vinnydelnegro

I've been doing some research to find a nice flat bar road bike for my girlfriend. Went down to a local shop and test road a giant fcr1 and a trek (can't remember the model of that one). Both the bikes had a shimano R44s front derailleur. The giant had sram x.7 shifters and the trek had some shimano shifters. I was concerned that both bikes had the same exact problem. When I was down shifting from the large front chainring, the chain always went down to the smallest chainring instead of the middle. I was only able to get to the middle chainring when going up from the small chainring. Has anyone here found that to be a problem? Seems like that r443 is just kinda junky...not to mention the shimano shifters on that trek. I really wish shimano or sram would come out with a fully integrated group for flatbar road bikes. It just seems sloppy to throw on an r443, which according to some is the only workable setup for flat bar roadbikes. Other folks seem to think that shimano road front derailleurs would work fine with flat bar shifters. Any help on this would be appreciated.

AnthonyG

I've used the Shimano FD-R443 front derailer with the Shimano SL-R440 flatbar shifters and the setup worked flawlessly. Maybe a little finicky to setup but when setup properly no problems. So, maybe that's the real problem. The shops haven't taken the time to set them up properly.

Currently I'm using the FD-R443 with regular STI road bike brifters and it works flawlessly as well.

Regards, Anthony

cs1

Sheldon Brown has an explanation on his site about that same thing. I can't seem to remember if it's the pull ratio or not. If the ft shifter isn't indexed then any derailleur would work. Good luck I was thinking about the same for my wife. Let us know what you find out.

Tim

Retro Grouch 

I'm going to complicate your whole story. What kind of cranks?

Genuine Shimano cranks shift better and are easier to adjust.

vinnydelnegro

the fcr 1 w has TruVativ Touro, 30/42/52T cranks. not sure what the trek had.

citizenthom

Flawlessly you say. What Brifters are you using?
I'm thinking of converting my flat bar road bike to drop bar with Sora STI shifters. Wondering if i can use the FD-R443A already on the bike.