If y'all are interested, I will throw a retrofriction on my Vitus and see if it can shift the Cyclone M2 through 9 speeds. I will also measure the cable pull. Might be a week or two before I get around to it though.
Enlarging the barrel won't be easy. The aluminum they're made of is probably not easily weldable and metal epoxy seems chintzy and slapdash.
__________________
Owner & co-founder, Cycles René Hubris. Unfortunately attaching questionable braze-ons to perfectly good frames since about 2015. With style.