kansukee

I posted this in the road forum and someone suggested I should post here as well...this is my ‘85 Fuso running Athena with Dia-Compe Ene Ciclo 11 dt shifters. Next step will be to install a set of NOS Athena aero brake levers with QR and replace the bars stem with Cinelli XA stem and Criterium bars.

shoota 

Man I set up friction 11s once and it was terrible. The cogs are so close together that each shift required a post-shift finessing to get it silent. It sucked.

caloso

I was wondering about the fine tuning. I have 9-speed DA friction shifting on my TT bike and that works fine, but was wondering what would happen if I went 10 or 11.

CliffordK

I've done some experimenting with 11s & (augmented) friction shifting. Shifting seems to work reasonably well, but I've had a bit of an issue with getting enough lever throw.

The vintage Suntour Bar End shifters came up short with my config.

The vintage Shimano bar end shifters had adequate throw, but had too much spring on the high gear end, and not enough spring tension on the low gear end. Both ways, it didn't hold the lever in place.

For brake levers, Campagnolo makes a carbon lever equivalent to their 9/10s brifters.

kansukee

It’s been surprisingly good so far (56) miles, no issues with having to overshift and trim. I just move the lever a bit till I feel the gears change and that’s it. These have a larger barrel on the right lever if it makes any difference.

repechage

The ene cyclo lever with the oversized cable sheave should help quite a bit.

SurferRosa

Is that the way this works, with the larger shifter barrel?

Spaghetti Legs 

That's a gorgeous bike! I've never seen those shifters before' I like the look. I have a 3T status stem on one of my bikes and like it but the gray finish and weird plastic cap turn me off. The XA stem will complement the bike nicely. Icing on the cake would be a silver Athena crank.

fietsbob

gaps are very narrow with 11 in the width of 8.. I stuck with 6 and maybe 7 with out issues..

yea bigger lever capstan diameter pulls more length sun tour bar end
shifting Campag Euclid over 6 speed width is what I match as full swing of the lever..

Touring triple ,

Reynolds 

That's a really nice frame.

kansukee

All I know so far is that with Athena 11 it shifts perfectly fine. No need to trim, nothing like that. Maybe earlier RDs were pickier about this though...

kansukee

I hear you about the silver crank. They have become very hard to find in UT and all I have seen are either 50/34 or with 175mm crank arms...😕

fietsbob

I;ts all hand feel

I had a 3 cubed , 3 shift lever bike in 1957,

3 speed IGH, 3 cog cluster + a triple crank, 27 speed..

shoota 

Good looking bike!

Eric S.

Yeah, I tried it with 9sp for awhile and it didn't work for me for the same reason.

Revracer

I tried something similar last year with 10 speed 11-36 Sunrace freewheel with Suntour barcons and a Suntour VX RD. The clicks in the barcons are 1-3 clicks per gear change (3 in the higher gears) but it doesn't require re-centering.

Kuromori

I suspect it has to do with how clunky shifting from the cassette/chain combo is and personal tolerance for clicks is. A very slick shifting chain/cassette combo shifts quietly and shifts easily, then wants to shift out of gear easily at the shift gate, and overall doesn't give very positive feedback. Some people also don't notice the ticking every wheel revolution when the chain moves off center slightly at the shift gate and touches the next cog and don't feel it's worth trimming if they even notice. Even on index systems you see a lot of people that need a half turn of the barrel adjuster but they don't notice the ticking.

Curious what the lever throw in the biggest cog is though.

kansukee

Just finished a 28 miler group ride, so far I’m impressed by how smooth this thing is. I haven’t experienced any issues whatsoever, maybe I am doing something wrong? 😄

rccardr 

Ought to work just fine. I've used 6207 friction shifters with 10 speed for years, including several times at Eroica.
11 speed can't be any more difficult.
Just takes a gentle hand and a little finesse...

Dr.Lou

Haha
I need post shift finessing with 5/6 speed cassettes. Been that way since I was a kid

shoota 

Ha! Drives me nuts. I'm not old school enough to like friction shifting. It's hard to use di2 and then use friction lol

robertorolfo

Would you consider Centaur to have the silver color? I've seen a few of them for sale online, and they look surprisingly good in person (the finish is great).

kansukee

Well, I built a Cinelli SC frameset with silver Potenza so now I do have that silver crankset from the old bike. Just need to get around to changing it. By the way, is anyone interested in a gently used Ultrashift Athena group with carbon 53/39 UT crankset in 172.5mm with carbon levers and silver derailleurs? I don't think the group has 600 miles on it...

robertorolfo

Might be. Am I allowed to ask for the price here?

ryansu

IF it works for you keep doing it- sounds like its going well, keep riding and smiling and you can tell people It goes to 11 lovely bike btw