Retrofrictions that had the open paddle like ColnelJLloyd's picture, not the solid paddles like Grand Bois' in Noah Scape's post.

Chombi

I think those should work, as long as you exclude the square holed spacer shown in the pic, so the retros can engaged the embossed square shape at the base.

Chombi

Grand Bois

Simplex made retrofriction bar end shifters. They're hard to find, though. I've got three.

-holiday76

ive wanted to take my gold simplex dt shifters and make them into bar ends, but then i'd have to ruin them and they're NOS. Instead I found some actual simplex bar ends (though not retrofriction). I'll be using those on my px-10 build when I get around to it.

Grand Bois

You need to use a demultiplcator relay with those Simplex bar end shifters. I've been seeing them on eBay lately.

-holiday76

are you responding to me? If so I'm not clear on what you're talking about. What's a "demultiplcator relay"? Some kind of weird race ?

ColonelJLloyd 

Grand Bois, can you share how you mated your Simplex Retrofriction downtube shifters to the Shimano bar end pods?

Holiday, see this auction.

-holiday76

oh weird



so it only does that for the rear? Does it not have enough pull?

ColonelJLloyd 

I think it has too much pull.

-holiday76

too much for what? I'd set the limit screws and any extra pull wouldnt do anything but move extra cable.

ColonelJLloyd 

True. But from what I understand (I could be way off base here) it makes shifting from cog to cog on a narrow spaced freewheel easier as it would tend to over shift without the demultiplicator. Again, I've never used the combo so I'm not speaking from experience.

Grand Bois

Even with the the relay, my shifter only moves abour 45-50 degeees and I'm using a 7 speed freewheel. It's hard to select gears without it. The barrels on the Simplex bar end shifters are large. It's not a problem in the front, at least with a double.

I'll post pictures when I can. I'm at work right now.

Grand Bois

Small cog

Big cog


That's with the relay and a 7 speed freewheel. I'm estimating that the relay increases shifter movement by 25 percent, so imagine how little shifter movement there would be without the relay with a 5 speed.

Most sellers don't know the difference between the Retrofriction bar end shifter and the standard Simplex bar end shifter. Look for a notch on the backside of the lever that holds the end of the spring.

I appologize for the crappy flash picks. My PC is not recognizing my good camera's card for some reason.

noglider 

I don't get it. How does the relay work? I do understand changing ratios aka mechanical advantage, but I don't see how this gadget does it. Does it swing as cable tension varies?