Replacing 7 speed DT shifters
 

I have a road bike with a Shimano 7 speed cassette, and 7 speed SIS downtube shifters (Exage 400 from 1992). The levers are damaged and need replacing. I've been doing a bunch of reading, and if I understand everything correctly, my options are:

1. Find replacement 7 speed downtube shifters.

2. Since I'm currently running my 7 speed cassette plus a spacer on an 8/9/10 speed freehub, find some 8 speed downtube shifters, and replace my 7 speed cassette with an 8 speed cassette.

3. Same as #2, but 9/10 speeds, will also require a new chain.

4. One of the above options, but upgrade to brifters instead of downtube shifters.

Any thoughts on the pros/cons of the various options? Any options I've missed? I use the bike for recreational rides and commuting (it's a 1992 Bridgestone RB-2, BTW).

I'm leaning towards 7 or 8 speed as I've been led to believe I'll have better reliability and durability than with the narrower chains.

I'm also not sure what I should expect to pay for parts for the various options. There's a set of NOS 7 speed RX100 downtube shifters on ebay for $30 - is that a reasonable price?

Those RX100 shifters sound like a good deal. You can run them with an 8-speed cassette if you want, because they'll friction shift past the last indexing point. I have those on my road bike.

As for other options, you'll soon find that brifters are crazy expensive. What I've been planning on doing is getting some bar-end shifters (with however many speeds you want.) To me, they seem like the best balance of cheap/reliable/and ability to shift from the bars.

i'd grab the rx100s if ya can, or some bonafide 8speed DT shifters, if you can't. you can get new shimano 7 speed dt shifters; i've only seen pictures online, but they look yucky to me. if you keep rockin' 7s, keep rockin' your 7 speed cassette til it's dead, then upgrade to an 8speed cassette and use the final friction "click" to shift. If you get the 8 speed shifters, you might want to just get a 8speed cassette today.

if you go to 9 or 10 speed, you'll spend more up front, but you'll enjoy more cassette options for further into the future. Still, not a terribly big deal.

-rob

Yeah, I know that brifters will be a lot more expensive. I'm just trying to consider all the options, and if I'm replacing the shifters anyway, now would be the time to upgrade if I decide I want to. I'm quite happy with DT shifters though, so I'll probably stick with that to save money.

Since both of you have mentioned mixing 7 and 8 speed components - how well will that work? I know the spacing is a bit different (5.0 mm vs 4.8 mm). Would it be a case of "ok but not perfect", or is it close enough that it won't matter at all?

I'll try to get those 7 speed RX100 levers - still a couple days or so left on the auction, so no guarantees (there's no "buy it now" option). If I don't get that, there's another NOS RX100 7 speed set for $70, or a NOS 400EX 7 speed set (identical to the ones I'm replacing) for $60. I really have no idea what this stuff is worth - that's probably my biggest problem right now! I don't want to overpay (well, not by too much anyway!)

BSB, With one 7S and three 8S bikes I've learned parts are sometimes hard to find when I need them. I'd buy the RX100 shifters for now, but plan ahead for an 8S (or more) conversion in the future as your 7S will eventually wear out.

Brad

Thanks everyone for the advice. I'm now the proud owner of those NOS RX100 7 speed shifters (I was the only bidder :)).

Since I'm already running my 7 speed cassette on an 8/9/10 speed freehub (with a spacer to make it fit), I should be reasonably future-proof. The shifters will be brand new as soon as they arrive in the mail; if they last the 18 years that the first ones did then I've got nothing to worry about! I've got a couple cassettes and will probably be able to find more when I need them - if not I can assemble my own. I don't think 7/8 speed chains going away any time soon. But yeah, I'll happily upgrade to 8S if and when I need to - should be an easy upgrade.

In fact, upgrading to 9 or 10 speed would be just as easy as 8 - so if 8 is hard to find by the time I need to upgrade, I should still be ok!

Thanks again to all of you!

You can now run any number of speeds you can find a cassette and chain to match. because you have a 'friction' option on your shifters!

Well done keeping the old girl alive! I am of the mind that the only thing stopping a bike from lasting forever is an owner not willing to put in a little extra effort.

The other thing you can do is grab whatever speed of new shimano downtube shifters, I've seen them from 30-60$ in 8, 9, or 10 speed. You could keep indexing, you'd just have a few ghost clicks at the end if you had 9 speed shifters and your current 7 speed cassette. When the 7 speed cassette went you could upgrade to 8 or 9 speed depending on your hub in the rear.

The old shifters had that too. It's a nice feature which I have used on occasion when I found myself in the middle of a long ride with indexing that wasn't behaving itself. Probably not as important now that I know how to adjust the indexing, but it's there if I need it. Once in a while I'll switch to friction just for fun!

Thanks. I've been learning to do my own wrenching over the last couple years. Basically I learn how to do something when I need to do it. I've gradually learned quite a bit, and discovered it's fun, and not even that difficult, to keep it running well. I haven't messed with cranks, bottom bracket, or headset yet, but I think I've done pretty much everything else. I'll learn those last few when the need arises.

I'm the original owner, BTW. A year and a half ago I took it in to the shop I bought it from for some repairs after being hit by a Dodge Ram. I didn't expect to impress anyone with my ancient bike, but they loved it. Several of the staff made a point of coming over to talk to me when I picked it up, and the mechanic wrote "VERY NICE!!!" on the work ticket. :)

... except none of them use the same gear spacing, so that won't work. 7 and 8 are close enough that it will apparently work well enough, and you can mix and match certain combinations of different brands, but for the most part the components need to match.

Edit: Here's some info on mixing and matching that will help you find which combinations will work, and which won't: http://www.ctc.org.uk/desktopdefault.aspx?tabid=3946

Yeah, I didn't really phrase that well... here's what sheldon had to say about mixing and matching.

The other option is to pick up some of the rivendell DT shifters and keep your current chain and cassette until they wear out and upgrade to 8 or 9 speed as you can afford. They'll set ya back 42$ right now, and whatever price you can get on a chain/cassette later on. I don't think friction shifting is all that bad when you get used to it... I managed when I was kid.

I looked at those (hey, this Bridgestone is, after all, a Grant Petersen bike!). Rivendell has a minimum $35 shipping fee for orders to Canada. I found that out when I tried to place a small order recently and discovered shipping was going to cost 3 times as much as what I was ordering. :notamused: So anything from Rivendell is pretty much not an option, as much as I like both Grant and Rivendell and would like to support them.

The shifters that are now coming in the mail were cheaper anyway (even after shipping), have indexing, and still have a friction option, so I'm happy with that choice.

Yeah, I managed before too. In fact, when I first got this bike, and was well practiced with friction shifting, I found I could get smoother and quieter shifts with friction than with indexing.