Front Shifter Woes.
 

One of my touring bikes is a tandem with Dura-Ace 9-speed bar-end shifters. They're not actually located on the bar ends; they are on braze-ons on the top tube; the stoker does the shifting. A while back, the front shifter suddenly lost it's ability to hold cable tension. Thus, when I shift into larger gears (big ring, smallest cogs), it will slowly allow the front derailleur to move back towards the seat tube, resulting in chain rub. Lucky me, a friend uses the same set-up on his 'bent and he wears out the rear shifter. He gave me one of his many unused front shifters and I put it on. It's better than the one it replaced, but it still "sags" a bit.

Has anyone else had this happen? Are there levers that resist the cable/spring tension better? Any bright ideas to remedy this? FWIW, the front derailleur is an old Dura-Ace triple (no longer made). It's annoying enough that I am about to use a couple of hair rubber bands to add some resistance.

B. Carfree, Normally it's a matter of tightening the tension screw. You might need to check cable and housing friction and clean/lube the FD. The FD may have something resisting full travel or an issue with how well it's mounted to the frame.

Brad

Look around for an old 70s or 80s vintage down tube friction shifter at garage sales. Some bike shops that have been around for decades might have a box of old stuff in a back room and might have a used one for a couple bucks. Back then there were no indexed shifters, almost all friction shifters at that time had a thumb screw for adjusting friction. But, if you get one, make sure you get all of the parts, an incomplete one will not work.

Or, if you need a bar end shifter, the 70s and 80s vintage Suntour and Shimano bar end shifters can be tightened for more friction. They do not have a thumb screw, need a screwdriver or maybe a coin. They are harder to find, but are regularly on Ebay.

I've had Long use out of Sun Tour bar ends , the tension adjustment is best done with 2 screwdrivers
the one on the left side of the lever best with a notch ground out if the center ,
to clear the bolt coming through from the right side ,
there is a hex nut underneath the left side, outer is a locknut, with a slot to tigten it.
while you hold the adjustment with the other screwdriver on the Rt side.

These DS shifters have a mysterious internal resistance device. The screw tension is all but irrelevant. The derailleur goes to where I set the limit screw, but won't stay there or even near there for long. I got so annoyed with it today that I clamped down on the cable where it runs along the frame and that provided enough added resistance to make it tolerable, as in the derailleur only moved enough to rub in the top two gears.

I may grab one off of an old bike in my back room and see how it plays. Failing that, we have a place in town that tears apart old bikes and sells the parts for nearly nothing; I'll dig in their parts boxes on Tuesday. Or, I may just go through my friend's other four shifters and find the one with the most resistance.

I have brand new BS-77 shifters on my rando bike and I can tighten the lever's mounting screw to the point of having difficulty shifting. The LHS lever should have a ratcheting feel also. A remote possibility is that some how the wrong lever mounting screw is installed. Those meant for the RHS lever are 2-3 mm longer, which could cause the screw to bottom out in the shifter's body before tightening properly.

Brad