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Friction shifters on 10spd Campag?

(10 posts)
  • Started 11 years ago by Wilmington's Cow
  • Latest reply from chdot
  • This topic is not resolved

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  1. Wilmington's Cow
    Member

    I've been thinking for a wee while of switching to a flat bar on the Kaff. While this may seem like sacrilege given the interest and plaudits landed on the Nitto Moustache, I've noticed on short rides on the MTB to the shops how much more I enjoy straight bars and the handling they give. Then on Saturday, to accompany Mel on a test ride of her new bike, Mark trusted me with a flat-barred Cotic Roadrat, and I was sold.

    Biggest issue I have is the gears. I've got 10spd Campag on there, and while Campag do make combined brake/shifters for flat bars they cost about £120 (and the levers only work with caliper brakes apparently, and I've got cantis). I've been reading up and friction shifters basically work with everything. The number of gears is irrelevant as the cassette width is the same - it's just with 10spd you've got less of a gap between cogs, and so have to have a lighter touch changing.

    Anyone else done this before?

    Decent, inexpensive, canti brake levers are easily had. This change, plus the new wheels I'm planning on getting, would make it virtually an entirely new bike!

    Posted 11 years ago #

  2. DaveC
    Member

    Oh WC stop messing around and just buy the Cotic Roadrat for heavens sake!!

    ;o)

    I have a freind who has Shimano changers (STI but Campag on the read hanger, which work ok, but don't know enough to comment seriously.

    Posted 11 years ago #

  3. Uberuce
    Member

    My black Raleigh went cheaply back to being geared last summer; popped an 11-32 8-speed Alivio on the back and reinstalled the original 6-speed downtube shifters on friction mode. Works just dandy in friction mode, but I never got round to switching it back to index too see what happens. I'd imagine it just wouldn't shift into the bottom two gears, but da ken.

    Posted 11 years ago #

  4. chdot
    Admin

    10 speed - that's so last year...

    http://road.cc/content/news/49297-12-speed-system-way-kcnc

    Personally I'm sticking with 7.

    More than that takes too long to change down for stopping at traffic lights!

    As U says, friction will work fine - as long as the lever isn't 'sticky' and you are patient enough to 'learn' the 'feel'.

    Posted 11 years ago #

  5. EddieD
    Member

    I've got bar-end shifters in friction-mode on the Streetmachine (3x9), and I love it. I was brought up on them, and it just feels right.

    Posted 11 years ago #

  6. steveo
    Member

    Personally I'd be a bit worried about the gap, there isn't a lot of movement between gears and unless you can get a lever with a lot of throw it might be a bit "twitchy".

    Posted 11 years ago #

  7. Coxy
    Member

    Wil be making a similar switch quite soon.

    From my research, a lot say that friction on a 10 speed works well - almost like not having to worry about finding the gear, it just slips in.

    We'll see.....

    Posted 11 years ago #

  8. Smudge
    Member

    Haven't tried friction shifting on the rear for a looong time but the front (bar end) shifter on my Surly is set as a friction shift as it's an MTB chainset and therefore slightly different spacing to a road one.
    Works just fine :-)

    I imagine you would soon get used to it (subject to decent quality shifters and sensible cable runs!)

    Posted 11 years ago #

  9. kaputnik
    Moderator

    I recently removed the drop bars (25.8mm clamp mid-90s 3TTT anatomic type) and 10 year old Sora STIs from my everyday bike and replaced them with the Nitto Albastache bar (that's the incarnation of the Moustache but with the slight droop of the Albatross), Tektro aero-cabled brake levers and Shimano 8-speed indexed bar-end shifters.

    I am very impressed with the results. The ride is very comfortable, the wider bar is more flexible, offering a smoother ride in town. Shifting is easy and far more precise than the ageing brifters and braking is much better with a proper, steel lever rather than whatever strange fabric the sora levers were chiseled out of. Oh and it looks nice too.

    The cost of bar, shifters and new levers was probably about 10% more than some replacement 8-speed STIs but they would have been of the Shimano Claris groupset, whatever on earth that is, Sora now being of the 9-speed flavour, and I've always tried to replace old parts with better ones as they die.

    Posted 10 years ago #

  10. chdot
    Admin

    "I've always tried to replace old parts with better ones as they die."

    Good plan.

    I dismantled my white bike today for a COMPLETE overhaul.

    Had planned to replace inner ring (most used one) and 'upgrade' to STI and new mudguards (swap existing to a diff bike) probably new block/chain.

    But surprised to find front mech almost worn through!

    Posted 10 years ago #

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