Rohloff shifter on bar end

[jamesgbradbury]

Due to some neck pain from a single position on long rides, I'm considering switching our Rohloff tandem's front bars to drop bars. The simplest and cheapest way I can see to try this out is the hubbub in the end of the drop bar, as someone else posted.



I've read the discussions of this, but I'd like to know whether the gear cables from the shifter to the head tube are likely to foul your legs when riding, even out of the saddle?

Can anyone comment on this?

[Donerol]

Rualexander uses this setup on his ?Sherpa - with luck he'll spot your thread soon.

My 2nd-hand Raven came with comfort bars which I didn't like at all. I changed them for some 'straight' bars with Origin8 bar ends. Because the bars aren't completely straight it took a bit of time rotating bars and ends until I got the position I wanted, but I am now very happy with the result. (I cut down my bar to give an overall width of 42cm)

It looks a bit like this (not my picture):


Jtek do similar ones which may be a bit neater.

[rualexander]

No, the cables aren't anywhere near my legs when out of the saddle. The only downside to this set up is the cost of the Hubbub adapter.

[martinf]

I also had a Rohloff shifter on the end of drop handlebars, no problems with cables, but I hardly ever ride out of the saddle with the low gears on the Rohloff.

Issue for me was scraping the side of the rotating part of the shifter when parking the bike against stone walls, etc. This could mostly be avoided by taking more care, except sometimes in ferries, trains, etc. when someone else is likely to move the bike. I moved it to a Thorn accessory bar under the handlebar tops as a precautionary measure to avoid potential damage.

I ran a Shimano 8-speed twist grip hub gear shifter on another bike in the same position for quite a long time, but the Shimano design is slightly different, scraping only scratched the housing for the gear indicator, but didn't interfere with function.

The Shimano derailleur bar end shifters on my old 700C lightweight are quite scratched (been in use since at least the early 1980's), but again, damage is only cosmetic with no loss of function.

A hubbub-type adapter is fairly easy to bodge with a small piece of 22.2 mm straight handlebar, a smaller aluminium tube from a broken camping chair, tent pole, etc. to fit inside drop handlebar/piece of straight handlebar and epoxy adhesive to glue the whole lot together. I expect the small tube could be replaced with a wood dowel.

[jamesgbradbury]

Thanks, this sounds like a pretty good option.

[IronMac]

I also have the Rohloff shifter at the end of drop bars and, since it is on a Bike Friday NWT, it's pretty tight between my knees and the shifter. That being said, I have never had a problem there, even when riding uphill up off of the seat.

[jamesgbradbury]

OK, I've done the conversion using the Hubbub adapter. Seems pretty nice and ergonomic enough. Just one problem - the hubbub shifter keeps rotating in the bar end when I try to shift gears. It was OK at first, then after about half an hour of riding it started slipping meaning I had to get two hands on it to shift properly - not cool at speed.

I thought I'd done it up pretty tight, but maybe more torque is needed...

Any smart ideas? I'd rather not fill the bar end with epoxy!   

[martinf]

Grease the threads and lots of torque. I didn't have a problem with the Hubbub moving when I had this setup on my Raven Tour.

[jamesgbradbury]

Thanks martinf, that seems to have worked. Someone suggested covering it in old inner tube, but that made it worse.

In the end, bare metal and lots of torque did the job. I was lucky to have to hand a suspension seatpost with a slot for the right sized allen key hole in the bottom. So I had a nice foot-long lever instead of the short end of the allen key!   

Couldn't rotate the outside of the shifter after that, so hopefully it will be similarly secure on the road.  Thanks again.

[CanAmSteve]

Just as an option - this is mounted on an SJS-sourced Thorn "T-bar", cut down to a stub. Works a charm.

[mickeg]

I have been home for less than 24 hours after my three weeks in Iceland with my Nomad.  I concluded that I do not like my shifter setup, as I have to take one hand off the handlebars to shift.  I expect to either go with the Hubbub or some similar option to try the shifter on the end of the handlebar. 

I already knew that my current setup was a disadvantage from my experience mountain biking with my Nomad.  There were times on loose gravel at low speeds that I was pretty nervous about taking a hand off the handlebar to make a shift.  My Sherpa has bar end shifters, I was more comfortable with having a hand on the body of the bar end shifter with the Sherpa than my shifter setup with the Nomad, the bar end shifter gave me more confidence in steering while shifting, as the hand that was making the shift also had some grip on the handlebar for steering purposes. 

Thus, I expect that the Hubbub adapter might be the best option for my Nomad.  If I can fabricate something other than Hubbub adapter, I might do that, but I won't waste much time trying other options.  I suspect that I will try to use two V brake noodles to curve the cables forward at the shifter instead of having the cables come straight out of the shifter towards the head tube.

The photo is the way it is currently setup, this is what I would stop using.