Rbonn

I have a ‘84 Trek 610 that I’d like to convert to a hybrid bike for camping. I have put a riser bar on it with brake levers, but the shifters are still on the down tube. What might I look for on eBay to allow me to have integrated brake levers and shifter on the bars?

I’m new at all of this and this forum has proved immeasurably helpful. Please forgive my ignorance.

bikemig 

Thumb shifters are preferable to the integrated bar levers and shifters. The cheapest by a long shot are the sunrace friction thumbshifters but the supply of these appears to have dried up during the pandemic. They are cheap and good if you can find a pair.

https://www.amazon.com/Sunrace-SLM10.../dp/B007QMJH86

You can also put up an ad in the WTB section of the C&V forum. If you look, there are some thumbies for sale there. But yeah get friction thumb shifters.

Velo orange sells these which will allow you to mount your downtube shifters on your handlebars but they are expensive:
https://velo-orange.com/products/vo-...unts-22-2-23-8

The 610 came stock with friction shifting. If you want to go indexing, shimano indexing thumb shifters are good but they'll have to match your freewheel (6 or 7). The old Deore shifters are very good and they have a friction option as well so they're a good choice when looking used.

scarlson 

If the shifters are original friction shifters (no clicks), you will be able to get some thumb shifters to mount on the bars, or some stem shifters to mount on the stem. Generally thumb shifters are more expensive, but I think they are better for two reasons: you can shift without moving your hand at all, and you don't bump them with your knees when standing up off the saddle to climb. Either way, you'll need some shifter cable housing and a clamp-on downtube cable housing stop to go in place of your current downtube shifters.

Edit: I see someone beat me to it! But I'll have to dissent and say I really didn't like the Sunrace thumb shifters (they kept slipping and "ghost shifting" for me), and for a few dollars more you can get some really world-class Suntour thumb shifters such as these (link pulled from ebay after 30 second search).

If you want to have indexed shifting (clicks) you'll probably have to replace the rear derailleur and freewheel and chain, but these can all be gotten cheaply. Then you can put on a Shimano "rapidfire" type trigger shifter on your riser bars. The benefit is convenience and ease of use. The drawback would be this system will much be less reliable and robust than friction shifting.

bikemig 

I just installed a set of the sunrace thumb shifters on a rockhopper I rebuilt for my nephew. I agree that they're not the greatest thumbshifter and there are better ones out there but for $10 or so bucks including all the cables and hardware, I thought they were pretty decent. In any case, the point is moot since the supply has dried up. But yeah the world needs more quality thumbshifters,

The Golden Boy 

I'd absolutely recommend thumb shifters for any sort of flat/upright bar setup.

This probably also means you need brake levers. Make sure you don't get levers for V-brakes and you should be OK. To be honest, the old Weinmann style brake levers would be fine- I just like totally overbuilt levers like the Shimano M700s...

Classtime 

If your new bars will take bar end shifters, you should go that route for maximum flexibility. You can put them on the drop bars later if you want. I haven't yet tried them but soon I will spring for Silver Shifters or the Dia Compes.

Chris Chicago

The older 610s had clamp on down tube shifters. Doesn't that complicate things?

Dfrost 

Clamp-on DT cable stops can still be found, like this one: