Opinions on twist shifters and thumb/trigger shifters?

[ColinJ]

I thought I would like twist shifters so I had them on my first MTB but I had them replaced by Rapidfire after only a couple of months because I struggled with them when my arms got tired. Rapidfire are great!

PS I am talking 3+ hours on gnarly Yorkshire bridleways on a bike with primitive suspension forks so my hands and arms took a lot of punishment.

 

[Mugshot]

Whilst my better bike is having a rest I'm on my old, heavy Apollo, is blooming hard work too. However, despite absolutely minimal maintenance the twist grips change gear and make the bike more or less difficult to pedal, I don't need them to do much else, so, they do me fine

 

[Thursday guy]

I think I may have asked this question before, but who decided that commuter-type bikes no longer need mudguards?

I'm sure you can fit them on. Anyway, I think a lot of people are put off by mudguards for fear they ruin the look of their bikes, not that I am one of those people!

 

[Pale Rider]

I associate twist shifters with hub gears.

The Rohloff I tried worked fine, although it required a bit more grunt to twist than I would have liked.

The NuVinci constantly variable hub has, out of necessity, a twist shifter.

That can be quite hard to shift, which is probably one of the reasons they have produced an electronic version.

I've tried basic Shimano twist shifters on derailleur bikes which worked OK, although I would like to try the bike before buying it, just to be sure the twisting effort wasn't too much.

 

[jonny jeez]

Have those that dislike twist shifters actually tried them.

On a mountain bike I find them much better than triggers for the single fact that you can shift from top to bottom gear in a nano second, perfect for emergency changes to get up a surprise slope, or thought thick mud.

 

[ColinJ]

Have those that dislike twist shifters actually tried them.

On a mountain bike I find them much better than triggers for the single fact that you can shift from top to bottom gear in a nano second, perfect for emergency changes to get up a surprise slope, or thought thick mud.

Have those that ask the question "Have those that dislike twist shifters actually tried them" actually read the posts where previous posters described having tried them?

I thought I would like twist shifters so I had them on my first MTB but I had them replaced by Rapidfire after only a couple of months because I struggled with them when my arms got tired. Rapidfire are great!

 

[Nigeyy]

Depends on who you ask. I'm in the camp of liking grip shifters.... just comes down to personal preference. Having said that, if I ride one of my bikes with trigger shifters, I'm fine too (though I will say I do prefer gripshift for off road, but again, not enough to make me want to take the time to buy and install other ones). So long as the controls are close and comfortable to my natural hand position and also allow easy access to the brakes, I'm fine (sorry, got to say how anyone likes the placement of bar end, stem and down tube shifters I personally can't fathom given the alternatives that are available).

FWIW when I was building up a 27 speed back up commuter/tourer bike, I used grip shifters as they were super cheap to get some good ones off ebay, they work and I like them. Horses for courses.

 

[summerdays]

Trigger shifters and as you can change down two at a time it takes just a couple of clicks from top to bottom but rarely would I need that jump, and the chain/derailleur still has to make the jump too.

I don't like grip shift as you can accidentally shift when you didn't mean to, though perhaps I've only tried the cheaper ones.

 

[andyfraser]

sorry, got to say how anyone likes the placement of bar end, stem and down tube shifters I personally can't fathom given the alternatives that are available

There's no denying that modern trigger or STI shifters are convenient but I've done enough faffing around with indexing gears to prefer non-indexed options. I'll admit it's been a few years since I had a bike with down tube shifters so maybe there's some rose tinting going on but I remember that trimming the front derailleur was simple and, with a little practice, it was easy enough to hit the right rear sprocket without things like stretching cables knocking things out of whack. All I ever needed to do was clean, lube and change cables.

 

[marknotgeorge]

OP, If you don't get on with the gripshifts on that, Shimano do trigger shifts for less than £20.

 

[captain nemo1701]

My new bike has thumb trigger shifts. I can change gears and ratio, up & down just with my thumbs. With the old bike, you changed gears up with your forefinger and vice-versa for the ratios. Now, it's all thumb 'action'. My poor forefingers feel a bit redundant now

 

[Nigeyy]

Funny, that's also an advantage with gripshift -usually the better ones allow for more than just 3 positions -allowing you to trim that front derailleur. You don't get that with trigger shifters.

It's down to what you like -I will say that with the advent of index shifting I've never looked back (and also never had much faffing around to do either, but I do my own mechanics and I wonder if that's something to do with it). I will say that as much as I like indexing, I think I'd take a non-indexed shifter in a comfortable close at hand position over an indexed shifter on the downtube, stem or bar end though!

There's no denying that modern trigger or STI shifters are convenient but I've done enough faffing around with indexing gears to prefer non-indexed options. I'll admit it's been a few years since I had a bike with down tube shifters so maybe there's some rose tinting going on but I remember that trimming the front derailleur was simple and, with a little practice, it was easy enough to hit the right rear sprocket without things like stretching cables knocking things out of whack. All I ever needed to do was clean, lube and change cables.

 

[raleighnut]

I converted 2 of my bikes from gripshift to trigger shift and then fitted them to 2 others when I uprated the transmission on them, never could get on with gripshift, and like @marknotgeorge says about £20 to change over.
Even the trike came with trigger shift and although only 6 speed Shimano that is thumb only, causes 'brain freeze' sometimes (as does one of my racing bikes that has 'bar end shifters' cos I keep waving my hand around the downtube looking to change gear like on the other 3)

 

[Cubist]

Quality modern SRAM grip shifters are getting very good reviews in MTB land, although I like the crisp efficiency of decent Shimano triggers.

 

[andyfraser]

Funny, that's also an advantage with gripshift -usually the better ones allow for more than just 3 positions -allowing you to trim that front derailleur. You don't get that with trigger shifters.

It's down to what you like -I will say that with the advent of index shifting I've never looked back (and also never had much faffing around to do either, but I do my own mechanics and I wonder if that's something to do with it). I will say that as much as I like indexing, I think I'd take a non-indexed shifter in a comfortable close at hand position over an indexed shifter on the downtube, stem or bar end though!

I only mentioned down tube shifters because that's what I got used to. There's bound to be another position I like. I don't have too many problems with index shifters but I hate having to re-index my gears, probably because I haven't done it enough to get good at it. It can take me up to an hour to get things how I want them. I remember changing gear cables used to take minutes.