Shimano Gears - Road / MTB

[WL]

Quick question

I'm putting together a 'urban' type bike for my wife, ie road bike with flat bars. It will be based on a road frame.

Wanted to know if Shimano mtb shifters and road mechs work together, ie 105 mechs with deore shifters. Any suggestions?

Also what brake levers (for flat bars) can I use with dual pivot calipers (they are cannondale 'delta')

Many thanks

[Si Davies]

rear mechs will work (assuming you don't mixe 7/8spd rear mech with 9spd shifter or viceversa).

Front mech a bit more tricky.  The cable pull required for shimano road front mechs is different to that required for shimano MTB front mechs.  If you use a friction shifter then there will be no problem (e.g. old DX thumbie, etc).  However, if you use an indexed MTB shifter it won't pull enough cable - you may get away with it on a double chainset but a triple will probably produce some problems.  One bodge (from Chris Juden, CTC) to get around this is to put the gear cable on the bike side of the bolt that clamps it to the mech, thus lessening slightly the length of the mech arm. Alternatively just get a new front mech - should be able to pick up a good used one for a fiver.

[Dave Whittle Thorn Workshop]

Shimano do a series called R440 which is a flat handlebar shifter which working with its own front mech will run with road chainsets.  The rear shifter fits any current Shimano rear mech,

[John]

Rear mechs are 100% OK but contrary to Si Davies view the front MTB shifter pulls too much cable for the new STI road front mechs. You can still adjust it to work but middle ring + small sprocket will rattle. Old pre STI front mechs work fine with MTB ****ers as do Nexave and new hybrid specific front mechs.

[Polar Bear]

If the MTB shifter is pulling too much cable maybe you can tweak it so that the adjustment is perfect on the middle ring and use the stop screws to ensure that the chain is not dragged over the top or bottom rings.   Must be worth some effort I would think.

[grant620]

quote:Originally posted by Polar Bear

If the MTB shifter is pulling too much cable maybe you can tweak it so that the adjustment is perfect on the middle ring and use the stop screws to ensure that the chain is not dragged over the top or bottom rings.   Must be worth some effort I would think.

If only.
I tried a million and one ways to "fix" it, but no such luck []

[Si Davies]

>>OK but contrary to Si Davies view the front MTB shifter pulls too much cable for the new STI road front mechs

I knew what I meant even if it didn't come out right []

[tynevalleycommuter]

If you are still working on the project - (!) On the subject of brake levers, I found that Shimano BL-R440 (SJS Straight bar/Other brake levers) pull about the right anount of cable and have the right amount of leverage to work with double pivot brakes (I'm using Tektro's) - although generally anything intended to work with cantilever brakes may be OK. V-brake levers don't work - I tried cos I found some cheap ones (pull too much cable/not enough leverage).

Did you get the front mech sorted?

[johny c]

I put drop bars and road STI's on a bike with Shimano LX mechs. To get the front mech to work I put the cable on the other side of the bolt (as others have said to reduce the effective length of the mech' arm) but this makes the action too heavy at the STI lever, even with the spring turned to the soft setting. To complete the bodge you have to (carefully) bend the return spring back to reduce the pressure. Sounds brutal but worked fine in the end.
I did the same job in reverse on a Giant ocr with triple chain set and Campag road mechs, put flat bars and XT rapidfires on. To my delight the camp' front mech indexed perfectly, but of course the rear one didn't. I put on a short cage XT mech and left the rear wheel with the Campag hub /cassette on, which indexed not perfectly but acceptably.