Alternatives to twist shifters for geared hubs?
 

Greetings!

I'm looking to build up a commuting bike around a geared hub with 5-8 gears. The only problem is I'm not really thrilled with most of the available shifters! Most shifters are the twist variety and the trigger shifters seem few and far between for most hubs.

I finally found a shifter that I love (the RapidFire Shifter for Nexus 7-speed Hub) but I found out it is now out of production!:(

I want to build something similar to the bike below. See placement of the shifter?

http://www.sheldonbrown.com/images/px7lfront.gif

Anyone have any ideas on some possible shifter options? Or even better, anyone know where to find this shifter?

Thanks!

I don't have this built up yet- but have been fiddling with shifters, IHG and drop bars.
You can fit an Alfine trigger on to a Salsa short & shallow handlebar and slip it past the
curves & bends to mount it on the flats. Then I'm planning put cross style brake levers on the,
as in the attached image. Hope to have all the parts and pieces here within the next
few weeks to actually finish this project.

Have you tried ebay? If the shifter you want is out of production, that might be your best bet. Also, if you haven't already done so, check with the Local Bike Shops in your area. Maybe one of them still has something in stock, or knows where it can be ordered from.

http://jtekengineering.com/jtek_bar-end_shifter.htm
http://jtekengineering.com/Images/jt..._bar-end-1.jpg

any bar end shifter will work.

^^^ I don't think so,I don't think most barends pull enough cable. There was a posting about a bike shop that did this mod and used a Problem Solvers' pulley to get it to work.