bikemikemi

I had neck surgery and can no longer ride on drops. I want to install jones h bar on my Gunnar 10 spd campy bike. I have given up on any indexed option for a “flat bar” do not want to throw out campy derail, wheels , cassette..... out. If I find the Jones bars work, I’ll look to switching over to Shimano or sram.

If I buy micro shift thumbies and use in friction mode will they work. I assume it will not matter if I buy 8 spd , 9 spd , 10 spd, since I’m using in the friction mode.

Thanks-for the help

campy centaur triple 10 spd

noodle soup

Why not use a JTek Shiftmante, and Shimano shifters?

Jtek ShiftMate Gear Shifting Adapter for Shimano Campagnolo and SRAM components

delbiker1 

I use friction shifting on 8/9 cassettes that are on a bike with 6 speed 105 DT shifters and it shifts and operates with no issues. I cannot comment on Micro shift thumbies. I have not tried 10 speed on it, but I think the rear derailleur will not have enough travel to work. I am going to try it and see.

seypat

Post your question or have the mods move your thread to the C&V section. They can tell go over all of the options for you.

JohnDThompson 

In principle, friction shifting will work regardless of the number of cogs it has to cross. In practice, it's a little more complicated. The shifter barrel has to be big enough to pull enough cable to cross all the cogs. And the operator has to be dexterous enough to only move the lever just far enough to accomplish the desired shift. Both these issues are exacerbated by adding more cogs.

Friction shifting on an 8 or 9 cog cluster shouldn't be too difficult, but beyond that YMMV.

79pmooney

+1 Put them on and try them. At the worst, you cannot get into the big cog in back (not enough cable take-up with the lever pulled all the way back) or the shifting requires too much finesse. I currently am using SunTour Superb shifters (the DT shifters in a little box that sits on top of the DT) and an older Campy Mirage rear derailleur and the shifting is great though I do pull the lever back nearly 180 degrees for the big cog. (Shifting is great like - we would have thought we died and went to heaven with shifting that good when I was racing in the DT shifting days.)

If you do not like the shifting you get, you could research pull amounts (ie how much cable pull is required to shift one gear or the whole cassette) for various rear derailleurs and the drum diameter of various shifters. Bigger drum.more cable pull and less lever movement to shift. Nothing bad will happen from the world's worst mis-match except not being able to get the biggest cog(s) or having difficulty getting the gear you want. Friction shifters, especially DT shifters, can be found for cheap in bike shop used parts boxes. Old, no longer current index-worthy rear derailleurs don't cost a lot more. Find a shop with a good box of old stuff and play! It's fun! (Leave your chain long so you don't have to keep breaking it for different derailleur cages and just unscrew one idle pulley to swap out the derailleurs. The swaps are then easy. Chainring too short? Test the rear shifting on the inner chainring. Too long? Outer chainring. Once you have the combo you like, get the chain right.

Ben

Bluechip

I have 3 bikes that have friction shifters and I am running 10sp in the back. No problem at all for my setups. One has 105 down tube shifters in friction mode. One has old Suntour Sprint dt shifters (On both you do have to pull it back a lot further than I ever remember them going way back when, but it works). The other is on my Fargo with bar end shifters. These were originally 9sp but work just fine in friction mode for 10sp.

Dean V

Campag 10sp shifters for a TT bike? Effectively a bar end shifter.

ridelikeaturtle

As has already been said, the amt of cable pull to cover the range of gears is the top concern; the second concern would be the precision of your shifting and how easily you can hit the gear you want. I'd think the third concern would be matching the chain with the cassette spacing, I'd guess an 8-speed chain is probably too fat for a 10-speed cassette. Whether or not a 9-speed chain works on a 10-speed cassette, or 10-speed chain on 11-speed cassette, I don't know.

kansukee

I have not one but two bikes with Campy 11 spd and DT friction shifters and work great.

delbiker1 

If cyclists figure out that DT shift levers work really well in friction mode for 8 thru 11 speed I would guess that many would go to the DT levers. They sure are a lot less complicated to work on, and extremely durable. My set up with 9 speed cassette and 6 speed components shifts really quick and smooth. After using them for awhile the feel of lever travel just came back naturally. I find it hard to smoothly switch back and forth between DTs and brifters.

horatio 

I have older Shimano 600 DT friction shifters than work well with 8-speed cassettes. Haven't tried any 9 or 10-speeds.

banerjek

One of my bikes is friction 10 speed. I also run friction 9 speed on two of my 'bents (one of them downgraded from index)

Works great -- there are no precision or gear selection issues. In fact, I think I can actually shift a little better with friction than index. Indexed shifting is great because you can just throw a lever and not think about it. But with friction, you have a little more control and can achieve even better shifting if you pay attention.

RJM

I got a mtb using jones h bars and 10 speed friction mounted to Paul Thumbies...work fine.

indyfabz

+1. My 2011 Surly LHT is 9 speed. I can shift friction in the rear pretty easily. The one minor hitch is that sometime it's hard to go from the 34t to the 32t and get it exactly the first time. I sometimes over shift and end up in the next smallest cog. The LHT now comes standard with 10 speed (Microshift shifters, IIRC), so it probably works ok with that setup.