Author Topic: drop bars, would this work?  (Read 3366 times)

Scarab

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drop bars, would this work?
« on: August 24, 2006, 07:21:42 am »
Imagine a pair of brake/gear shifters on a drop handlebar that look something like Campagnolo Ergos or the Shimano equivalent.

We are looking at the bar from the front.

Have a 'cable' loop that passes through both brake/levers. This could be a plain cable, or a chain, or beads on a string, whatever works best. I'll just use the term, cable, for convienience.

The levers only engage the cable when they are pressed inwards, otherwise they do not restrict its movement.

Pushing the right hand lever moves the cable loop clockwise. Pushing the left lever moves the cable anti-clockwise.

Mount a Rohloff gear changer on the stem, facing forwards, wrap the bottom part of the loop around the changer or have a cog that transmits the movement of the loop to the changer.

Pushing the right hand lever turns the changer in one direction, pushing the left lever turns it the other.

You could change gears without removing your hands from the brakes.

Don't get hung up on the whole wrap-cables-round-changers stuff, imagine that real engineers did a proper job on it.

Do you think that this could work, in principle?
 

stutho

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Re: drop bars, would this work?
« Reply #1 on: August 25, 2006, 10:39:15 am »
Sounds a bit involved.  Do you think it would be worth the effort?  I have to say I don't have any problems with my shifter the way it is!

kwkirby01

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Re: drop bars, would this work?
« Reply #2 on: August 25, 2006, 11:50:11 am »
quote:
Originally posted by stutho

Sounds a bit involved.  Do you think it would be worth the effort?  I have to say I don't have any problems with my shifter the way it is!


Stutho, did you ge tthe email I sent you offline? I'm interested in your experiences with the RST & drop bars. Do you have any pictures?
Thanks, Kevin Kirby
Kevin K. Glasgow

Scarab

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Re: drop bars, would this work?
« Reply #3 on: August 26, 2006, 05:56:26 pm »
quote:
Originally posted by stutho

Sounds a bit involved.



I had a look at the diagram of the Rohloff shifter on their website. It looks like the two wires just wrap round the shifter in opposite directions.

If you turn the shifter then one wire lengthens as the other shortens.

So maybe you could get the same effect by using a single wire that passes through both brakes, the two ends of the wire feed back to the hub. One brake lever shifts up, one shifts down.

That doesn't sound too complicated.

quote:
Originally posted by stutho

Do you think it would be worth the effort?



Being able to shift gear without moving your hands from brakes and bar would be worth it. Your hands could always be close to the brakes, you would always have a good grip on the bar to apply power whilst shifting on a steep hill.

quote:
Originally posted by stutho

I have to say I don't have any problems with my shifter the way it is!



Fair enough but some people have wondered if there is a 'better way'. I'm one of them.
 

graham

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Re: drop bars, would this work?
« Reply #4 on: September 04, 2006, 04:52:39 pm »
I can't see how you'd pull enough cable in either direction to change more than 1 or 2 gears. Unless a very complicated ratchet mechanism was devised. Sorry, but I think the idea's a non-starter.
Feel free to make it (and your million) and prove me wrong.
 

Scarab

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Re: drop bars, would this work?
« Reply #5 on: September 04, 2006, 07:19:30 pm »
quote:
Originally posted by graham

I can't see how you'd pull enough cable in either direction to change more than 1 or 2 gears.



The lever doesn't move the cable when it returns to rest. So even if it can only do one at a time then just keep flicking to go up all the gears.