Wheels Of Steel

What do you all think of the idear? I've ridden a mountain bike that had DT shifters mounted on the top tube 1/4 of the way from the head tube and liked it quite a bit. I wouldn't want them there on a road bike for fear of tearing the flesh off my knees when pedaling out of the saddle. What about right in front of the toptube/headtube juncture? Shimano's CX70 front derailleur will shift 50/34 and has a top-pull option. With sleeves brazed on the seat lug to route the cables it could work. All this in an attempt to avoid using STI shifters on a possible future custom build I've been contemplating. Thoughts?

Michael Angelo 

If you don't mind catching the family jewels on them.

Gravity Aided

Seems like a mighty close approximation to a stem shifter.

Chicago Al 

That was the custom arrangement on the first vintage bike I ever worked on. You may gaze upon it here, in wonder.

thirdgenbird

Headtube shifters on a sub-6lb road bike:

https://www.cycleexif.com/worlds-lightest-bike

jimmuller 

Those HT shifters aren't so very different from traditional DT shifters, just a little further forward. In use they will be similar.

Those TT shifters scare me. In a tight spot scraped knees seem quite likely. Rather worse if they ever contacted by other sensitive parts.

Wheels Of Steel

Except the shifers remain in place while turning.

repechage

I have seen it done in a similar way as the superlight carbon bike shown earlier, on a super large frame where mounting shift levers on the downtube would be a big ask to reach that low. They were mounted about 1/3rd the way up the head tube with housed cables (like stem shifters) down to a double sided downtube cable stop. Worked okay, the side pull brake cable was closer than I would want but in general one dis not shift and turn at the same time back then.

Gravity Aided

I believe the Firenze GL-5000 came with with TT shifters.

dddd

That's the one I was thinking of, it was a cotter-cranked 10-speed from around 1990(?) or so, and likely sold at a department store chain like Costco.


I recently bought this really beat-up 1963 Bianchi which had a similar treatment, the Record band clamp having a longer bolt used.
The placement of the clamp somewhat obscured a good bit of head-tube buckling, suggesting this frame was badly crashed then repaired by a not-too-particular frame builder, likely at the request of a insistent, budget-oriented owner:


Here you can see the ripple just below the upper head lug, as well as a supplementary reinforcing addition to the lower head tube lug along the downtube:

Grand Bois

They were sold to retailers by the truckload who gave them away as promotional items. It was the early 80s, not 1990. Matthew's in Daly City was the guilty party in the Bay Area. "Buy a stereo, get a bike." They were so bad that some shops refused to work on them.

https://velospace.org/node/22761

Chombi

Back in the very early 90's, my friend got one of those free bikes from Mathew's at the "top of the hill" in Daly City when he bought a a TV from them. I didn't know how mean my friend could be till he gave the bike that continually shed parts on him when he rode it, to his mother....... Thankfully, she is still alive today.......

Gravity Aided

I had one until I realized the cable stops were stuck into wet paint(or so it appeared) instead of being brazed on. And the GL500 had toptube mounted shifters, as well. The Bianchi shown has a treatment I have seen on some tall frames, but I have also seen braze-ons on the headtube in this situation, usually on really tall frames. I'm guessing that was because it may have been an easier reach than the downtube.

spacemanz

Ayup, I've been complaining about that all year. I think you short folks are just spoiled, being down close to the down tube like you are. For us tall guys, it's like reaching down to touch your toes, just to shift.

Grand Bois

I read somewhere that they wholesaled for $19.

ThermionicScott 

Do tall people tend to have disproportionately short arms, or is that just the in-joke? I don't get why it would be any harder for tall people otherwise.

7/8timing

looks like that Firenze wasn't the only stock garbage wagon to have tt mounted shifters... I almost want to buy this just to see what a hunk this thing is.
Huffy aerowind.

https://denver.craigslist.org/bik/4099482154.html

dddd

I bought an Aerowind back in the 90's at a garage sale. I really just bought it for the novelty, but mine had 26" road rims with fatter tires and was really too small for me to ride.
The Craigslist Aerowind seems to have 27" rims but appears to be otherwise identcal to mine.
I was puzzled that Shimano went to the trouble of making that gruppo, but maybe they expected to sell a whole lot of them?
The parts were sophisticated and yet so cheap as to be crude at the same time.
It's a super-unique model.
If you're 5'6" or so, I say buy it! The frame angles will definitely make this ~56cm frame seem smaller while riding!

Gravity Aided

Realize that with the Aerowind, sizing is crucial. The seat post is short, due to the fact that it in the round top part of the seat tube with a bolt running into a channel at the back to secure it, and the rest of the seat tube is flattened, so there is not a lot of seat post to work with. And while the frame may be aerodynamic in some small way, it is heavy beyond any aerodynamic advantage. Better than the usual Huffy offering, but that is not saying much.