Kelly Take-Offs
 

I've been writing recently with a variety of technical questions ultimately centering around converting my flat-bar road bike commuter into a drop bar bike. Here's my latest.

Has anyone used Kelly Take-offs? If so, do you like them, hate them, etc? What are the pros and cons of this system. Do you have pics of your handlebar setup if you use them?

Rivendell bikes speaks fairly highly of these little contraptions. Their take on shifters can be found here .

Here is the link to Kelly bikes website. Take-offs .

There's also the cost. Is it more economical to buy a set of R-500 STI shifters, or is it better to buy downtube shifters, take-offs, and brake levers?

Thanks for your input.

I have them.

Allows me to run 9spd sti with friction shifting.

Not bad for commuting or recreation. Reach is a bit far for competitive riding or group rides.

I like 'em. You can operate them from both the tops and the hoods (actualy sort of an intermediate position in between). If you like friction only than you can use whatever cheap down-tube shifter you like. The real advantage is that they let you use the 287-v brake levers and v-brakes which are by far the best rim brakes for most situations and are very easy to adjust.

That's not a bad endorsement. I read on Rivendell's site that the whole thing with the 287 brake lever was meaningless. In fact, here's what they say:

"For half a century road bike levers were used with cantilever brakes and nobody squawked. But with the introduction of low profile cantilevers, and the proliferation of cantilever designs in general (due to so many mountain bikes), there must have been some combinations of brake levers and cantilever brakes that didn't work, because back around 1987, Dia-Compe introduced a "cantilever-specific" road brake lever (mod. 287). It's mere existence sent the erroneous message that existing, non-cantilever specific road levers didn't work well with cantilevers. "They don't pull enough cable!" was the charge. But we have used a tremendous variety of road levers and cantilevers, and have NEVER experienced inadequate braking. Not even close. It could be that we've been walking through a mine field with a dozen guardian angels looking over us, but we've used road levers from Campy, SunTour, Shimano, Dia-Compe, and Modolo with cantilevers from Mafac, SunTour, Shimano, Dia-Compe, more SunTour, more Shimano, more Dia-Compe, and Paul."

Is there any truth to this?

Here's a follow up query: Bar Cons are another option I'm considering, in addition to STI. I mainly commute, but I'm also looking into doing group rides. Would you, by this logic, also say that bar cons are too far of a reach?

Funny; I spent a great deal of effort building up a pair of flat-bar road bikes for my wife and me (an Orbea for her, a Curtlo for me).

I used bar-cons for years; first Campy friction (on a Crescent Pro) and later 6-speed Shimano Ultegra (on a custom Gilmour). I got so used to it that shifting became an unconscious motion, but I really do like my Curtlo (XT drivetrain w/ a Dura Ace triple crank; yeah, I know the chainrings are weird, but I like the way it looks and it works great).

The bar cons take a bit of getting used to but if you set them up right they work well.

Let us know how it turns out!

Two things. First, ApolloCVermouth is referring to V-brakes, not cantilever brakes. Cantilever brakes, as Rivendell rightly notes, require about the same amount of cable pull as caliper brakes, centerpull brakes, etc., and brake levers for any of these three types of brakes should be interchangable. V-brakes, on the other hand, require more cable pull and need special levers. Brake levers designed for V-brakes shouldn't be used with caliper brakes or cantilevers.

Second, I've got barcons on my Raleigh, and like them. I've not used take-offs, but barcons are easy enough to get to in a group ride situation. Your hands remain on the bars while shifting. And the times where you'd need that sort of control, you're likely to be in the drops anyway. Pros got along for years with down-tube shifters, remember.

I recently installed Kelly Take-Offs with 7-speed indexing downtube shifters on my rain/beater bike to replace the former 7-speed indexing barcons. I wanted to be able to shift while standing and I could never do that with the barcons and the bike certainly didn't warrent the cost of STI/Ergo's.

Anyway, I'm happy with the change. The Take-Offs aren't as convenient as STI's but they are plenty close enough.

To be clear, the Diacompe 287 (which Rivendell was talking about) is not the same this as the Diacompe 287V, which are still, as far as I know, the only drop bar levers that are designed to work with v-brakes.

There is another manufacturer of something very similar to Take-Offs. The other one mounts the shifter much closer to the handlebar. There have been recent threads with pictures on bentrideronline about them. Unfortunately I can't remember the maker and I can't seem to get on bentrider at the moment.

SS

If you do find out, or remember, post it and I'll check it out.

Are you thinking of the Sun Tour Command Shifters? These were self-contained units (the actual shift levers were built in) mounted adjacent to drop bar brake levers like the Take-Offs but in closer and the shifters were on the outside of the brackets. They have been out of production for several years.

I really like the old SunTour nonindexed ratcheting barcons.

I liked the barcons (Shimano indexed in my case) too but, as I said above, they were impossible to reach unless I was seated and that was a problem at times.

Truly interesting would be a brake lever with an integrated shifter boss. Mount a downtube shifter directly to the brake lever. Could have better cable routing, too.

That's a great idea. Too bad nobody makes that!

I'm working on a simple experiment now with our aluminum metals tech shop with my 440 flat-bar shifters. Hopefully it works out and isn't a total abortion. We'll see in a few days.

Except the shift pattern would be "backwards" form normal. To avoid this, you would have to mount the shift levers on the outsides of the brake hoods and they would get in the way of your hands and not be reachable with your thumbs. The Take-Offs avoid this by putting the shift levers on the inside of the brackets and offsetting them away from the insides of the brake levers.

I don't think "backwards" would be a big deal. I'm sure once you adjusted, it would seem perfectly normal, and would probably work just fine.