Spare parts

[gajhc]

Hi,
I am an injured runner and need to get my bike out, I have an older perfectly useable bike which is lightweight but has the old style shifters on the downtube, I would like to have it converted to brake shifters, problem is, it is 7 speed and they don't make them any more, I was wondering if there was anyone out there with any old 7 speed shifters lying around or ideas for converting in any other way?
Cheers
Graham.

 

[Smokin Joe]

There never were any seven speed integrated shifters, they came on the market for eight speed. If you have a Shimano rear mech and cassette an eight speed Campagnolo shifter will index perfectly with it, try ebay.

 

[RecordAceFromNew]

There are numerous possibilities, but none is necessarily an ideal, perfect solution to your question.

You could try ebay for secondhand parts, such as this.

Since the sprocket pitch (i.e. distance between rear cogs) of a Shimano 8 speed cassette at 4.8mm is close enough* to the 5mm of a 7 speed cassette/freewheel, it is possible to use various shifter and indexed Shimano rear mech** combinations that works for Shimano 8 speed cassettes. For example,

SJS sells 8 speed Shimano Ultegra bar end shifters as 7 or 8 speed compatible, although you did ask for brifters.

You can get new Shimano 2300 8 speed brifters.

You can get Campag 10 speed brifters which happen to pull the right amount of cable for Shimano rear mech** (see this) to work with an 8 speed Shimano cassette. I suspect this is what Smoking Joe meant above.

etc. etc. such as various friction shifter or stem shifter ideas, or you could also consider changing your cassette/freewheel/wheel, or the whole bike. Possibilities are nearly limitless, all with various pros and cons.

btw and Good luck!

* the fact is if you set rear cable tension to line the rear mech up with the 4th rear cog exactly the error at the extremes (i.e. 1st and 7 cog) is going to be only 0.6mm

** any Shimano (but not their latest 10 speed mtb ones) rear mech designed for indexed shifting.

 

[gajhc]

Thanks guys, I will look into it, at least I now have a solution, I will pass it on to someone more competant than myself!!
Cheers
Graham