Giant Doofus

I'm just beginning to think about the possibility of getting a road bike for longer rides and am trying to learn everything I can about frame geometry, components, and so forth, so please forgive the very basic question.

Can anyone tell me what kind of shifters these are: Soma Fabrications ?

Many thanks.

JanMM

Look like downtube shifters converted to work on the horizontal part of drop bars. Go figure.

Giant Doofus

Huh. Thanks.

Jeff Wills

Pauls Thumbies:
Thumbies from Paul Component Engineering

cyccommute 

Yup.

Giant Doofus

That's it! I've never seen thumb shifters on drop bars and didn't realize that they were basically bar ends located in a different spot. Thanks! Not sure what to think of this arrangement though. As a kid I had a bike with stem shifters (which I never used!). I wonder if using these is similar, but without the need to move your hands off the bar if you are riding on the tops.

cyccommute 

The shifters in the picture from the Paul site that Jeff Wills posted are actually downtube shifters. They are also friction shifters. Paul Thumbies are retrogrouchy by themselves. Putting friction shifters on them is uberretrogrouchy.

I've used thumb shifters on mountain bikes but those were mounted next to the brakes and could be shifted without moving your hand much. I don't see the appeal of the Thumbies but to each his own. I prefer STI on a road bike because I spend most of my time on the hoods.

Giant Doofus

I'm used to having my (grip) shifters and brakes right next to each other, so this makes a lot of sense to me. I'm not a fan of grip shifters, but I do like having my shifters and brakes right where my hands usually are anyway. Thanks for the clarification.

fietsbob

There's another Taiwan version too .. Soma (Merry Sales) is An Importer-distributor .. like QBP.

Riv Bike is a retailer .. so is Velo Orange (but some of the VO stuff is bought in wholesale lots and sold by the distributors to shops)


Pauls Thumbies ... not Imported , their CNC machines are in California.


Rohloff grip shifter -- Trekking bars do that, such as on my bike ..

cyccommute 

Gripshift is usually for flatbars. There are ways (not easy) to mount Gripshift on road bars but they never caught on, mostly because Gripshift hasn't really caught on. If you have flat bars, Rapidfire or Sram X series shifters are a better choice than thumbshifters. I used, and liked, thumbshifters about 20 years ago but have to say that shifters like Rapidfire are far superior. My poor tiny handed wife had to suffer through them for a very long time.

bikemig 

I still have thumbshifters on some bikes. They're good for winter when wearing thick gloves. Retroshifters look like they'd be an interesting alternative to brifters: Shifters - Gevenalle

Retro Grouch 

Actually, those are similar to the set up I have on my recumbent (which has a short, flat bar). I like them because I never have to move my hands off the grip to reach either the brakes or shifters.

I can't remember why I chose them over Rapid Fire. It might have to do with ergonomics with the high handlebar position and it might have to do with friction shifting the front derailleur. I know I didn't purposely choose them to be retro grouchy, that was just a bonus.

Giant Doofus

I'm not entirely clear what I want in a road bike yet, but I do know I don't want flat bars or grip shifters! I'm sort of in the looking-at-everything stage. Drop bars might be good, maybe the Jones h loop bar, and someone on another thread has me thinking about bosco bars with stoker knobs. See what I mean? Still all over the map.

Giant Doofus

Those do looking interesting.

cyccommute 

Some things to think about with the Retroshifters is that when you shift, the shift lever will stay in where you move it to. This could make reaching the levers from the hoods difficult depending the gear that you are in. For example, in high gear on the front and low gear on the back, the lever is going to be 90 degrees to the brake lever.

There is also the ergonomics of shifting to consider. Shifting from the low gear to high gear in the front and downshifting from high to low in the back requires you pull up on the lever. This is not a natural action and could cause problems if you have to shift and brake at the same time.

STI is a very natural movement and the lever returns to a neutral position. You can try something like the Thumbies or the Retroshifters but realize that there's a reason the STI and the like are very popular. They work well and feel right when you shift. With the exception of the Retroshifters (they are just too goofy for my taste), I've used every shift system invented for road and mountain bikes in the last 30+ years. It's hard to find anything that is as easy to use and as intuitive as the STI system for road bikes.

Giant Doofus

I hadn't thought about that potential problem with retro shifters. I'm not used to thinking about the ergonomics of drop bars. I clearly need to start test riding some bikes. Trying to sort everything out in my head before trying things has it's limitations.

I do have my reasons for this approach, though: I had really bad experiences with my local shops when I was shopping for my commuter last year. They treated me like an idiot and in some cases answered my questions with false information. It was like they figured they could make up stuff if they didn't know the answer and the silly lady wouldn't know any better. I ended up ordering a bike from an out of town shop and was thrilled with what I got.

In that case I already had very clear ideas about what I wanted and knew what I was talking about. With a road bike, I'm in totally new territory and really don't know my stuff. I don't want to have to trust an LBS to educate me. So, thanks for helping me out here. I'm very grateful and have always been impressed with how generous BFers are with advice to newbies like me.

BlazingPedals

I never liked thumb shifters on my mountain bike. Too inconvenient to move a lever on top of the bars. Moving the levers to the underside of the bars was much more intelligent, in my view. I'm not sure what the point of the Paul's Thumbies is. Retro while retaining the capability to index modern systems?

Grand Bois

Those are not Paul Thumbies. They're from IRD and are not made in the USA.

fietsbob

IRD used to be mountain bike building Guys in Selma Oregon, now its a brand-name owned by Merry Sales Of So SF Cal, an importer distributor .

Jeff Wills

Okey fine: IRD Power Ratchet Friction Thumb Shifter Set

xenologer

Whhhyyy? those hideous blue noodle pieces
when they could have simply machined the shifter bases to angle the cable exit 45* forward???

Grand Bois

I agree.

To type a degree symbol hold down the ALT key and type 248 on the numeric pad, then release the ALT key.

JanMM

Looks like an expensive kludge.

Jeff Wills

Well... they could have reprogrammed the CNC machines to orient the cable exit 45° or 90° from what they started with, but perhaps they didn't think it necessary for a very small production run.

Here's another variation: Quill Stem Shifter Mount

JanMM

Stem shifters!
What goes around comes around...................