sloth1234

Hi, well first off, I am a noob at mountain biking and am somewhat clueless as to the mechanics and what not, so please bare with me. I bought a schwinn frountier gt mountain bike, but the front and back derailleur are pretty beat up, so i decided to replace them. Also the twist gear shifters are not in good condition either so im replacing that as well. The derailleurs are both Shimano but the front is Altus and the back is acera x, I was thinking on just sticking with those two, or are they supposed to match? Also the gear shifters are SRAM 200-70, but i kinda wanted it to match the shimano brand. If can stick with those two derailleurs, what shimano gear shifters should i get that is compatible with the derailleurs? Please help, and no rude comments either, im just looking for some trustworthy, knowledgeable, expert help. thank you for reading

one.piece

The Shimano shifters you have are good for that bike. You didn't say how many speeds the bike has. So i'm going to assume 7/8 speed rear freewheel.

Toss those twist shifters. They are bad. These Shimano trigger shifters are so much better, and still reasonably priced at about $15 each:



A better rear derailleur is this Alivio unit, and only about $30:



You can spend a lot more on higher end components, but these are good solid parts that are an upgrade to what you have and you will see and feel the difference once installed.

Oh, when the twist shifters are replaced with trigger shifters, a set of normal sized grips will be needed. There are lots out there, but there are lots of good grips under $10 a pair. These Avenir mountain bike grips are popular and get great reviews on Amazon:

AK404

Hey, thanks.

mtnbiker66

Why are they bad**********

dminor 

^^ They're probably the MRXs or similar low-end Shimano-compatible SRAMs. They tend to be a bit funky.

mtnbiker66

Geeeee......thanx D. You were a BIG help..........

dminor 

My tongue-in-cheek detector was malfunctioning. Too much Monday-morning-tired.

mtnbiker66

No soup for you!!!!!!!

one.piece

Twist shifters in general have issues. I found that the housings wear internally quickly, especially with the 90* bend they have. Almost all are 100% plastic. Then after a few hundred shifts, you will notice that even though the derailleur has been adjusted for cable stretch (again...) that the shifter needs to be pulled just past the gear to engage it. The detent tends to wear out and the shifters will not stay in the higher gears and pop down to the next lower gear easily. By design, they are part of the grip, and if you are holding on tight in rough terrain, bouncing can cause unintentional shifting.

Twist shifters are OK for cruisers, but definitely a draw back on a mountain bike.

By comparison, the trigger shifters are independent from the grip, so no matter how you hold on, it won't cause an accidental shift. The Acera trigger shifters are all metal internals and levers (with plastic covers), and have a good reputation for being long lived and bullet proof. Once they have been adjusted after initial cable stretch, they rarely need further adjustments.

mtnbiker66

You can stretch a steel cable with a plastic grip shift?

one.piece

Huh? Where did that come from**********?

dminor 

Here?

Daspydyr 

I have grip shifters on my 94 Norco Nitro and they still work perfectly-considering they have been serviced by me. I do keep things lubed. I like em! But they did come with an XT Mountain Mix in the day. Better components all the way around. But cheap and you got cheap, it has always burned me at the worst time.

one.piece

here what? Sorry I don't follow you. But thanks for posting.

Yeah, I am sure there are some good twist shifters out there. But most are on entry level bikes and the plastic wears away. The more they wear, the more adjustment is needed to make up for it as the cables get loose, again and again and again..... gets frustrating continually having to take up slack cables. LOL!

dminor 

Huh? Wut?

AK404

No, but a steel cable can bite into the almost-all plastic parts of a plastic grip shift. Ya savvy?