Originally Posted by
canklecat
Mine is a '92 Univega Via Carisma, the splatter paint era model with Bi-Axial Power Oval frame. Shimano 500 CX group, SG 30/40/50 triple chainring, indexed thumb shifters for both front and rear.
This is my bike, from 2016 -- first thing I changed back then was to replace the original flat bar with a riser bar. I've modified several things since: different saddle; Nitto albatross bar with Shimano bar end shifters; 130mm horizontal/0 angle road bike stem; different wheelset with 8-speed hub and MicroShift cassette.
The left/front shifter went bad first in 2016, skipping across the middle chainring. I replaced it with a cheap SunRace SLM10 friction thumb shifter. The right/rear shifter went bad after I was hit by a car last May. It worked for awhile then quit. I was switching to albatross bars anyway and bar end shifters work better with that setup. The old Shimano thumb shifters are in the junk box in case I ever get the urge to try to fix them. Degreasing/degunking didn't help.
1992 Univega Via Carisma with original indexed shifters.
It's interesting- the under bar shifters are shifted with your thumb- but generally aren't referred to as "thumb shifters." Doing an image search for "thumb shifters" shows what's generally considered thumb shifters.
The
second I saw your picture- I remembered my sister's 92-ish Trek 820 had the Exage shifters like that- with indexed front shifting!
Those marbled "bowling ball" finishes look cool!