mtnbke

Okay, Retroshift finally opened their doors for business.

Essentially it is a shift mount on a dedicated brake lever, that moves a downtube or bar-end shifter to the front of the lever.

For tandems this provide an interesting possibility of mounting a Retroshift on an STI or Ergo shifter which controls the Arai drag brake.

Over on the Classic and Vintage forum we've already started a campaign to get Retroshift to provide a service offering their shifter mount for vintage levers, as most of us over there don't want modern Tektro levers which is what Retroshift is currently using.

However, I think a fair number of us who use an Arai drag brake would consider adding a Retroshift mount to control the drag brake, both front and rear brakes, and shifting all without taking a hand off the handlebar.

I've always felt that downtube shifters and bar-end controls (even just for the drag brake) were dangerous on a tandem. Anything that requires removing a hand from the bars needs to be rethought.

If interested give Retroshift a holler and let 'em know you'd be interested in having a Retroshift mount on your Campy Ergo or Shimano STI levers:

https://retroshift.com/contact-2/

mtnbke

TandemGeek will you get in touch with me? Adam, the visionary at Retroshift, is asking questions about what everyone uses on their tandems for STI and ERGO that I can't answer.

Chris_W

Another option that means a minimal amount of time with your hands off of the bars is an old-school mountain-bike thumb shifter mounted on the bar tops. I assume you already have interruptor levers mounted up there anyway if you are that worried about not having your hand close to the controls at all times, and if that is the case then you could control all three brakes without moving your hands. Of course, MTB thumb shifters are designed for 22.2 mm diameter flat bars, not 24 mm drop bars; however, the clamps on many (but not all) of the old thumb shifters can be reshaped to make it work.

I picked up a very nice thumb shifter on eBay that I was using to control the front derailleur on our road tandem (until I got some Campy Ergo levers instead). The only problem I had with the setup was getting that and the interruptor levers and the bar bag support all mounted in very close proximity, without the bar bag support interfering with the cable runs. Other than that, it worked great, and the modification to the clamp was pretty straightforward. I assume it would work equally well to operate a drum brake.

waynesulak

I visited the web site and it appears the advantage is supposed to be the abillity to shift multiple gears both up and down in one stroke. I can do this with 10 speed Campy ergo.

Not sure how the OP would add it to an STI lever for a drag brake.

Over all the product seems a incremental improvement on Paul thumbies

https://www.paulcomp.com/thumbies.html

Wayne

swc7916

At first I thought this was promising idea but I brake from the tops 99.9% of the time and this lever placement looks like it would be right square in the way.

mtnbke

ChrisW: For me, on the "white-knuckle" descents, I like my hands to be in the drops. That is where I can get the most leverage on the brakes. I've found, even with pretty large and strong hands, that I just can't brake as well from the hoods. So while I love thumbies, I use XT thumbshifters on my mountain bike, I personally wouldn't want to be moving from the drops to the bar tops to control the drag brake. That might actually be less preferable than using the bar-end/bar-con, for me.

mtnbke

Talked to Adam at Retroshift about this last week. The Retroshifts mount to the lever using only a CNC'd mount machined to precisely match the lever profile, and via bolt. Retroshift has since found a much lower profile bolt than is pictured below.

However, there is nothing that would preclude one from mounting a Retroshift to STI/ERGO levers per se. The problem becomes in whether the tandem community uses a wide variety of levers that all have to be profiled in terms of machining, or whether there really are only a couple of levers in common use.

See attachment pic below.

Carbonfiberboy 

Beats me. Can't imagine having a thing like that on my levers. That's right where my fingers go. Having to move my hands to shift bar ends never bothered me, nor does the bar end lever for our drum brake. Works like a charm. Trying to solve a problem that isn't there, and instead creating a problem.

The only time one needs a drum brake is when one would just set it and forget it. In fact, I have forgotten it and then wondered why the heck the bike was so hard to move when things flattened out.

waynesulak

Maybe I am a wild and crazy guy but I take one hand off the bars all the time. In 100+ heat I drink at least a bottle an hour and that means bending to get the bottle and replacing it very often. One thing we love about our front bag is that I can access it without stopping. Stoker can add or remove layers on the move and I stow or retrieve items from the bag as needed.

Stoker still not happy with both hands off the bars...yet.

Wayne

swc7916

Both of my barends are taken up and I currently have a downtube shifter as a drag lever. I really don't like it there and am seriously considering rigging up a stem shifter for it.

Chris_W

I agree, braking from the hoods gives very little braking power. That is why I was assuming you have interuptor levels (also called bar-top levers, CX levers, and several other names) on the bar-tops (the upper, flat section of the bars). You could operate those and a thumb shifter at the same time.

Another solution could be Kelly's Take Offs.

swc7916

Nonsense. I brake from the hoods all the time and have plenty of braking power - but then, maybe I just have good brakes.