SoCaled 

Was this a thing? Prototype mountain integrated shifter? Custom job by the owner?
https://losangeles.craigslist.org/sf...568727664.html

Ironfish653

Other than the rear wheel; that bike looks pretty original and unmolested. No extra scratches on the bar from previous shifter mounts, and a lot of 'recreational' 80s MTBs had tall gooseneck stems like that.

Behold: our own BikeForums provides the answer; it's an OE SunTour setup from c. 1989 : Combo Suntour MTB lever/thumb shifter unit?

So, yes, probably the original equipment

dedhed

​​​​​​https://www.disraeligears.co.uk/site...7_scan_30.html

​​​​​​https://www.disraeligears.co.uk/site...7_scan_36.html

​​​​​​https://www.disraeligears.co.uk/site...7_scan_34.html

clubman 

Shimano made an Exage Mountain group where the shifters attached to the levers and couldn't be mounted without the proprietary bracket. Still integrated imo.





Exage Country was similar.

Soody

Yep there's a 'mountain LX' group that's like that as well. Can be deceptive because it kinda looks like XT, but ime it's heavy and sloppy and the brake levers are plastic crap.

canklecat

Yup, my early 1990s Univega Via Carisma came with an Exage CX 500 group that included an all-indexed thumb shifter for the front and rear derailleurs. No option for friction shifting. The indexed front shifter worked well for awhile. Eventually I had to replace it with a low end but functional SunRace friction shifter. The other shifter for the rear derailleur failed after I was hit by a car while I was on that bike.

I think these were a variation of the Shimano Rapidfire shifters. The shifter pods had to be bolted onto plates extending from the brake levers. The plate extensions were drilled and tapped for the shifter pods. This placed both of the two-lever shifter pods under the handlebar, which was more intuitive for me. The longer lever helped with the upshifts against spring tension. The smaller thumby just relieved tension a notch at a time, so it didn't need as much leverage.

There was no other way to mount the shifters, although a machinist or handyperson could fabricate a mount to clamp onto a handlebar with the same drilled and tapped plate.

Unfortunately the shifters became balky several years ago and are sitting in a junk bin in case I ever decided to tackle restoring them. But I've long since switched to bar end shifters, which work nicely with the albatross swept bars I got to replace the original flat and riser bars that usually came with that type of rigid mountain bike that would now be called a hybrid..

Schweinhund

Is this a 1989 super grizzly? That looks like celeste green spatter.

Soody

I wish.
It's an emmelle dolomite.

Schweinhund

If it was lugged, it would be the splitting image. I like what you did with it.
Those shifters above, internally they are the same as the deore, there's a screw on the bottom that attaches them to the brake levers, they will mount on deore lever brackets.