'80s vintage touring bike, what shifters?
 

Back in the early '80s, I contemplated going into frame building as a profession. Probably would have been happier if I did, although there have been some tough times since then in the custom steel frame business.

Anyway, in about 1981 or so I built myself a straight-up touring bike, mostly for marketing purposes. Now that I look at it, I was obviously nuts. It has a triple crank, but it has a campy record rear derailleur. It also has campy downtube shifters. It feels kinda strange worrying about the vintage purity of this bike, but it doesn't quite seem right to go full modern either.

I don't know why I didn't put Suntour Barcons on there, that's what I put on my tandem, and I'm pretty sure all the touring riders I knew back then would have chosen those. I'm probably going to try to track down a Suntour rear derailleur too. I'll try to post pictures, don't know when I'll be able to do that though.

Any comments?

I'm pretty happy with my ratcheting DT shifters (Miyata 210) for touring, but if you can get a decent set of Shimano RSX brifters, 3x6 or 3x7, the bike can keep it's feel and you get a solid pkg.
Just a thought. I have so few.

Brifters aren't a bad idea. i was searching on here earlier and saw that I can get barcons from Rivendell, they were somewhat tempting.

Velo Orange might not be a bad place to check, they have a lot of vintage stuff as well.
http://www.velo-orange.com/index.html
Maybe that'll help you some.
GR

I got the Rivendell bar end shifter pods, and a new set of Nashbar/Shimano indexed 7 speed DT shifters. They went on my Trek 560. Flawless function, and I like them better than brifters. Strictly a personal choice of course, but I love them.,,,,BD

Downtube shifters are a drag. Silver Barcons from Rivendell are great if you want friction. Barcons will force drivetrain decisions.

Here is the drivetrain. Campy NR rear dérailleur, Simplex front, Campy NR DT shifters.
Forgot it had a Simplex, I think that goes along with college student finances.
It has Zeus 2000 Hubs and 27" rims. Zeus 2000 seat post with a Brooks Pro saddle.
That saddle is still hard as a rock almost 30 years later.
http://i251.photobucket.com/albums/g...n/DSCN4549.jpg

http://i251.photobucket.com/albums/g...n/DSCN4553.jpg

I tried the Suntour barcons and found you had to pull quite hard on them to increase cable tension. I prefer the Shimano ones even for friction, and in indexed mode they are super.

Of course brifters, Campy or Shimano, are really nice.

As for dowtube shifters, I can tolerate the indexed rear, but I have trouble in pure friction. Your call! :)

I run the Rivendell Silver bar end shifters on one bike and Suntour Barcons on another. Both work very well and both would look good on you bike. (Nice bike by the way:thumb:) The Rivendell shifters will be approximately double the cost of set of used Barcons. The Rivendell shifters shift very smoothly. The only downside is that they are a bit long and I have hit them with my knee(s) while climing a steep grade, resulting in an unexpected upshift.:p