Going without Shifters
 

So I need to send my Red shifters in for a warranty replacement which means I won't have them for a little bit. I just bought a set of Cane Creek brake levers so that I can at least ride in the meantime (53/12 or 39/12). Any other suggestions on how to ride without shifters or convert my bike into a decent SS for a bit? If I took the rear derailleur out completely could I buy a new chain and then install it so I could use a different gear combination??

I'd get some shifters personally. (In order of decreasing likelihood they could fit on your bike) Friction barends. Stem shifter. Clamp-on downtube shifters.

Quite possibly. You'd have to hit a "magic ratio" that also has a decent chain line.

Here's another way you might *lock* your RD into another gear of choice. Take a shift cable or road brake cable and thread it through the RD. The molded end of the cable will be butted up against the RD barrel adjuster. While holding the cage under the cog of choice, tighten the RD pinch bolt. Cut off excess cable. You can tune the cage position via the barrel adjuster.

Hmmm, that sounds very interesting, dd. I'm gonna have to play around with that on a junk MTB I have.

Genius. I'll have to try this once I send them back.

Or you could tighten the adjusting screw until the derailleurs move to the cog/chainring combination you want.

I don't know how much they cost, but Sram makes bar-end shifters compatible with their road groups...
http://www.sram.com/sram/road/category/non_series

(looked it up and the TT500 shifters are $120 on niagaracycle.com)

Could be a reasonable back-up bit of equipment to keep on hand. Unfortunately, I don't think the Sram bar end shifters have a 'friction' option like SHimano ones do.

On that note, Shimano bar end shifters would also work in friction mode, as well as Rivendell 'Silver' friction shifters, and old-school bar-cons you might be able to find on e-Pay.

That may work OK on the front. But the travel limit adjustment screws aren't long enough to do that on a rear derailleur. The trick with the old brake or shift cable is the best way to do this quickie single speed conversion.

I like the cable trick, that's pretty slick. I was just thinking there would be enough adjustment to move up a couple cogs on the rear then the center up front, that would get the OP by till his new stuff came in. Of course with your method, he doesn't mess with the settings on the derailleur for when the new shifters are installed.

I'll definitely try the cable trick when the time comes to send these back in a week or two. I had considered bar end shifters but didn't buy them yet for a number of reasons

1. wasn't sure if they were compatible with my bars (Pro Vibe Carbon OS)
2. they're more expensive and I'm not ready to drop that much on a 1 time use fix (or it would make me tempted to build a TT bike...even more pricey :rolleyes: )
3. I would have to buy brake levers anyway

So. That leads me to my next question: are bar ends compatible with these bars?
http://www.artscyclery.com/descpage-...crumb=RDMCOMPS

I'm inclined to think they aren't.