robo

OK, so this might seem like a wacky combination, but it's where I've ended up in a comedy of errors trying to upgrade my wife's mountain bike.

Long story short, the bike had cheap integrated 8 speed shifter/brakes and horrid Tektro mechanical discs. I intended to upgrade the brakes with an old hydraulic Shimano M-396 set I had, so I bought the Acera 8 speed shifters to replace the integrated ones. Got it all installed and working great, then found out next morning that the old M-396 brakes leaked oil out the calipers. Went looking for replacements, and talked myself into buying her a modern Deore 6100 set, figuring better brakes are always a good thing. Then when came time to install, found that the brake levers and shifter pods don't fit together!

The Deore brake levers have a design that seems to be intended to accommodate a certain style of shifter pod in the gap between the clamp and the other bump by the lever pivot, where it also contacts the bar:

But the Acera shifters have silly gear indicator pods that get in the way:


So, figuring this is a cheap set of shifters anyway, nobody really needs those indicators, and my wife is asking why she can't use her bike, I took the ol' hacksaw to the pods, and amputated them.
So, great, now the shifter pod fits in the gap, but the triggers stick farther out than ideal, kind of interfering with your grip when you want to brake:




Those Rapidfire levers should be a half inch to the left, but if you put them on the other side of the brake lever clamp, they're too far over and you can't even reach the downshift one.

What next? Maybe this was a bad idea to start with, things just kind of snowballed

Trim the shift levers shorter?? Dump the Deore brakes and get something lower end with a more 'traditional' clamp design? Get rid of the wife? Tell me!

cobba

You should of bought the previous model Deore brakes.

https://bike.shimano.com/en-US/produ.../BL-M6000.html

robo

I'm beginning to think so too. I'm leaning towards selling the set I've got and looking for a set with a traditional clamp design. Now that I've slept on it, seems silly to put the effort into replacement when the ergonomics will be worse than before.

cpach

They redesigned the levers to have less physical flex between the lever body and the clamp. They work with most shifters, but they weren't thinking about that particular combo because the brakes and the drivetrain are at very different price/performance points. Current (ish, even) generation Shimano and Sram shifters at the enthusiast level have more evenly sized levers, and are usually mostly operated push-push (though you can pull on the downshift ever on Shimano still).

Looking at your photo, i'm not sure if I'd mind that setup. You do realize that those levers are essentially intended to be operated with one finger at the end of the lever, right? That gives a lot of room fo the shifters.

If the setup isn't working out then, yeah, I'd look at pretty much any Shimano brakes that aren't from the 12 speed generation, with Shimano i-Spec EV clamps.

robo

It definitely feels like the shift levers are sticking out too far, even if it's for 1 finger braking. Decided that rather than try it and see, i'd return the 6100s while they're still unused, and have ordered some older 6000 brakes with the traditional clamp.