Thorn Cycles Forum
Community => Thorn General => Topic started by: ken on June 27, 2013, 06:54:23 PM
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I cycled from Saxmundham, Suffolk to Tavistock in Devon starting June the 10th this year and during a day out to Plymouth last week I spotted a green SJS racing style cycle (dropped bars) with a Rohloff Speedhub and a metal gear changer an the top near the steam. It had a brown brooks saddle and spd/flat pedals. It looked great. Is this a standard machine or a special? do you supply the metal gear shifters/ any help would be most gratefully received.
It seems the model is a Mercury green retro and I would love some photos of a Mercury green retro
Cheers,
Ken.
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The shifter is probably the Gilles Berthoud Twister for Rohloff Hubs http://www.sjscycles.co.uk/gilles-berthoud-gilles-berthoud-twister-for-rohloff-hubs-prod27131/ (http://www.sjscycles.co.uk/gilles-berthoud-gilles-berthoud-twister-for-rohloff-hubs-prod27131/)
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Hi Ken, and welcome to the Thorn Cycling Forum!
George has surely identified the shifter for you as a Berthoud. Yes, Thorn offer this shifter as an option when buying a complete frame. As George noted, it is also available separately from SJS Cycles, Thorn's retail arm and general online bike shop.
As for the photos, some can be found at the following links:
http://www.cyclingweekly.co.uk/tech/bikes/129431/4/touring-bikes-grouptest.html
http://www.sjscycles.co.uk/thorn-mercury-frame-700c-retro-green-prod24815/
A link to SJS Cycles' entire offering of Thorn Mercury frames is here: http://www.sjscycles.co.uk/thorn-mercury-frames-dept965_pg1/
...and a link to Thorn's Mercury brochure and order form -- filled with photos! -- is here:
http://www.sjscycles.com/thornpdf/ThornMercuryHiRes.pdf
These are lovely bikes indeed! Surely drool-worthy, especially in that color combination and matched with the honey brown Brooks B.17 saddle, as you saw.
I hope this helps; nice to have you aboard.
Best,
Dan.
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They look great but people on forums do keep questioning their reliability vs the standard Rohloff shifter. It's something to do with the exposed cables on the Berthoud. I dont have one so am not saying this as first hand experience its just a comment that keeps coming up.
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Its probably true, the shifter wont take the sealed cable ferrules, and is bare alloy so i'm fairly sure will require more regular cleaning and cable changes than the Rohloff shifter, but its the only workable soloution if you want the shifter at the top of drop bars, unless you have massive hands and can turn the new co-motion one.
Dave