Shimano Compatibility question! Please help!
 

I have a Peugot Sante, problem is that it is missing the rear derailleur and shift levers .I ended up buying the Shimano 600 levers + RD. Does anyone know if this convo will work?

If the number of gears on the rear matches the number of gears that particular shifter was made for then the answer is probably. Is your DR of the same period as the Shimano 600 shifter? That increases your chances though many others will work both old and new.

I don't know if Shimano 600 was only 8 speed. If it's like other Shimano products, then name is just a tier level of their products. Every three or four years they improve that tier, sometimes by increasing the number of gears it'll handle. Some product tiers, like the Shimano 600 just get discontinued and new names take their place.

Sante? As in, fitted with Shimano Sante components?

If so, it's 7s, so hopefully you bought 7s levers. If so, you're good to go.

600 Ultegra (6400) is a good substitute. It came in 6s, 7s and 8s IIRC. Before that it was just called 600 (can't remember if there was indexed 6s or just friction), and after that it was just called Ultegra.

Sante is a bit of an orphan group with some DA and some Ultegra (600) elements but packaged with a specific image. What I don't remember is whether the rear der shared the first gen DA cable pull spec or the second gen pull ratio (as Ultegra and all other Shimano ders used for many years). Andy

Doesn't matter since he has 600 levers and RD.

What matters is the 5mm 7s cog spacing.

BTW, Disraeli Gears says Sante was the first group to be 7s!

It's kind of an odd claim since Sante 7 and DA 7 both came out in the 1987 catalog, but they might have had Sante shifters ready to ship first.

Thanks a ton everyone! Looking at the RD it reads: RD-6401 VIA Shimano Japan
Integrated 8SIS. My guess is that this is a newer model? Not too sure what the levers are, cant find any numbers on them. Ill post pictures soon

The 8s RD will work on 7s if you have 7s shifters.

If you have 8s shifters, you should probably run 7/8ths of a cassette.

Not sure what you mean, here, but if the bike is Sante, it is going to be a freewheel rear hub or an IG freehub that won't accept an 8 speed HG cassette lockring.

Not IG (Interactive Glide), which showed up in the mid-'90's. Sante was Uniglide, pre-Hyperglide.

Right you are; I meant UG. There is no such thing as an IG cassette.

Point being, the Sante hub isn't going to take an 8 speed cassette because they're HG and don't fit on a UG hub.

However, a Sante freehub could likely be changed to a 7 or 8 speed HG freehub body, if it is even a freehub - most of those bikes were freewheel.

Mostly true- Sante came around when manufacturers were still switching from (universal fit) freewheels to (dedicated hub) cassettes. Since Sante was an orphan group (^^^I agree with Andy) it's hard to say, but the freewheels were definitely more popular in that time. That's probably because they were a cheaper alternative the Dura-Ace 7-speed freewheels.

I'm not sure why Sante would be looked at any differently than the rest. It combined the pull ratio used on 600EX and 105 with the Biopace and SLR of 105 and the 7 speed sprocket of Dura Ace. The only real difference between it and Ultegra or gun metal 7 speed 105 was the lever mounted QR buttons - which Shimano used later with Exage. You can take any component from Sante and swap it for any for just about any non-DA component and it will work 100%. Like how Croce D'aune was the group between Chorus and C-Record, Sante was simply the nicest non-pro group Shimano made until Ultegra popularity eclipsed it and it was dropped. It was probably a price point and color problem.