I am having one of our local builders put together a 650B on a 89 Merckx Century frame.
I know nothing about shifters and brakes that will work best with my townie bar choice.
The bar will be a Soma Sparrow in one of the two narrower widths offered.
I would like to see some pics of your similar solutions.
All the components I see are less than aesthetically pleasing.
I’m a longtime road biker.
Downtube and those brake lever shifters are the only ones I know well.
This will be a 1x.
Bar end shifters are not to be suggested.
Thank you for the help.
Byron

'K.

Last year I went with a more upright body posture on my '72 MBGR for rides as a commuter.

I'd previously changed the original x2 in front to an x3, leaving the x5 in back but with a larger range on the big side for the hills 'round here.

Went with a threadless quill stem adapter and a Postino 'bar (both from Velo-Orange). Entirely successful endeavor save for the now deeper reach to shift on the Campys it came with.

Here's mine:


I juts last weekend got these SunRace Thumbies (thanks ModernBike!) installed to my satisfaction.

Sharp(ish) curve and short(ish) straight grip length made positioning a little fussy, yet I think this will work.

(I'm setting it up for a trainer ride before making anything permanent.)

Your Soma Sparrow looks rather similar to my V-O's postino:


Soma Sparrow



V-O Postino

- if perhaps a little bit more curvaceous? Not a bad thing unless it causes cockpit fit problems from geometry conflict.

Postino's 570mm, the short SS is what, 490mm? Big difference!

need a bit more information like will this be indexed or friction shifting, what is cassette or freewheel 6speed, 8 speed, etc and what is range 11-34 etc

Sight unseen I would suggest the tektro city levers https://velo-orange.com/collections/...-22-2-dia-bars



and a thumbie for friction.... which one depends a bit on how many cogs you have in the back

super simple but work are falcon https://velo-orange.com/collections/...thumb-shifters

beyond that you can look at some of the rivendell stuff https://www.rivbike.com/collections/shifting

In my mind, this bar end shfter set is the best I ever used and I used them a lot....



The Bianchi lives in Jamaica now. I gave it to a friend last time I was there. Back to shifters. These days I very much prefer Brifters, for safety and user friendliness reasons...

I like the look of this VO cockpit when it comes to upright bars, brakes and shifter(s).

SP, You may compare the VO bars at Soma at the WhatBars.com.
The Soma are more narrow, which I prefer.
But yes, they area very similar.

That looks nice.
I hope I get close to this clean look.
I just don't know about any of the shifters available or what is offered going 1x.
I'm not experienced with either.

These Soma bars, they dip down to the grips.

Instead of using a taller stem, does anybody flip/flop the bars so they rise up a little?

Great. I typed the word RISE

Now I have PIL playing in my head.

Rob,
I have the Soma Oxford on my winter fixed gear.
I flipped it up, works fine for me.
I did cut off and inch off the bar length.
I intend to flip the Soma Sparrow as well, but won't need to shorten it.

could be worse, could be Achy Breaky Heart

Years ago, I decided to try something a bit different for handlebar and shifter. This is the bike I experimented on...


And this was the brake levers and shifters I selected for trial...


To put it bluntly, I did NOT like the feel and felt like I had lost some degree of control. But that is just me. When I sold the MotoB, it looked like this...

I'm not surprised!

When I went with a threadless adapter & Postino bar I found that, for me the most comfortable position for brakes was more out front and more parallel to the bars than rotated down, out nearer the ends. Adding thumbies took some time to rebalance everything (couldn't find my cable cutters so there's still some tweaking yet to do).

I don't think I'd like thumbies like what you'd used there, the mounts put the levers too far from the bar. May be awkward to address without having to alter hand positions quite a lot. The Sun Race pair @bikemig pointed me to makes a good place to start, they don't require separate bar mounts.

Gonna copy out those links for future reference... I do like the look of those Tektro levers I do... thanks for all that!!

I'm off work this afternoon, plans include getting my MB back onto trainer for a few miles' testing @ Z2-Z3. Time will tell!

Byron, here’s my wife’s parts bin build city commuter. Alivio trigger shifters, Acera RD, 7 speed indexed triple and it has worked flawlessly.

How do you feel about stem mounted shifters? They have a reputation because they were included on lots of cheap ten speed but they work great. They are easy to reach and they keep the handlebars clean. Rivendell even sells a mount that can be used on a one inch stem.

My son's Super Course, similar to others here. I forget some of the details but I think it's a VO Curvy bar or something similar. At first we used an older all-rounder. I didn't want too much sweep because this frame wants a little weight up front, too upright and the steering feels too light. Levers are VO City Bike and I would have to check on the thumbies. They're friction and ratcheted. I'm sure someone recognizes them.

What's your gearing and are you looking for index or friction?

I think I’d put a single shifter on the stem or maybe the top tube. Run the shift cable under the TT with a pulley near the seat lug. Remove all unnecessary brazeons for the cleanest look. Did we get a picture of this Merckx?

Somewhat more modern take, this circa 2000 mystery titanium bike built as a city/town utility bike. Pics show a 1x-9 setup. Now has 1x-10 Deore XT trigger setup.

I am going to have to stop by the builder/mechanic's shop to get an idea of what he has in mind.
I can't even answer the question, "What's your gearing, index or friction?"
I'll get a shot of the Merckx.
I appreciate your feedback.
Thanks,
Byron