Anyone tried this aluminium shifter grip?

[snoogly]

Apparently it is interchangeable with the stock Rohloff rubber grip. (And unfortunately uses the same damned retaining ring!)

I have ordered one and will report back once I have tried it, but I was wondering if anyone has used one.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/374683078132?chn=ps&mkevt=1&mkcid=28&var=643684729130&srsltid=AfmBOoqd0t_nyUGeE2BBo5dWlEJUs0LkjpbXh5XcuFPK81oz0iOSmgZYmao

[Danneaux]

Hi Snoogly!

You may wish to read about my take on aluminum Rohloff grip-shifters here...
http://thorncyclesforum.co.uk/index.php?topic=12438.msg92183#msg92183

More can be found if you go to the Forum search engine and enter "Co-Motion" (no quotes) and search for posts by my screen name, Danneaux. The same comments wrt thermal conductivity hold true for the Berthout shifter as well and pretty much any made from aluminum including the Cinq5 trigger-shifters I reviewed here...
http://thorncyclesforum.co.uk/index.php?topic=10585.0

In short, exposed aluminum can become awfully hot in hot weather but might not be an issue if you wear gloves that protect your fingers/hand where you grip. This would be a big issue for me in my desert tours and during the extreme heat waves in both Romania and Serbia when I toured there, probably a non-issue for more moderate climes.

The grip you ordered is nicely textured. I'm not sure how it would be in wet weather. I have been largely happy with the rubberized "wave" shifter I got from Rohloff to replace my smoother round original. I know some folks still very much prefer the original triangular rubber shift grip cover, though they are hard to source these days.

Best, Dan.

[snoogly]

Although Japan can be infernally hot or infernally wet (often at the same time), I always wear gloves - so hopefully I won’t suffer from a hot or slippery hand.

I don’t 3D print, but I’d imagine a shifter grip would be an easy project. But there needs to be a need, and if most people are happy with Rohloff rubber I guess it’s a niche non-need ;-)

[mickeg]

I use the round Rohloff shifter, the rubber abrades quickly, some day I might upgrade to the wave version.

But in the meantime, I wanted better grip than the round one offered, especially in wet conditions.  I am in USA, there is a product here called Shoe Goo, it is a viscous fluid in a metal tube.  You can put it on a shoe sole that is worn to replace the rubber that has worn off.  A few days after application it has fully hardened.
 It shrinks as it hardens as a significant portion of it is volatile chemicals, sometimes I put on a second layer.  I put my shoes or boots outside while waiting for the volatiles to evaporate.

Why am I talking about shoes?  I put three beads of Shoo Goo (black) on my round shifter, and it has added greatly to my ability to grip it and also it abrades less than the original rubber, so it is extending the life of that.  Applied two layers.  The three beads of it give it a shape more like the triangular grip.  Photo is from 2016, it is still holding up well.

[PH]

Why the change?  Did you just want another go at fitting a retaining ring?
For straight bars, I consider the only downside of the standard wavy shifter to be wear, even so, it was about eight years before the one on my most used bike needed changing.  This time round, when it gets about half worn, I'll swap it for the one on the folder which gets a lot less use. 

[Andre Jute]

I'm one of those Neanderthals who prefer the original triangular shifter. It is actually the most ergonomic shifter Rohloff ever offered, and in my opinion the least likely with it's flat surfaces for resting you palm to give you repetitive stress injuries.

Where I find the danger of a metal Rohloff rotary control in generally low-temperature Ireland is not so much that it will burn your hands, but give you chilblains in the occasional cold spell, which can be quite as painful as heat-burns. I always wear gloves, like the OP, but mine are not cycling gloves but leather dress gloves, and I suspect a metal rotary control will wreck my bicycle gloves, already thirteen years old, in short order.

Thirteen years -- that's an encomium to Rohloff's original triangular rubber shifter, to which I've remained loyal all these years. It hasn't damaged fine leather gloves or my hands, and has never once complained. I think that once the rubber is worn so thin that holes appear, I'll cut it off and glue on some plaited leather and when the glue is dry, soak the leather in neatfoot oil so that eventually it will match my grips of Brooks saddle leather offcuts (see http://thorncyclesforum.co.uk/index.php?topic=4723.msg23365#msg23365 because it is faster to look at the photographs than reading an explanation).

Looking forward to your in-use report Snoogly, and how well your gloves fare v. the metal grip.

[steve216c]

https://a.aliexpress.com/_Ez2Bog3

The linked shrink rubber in 45mm can be used to cover a worn triangle grip shift. I also went over my worn grips too where rubber was perishing on both. I’ve just replaced my original shrink rubber put on more than 10,000km ago after it was finally wearing thin. But totally allows me to continue to use my trusty triangle shifter and favourite comfy grips by stopping them feeling sticky and revitalising how they look.