Originally Posted by
Flyboy718
.....Here is the 'ol Mesa Runner. Shimano Z202 front Derailleur and Shimano Z501GS on the rear and has Shimano MT50 thumb shifters. This bike is the bottom of the line up that top is the Cimarron and it has Shimano Deore XT components. I see a lot of those Deore XT components on ebay...should I get them and upgrade?
Are your current derailleurs not functioning properly? New Shimano stuff - even the bottom end - works better than almost all of the components from 15+ years ago. Unless you are hung up on period specific components, use new stuff. It is cheaper, and easier to find. For a Mesa Runner, I would not worry about period specific. If you were talking about a Cimarron or PDG; that is an entirely different matter.
I would keep thumb shifter, Sunrace offers some friction thumbies for a reasonable price.
Here is my PDG:
http://s357.photobucket.com/user/Nig...acrtg.jpg.html