arsprod 

I want to convert my winter bike to drop bars and thought bar end shifters would be easiest and cheapest. Checking Amazon I'm rethinking - they appear to be a lot more expensive than I thought. I just want a cheap set of friction bar end shifters - what should I be looking for (components are all old Shimano)?

pierce

"old shimano" covers a lot of ground. what gearing (double or triple front, 5,6,7,8,9,10 rear)? does it use 'mountain' derailleurs (deore, alivio, etc) or 'road' bits (tiagra, ultegra, etc)

Retro Grouch 

Bar end shifters tend to cost more than I expected too. If you're fortunate you may be able to find an economical set of old Suntour barcons. If you want the rear to index you're pretty well stuck with finding a set of Shimanos that match the number of rear cogs. There are some cheaper solutions like some kind of stem shifter or thumb shifters that you can attach to your handlebar someplace but you won't be styling.

Good luck.

arsprod 

Sorry, Alivio, triple front 7 speed. Friction is fine - I don't care abt indexing

clasher

If you have a co-op nearby or have some DT shifters in your parts bin, you can order "bar end pods" from rivendell and screw the downtube shifters to those... they're 35$ I think, so about half the price of new bar-ends.

davidad

https://www.rivbike.com/Shifters-s/132.htm

arsprod 

That's freaking brilliant! Ordering now (and they're $36).

FastJake

I really need to buy some of those... I could make 7S bar end shifters, which I hardly ever see. Plus I think having a DT shifter on a bar end would be extra cool.

DIMcyclist

I just bodged together a set of those for my XO-3 with a set of NOS Exage DT shifters, 3 x 7 (front friction/ rear indexed), Rivendell's pods, & Shimano adapter plates. I'd already scoured the bins at our LBSs and came up with nothing but old SunTour barcons (& even older Campy shifters) and had been diligently watching eBay since mid-summer for a compatible set with no result, so I finally just said "screw it," and got the parts; they work great so far.

Total cost for the lot (with shipping) came out to about $70. So, while they were marginally cheaper than buying new shifters (which don't come in 7sp and have skyrocketed in price since the last time I looked into them), I really didn't have any alternative if I wanted bar ends to match the bike's original drivetrain (aside from waiting to see if a set of 3 x 7s came up on eBay anytime soon- in nice shape and for less than a C-note).

bargainguy

At a bike swap last month in the midwest, I scored a pair of relatively recent Shimano barend shifters for $15. Don't have a use for them at present, but know I will in the future.

DIMcyclist

I pull my fore-lock to you, good sir!

We haven't had a first-rate bike swap here in a while.

rekmeyata

I have a set of Suntour barend shifters I got as new and in the box for my Mercian that I haven't installed yet after 6 years. But barend shifters are not expensive when you compare them to the cost of a pair of briftors.

wrk101

+1 If you are OK with friction, then the Suntour barcons are a nice alternative. I have bought a dozen sets in the last year, many more in years prior to that.

Just picked up another set last week. I go through quite a few of them setting up vintage touring bikes.

If you are resourceful, you should be able to find a set in the $20 to $30 range, maybe less. Picked up one used set at my LBS for $5 this year, they were hanging on his wall display. Most customers aren't looking for them. Picked up another set at an LBS in the misc shifters parts bin.

bargainguy

Looks like there's one coming up in Portland OR at the expo center on March 23-24: https://pedalnationevents.com/bikeswap

The above site page doesn't specify the year, but if you click through to register as a volunteer, it's 2013.

arsprod 

I checked both local co-ops and today called abt half dozen lbs's - nothing. I ordered the adapter, already have some dt shifters in the parts box. Gonna start collecting these as they turn up though - apparently they're hot commodities! I remember when no one wanted them and thought they were geeky

DIMcyclist

I actually have a set of SunTour 3 x 7 barcons (left over from my RB-2, before I installed a 6400 STI gruppo). I didn't re-use them on the XO because they have a slightly different cable pull than Shimano shifters.

DIMcyclist

Ah! That's probably the Northwest Trail Alliance; they used to have awesome bike swaps. Been a tad on the dull/minimal side for the past couple of years, though.

Jeff Wills

Slightly better info here: https://bikeportland.org/2013/01/18/b...cle-show-82079
(FWIW: that's me and my wife in the photo at last year's edition.)

xenologer

Fun Fact
while suntours use different cable pull from shimano
a suntour 6 shifter, pulls the same cable as a shimano 7 shifter.
3 of my bike take advantage of this, rivendell pod adaptors with suntour 6 levers on the to drive shimano 7 cassettes
-suntour levers generally less expensive than shimano
-suntour front lever having superiour 'power ratchet' (my primary motivation)
-caveat, modifications had to be made to account for the 7th cog (6 position shifter)

cs1

Where can you get those adapter plates? I'm looking to do the same thing.

mconlonx 

I just bodged together a utility bike. Left shifter is a SRAM TT shifter, but the right is a suntour DT grafted to a Shimano bar end pod. I ended up filing down the downtube-contoured part of the shifter to make it work, and I only get 6 gears worth of 8sp shifting, but it works great as a friction shifter.

arsprod 

And those modifications are... (inquiring minds wanna know)?

pierce

i've used 8 speed shifters on 7 speed cassettes and just choked up enough on the cable that you couldn't get past the big cog, as you hit the limit screw and ran out of cable travel before it.

DIMcyclist

Rivendell sells them for like, an extra $6; there's a link to them on the page with the shifter pods.

xenologer

varies depending on shifter lever model
generally:

grind/dremel stop limiter on the lever to add a 7th position (new high gear, lowest cable tension)
this new location doesn't 'click', but that doesnt matter because the derailer limit stop defines the exact positioning

add a 1mm spacer between 5th and 6th cog - with most shift levers, the final shift has extra slack, after the above mod this location is now the 2nd to final shift; hence the spacer

-you may need your 7spd freehub body to be a non-compact model; on some cassettes the addition of the 1mm spacer can cause problems with the splines running short of the final cog if using a compact freehub designed for an 11tooth high gear....


on one of my bikes the process was different;
suntour GPX levers didnt need their limit stop dremeled; instead they can be overshifted on the low gear side
added 1mm spacer between 2nd and 3rd cog instead (mirror of the other version)
replaced all other spacers with narrower 8spd spacers
altered cable clamp on derailer for reduced swing
(essentially, for this one, the extra space at 2-3 needed to be proportinally higher than the 1mm could do while still fitting the freehub width; so I rescaled the entire cassette)


of course, if you don't need all 7 of your cogs; you can just lock out the derailer to only use 6 and forgo all the crazy dremeling, etc -do a suntour 6 shifting 6of7shimano


All my bikes shift perfectly; all but 1 of them use non-kosher drivetrain mods.





p.s.
maybe another option;
campagnolo 10speed shifters pull the same cable as a shimano8 shifter
a shimano 7 cassete is slightly wider than a shimano 8
-close enough that it may work; alternatly changing spacers for 8spd ver isn't a big deal...