Front shifter-derailleur compatibility
 

I have an old hand-me-down Roadmaster (I know...) MTB that I'm trying to keep running for a while longer. It's a 3x6, with front and rear derailleurs both branded TD-One, a TD-One twist shifter for the front and a SRAM Quick Shift twist shifter for the back.


The rear shifter-derailleur combo work surprisingly well.


In the front, the shifter needs to be replaced, and at the same time I would prefer to switch to a trigger shifter.


In a local community cycle shop I found a used Shimano Deore XT SL-M770 3 speed front shifter for a really good price. I've read that TD-One derailleurs are "compatible with Shimano". Would this combination work? Thank you for any info.

I think I would not depend on claims from a company who needs to ride the coat tails of the 500 lb gorilla. My first suggestion for a shifter replacement would be the "friction" type of twist grip shifter. These are compatible with any ft der regardless of brand or indexing standard. Another option is a friction only "thumb" shifter, also good with any der. Or if you just have to have those trigger shifters replace the ft der with a compatible one. Andy.

A friction shifter for the front gives you infinite trim. Something an indexed shifter won't.
Most of us don't shift the front that often, where "click convenience" counts the least.

Gear Shift/SRAM makes matching 3x6 Twist shifters... or they did so at one time... probably some NOS available on Ebay.
6 speed anything went obsolete 45 years ago, mostly.

TD is a super-low end brand... their front derailleurs are hard to operate and wear badly.
their twist shifters can actually be painful to use.... the Power and Falcon brands are so similar to TD, i think the three companies are actually one company.. Avoid all three of those brands.

a good trigger shifter is more expensive than your roadmaster.
new thumb shifters are about the same cost as trigger shifters.

best plan... Save your money and get a better bike with modern components, then fix it, if needed.
link to some low cost shifters... not sure if they make a 6 speed anything. Not a big market for it.
https://www.microshift.com/

I'd like to reframe my question - so I really really liked the quality and shifting feel of this XT front shifter, and for 10 bucks I think that would be an awesome upgrade if it worked. SO, if I can't graft it onto the bike with the TD-One FD, would it work with a Shimano FD-TY30 front derailleur? What I'm hoping is that the older XT front 3x shifters (again this one is SL-M770-A-L) would have the same pull ratio as the older low-end Shimano 3x FD's. I tried researching compatibility but only found conflicting information, hence turning here in case anyone knows. Thanks again.

It's not really a low end vs. high thing for Shimano front derailleur pull ratios. They differ for road bikes vs. mountain bikes.

Best bet for this shifter to work would be pairing it with a 9 speed Shimano MTB front derailleur. It would need to have the proper size clamp and top/bottom pull orientation too. Kind of impractical in this situation, IMO. I agree with others that you should just put a friction shifter on there until you can upgrade the bike.