bowwow

Hi everyone, In 1992 I bought a Miyata 700GT with the intention of using it for a cross country tour. I began training on the bike but had to give it up due to health issues. The bike, which has less than 5 thousand miles on it, has spent most of the past 30 yrs, sitting or hanging, in Michigan unheated garages.
I'm planning on making a few modifications to the bike and then use it for local, regional, and maybe statewide touring.

First and most important issue is handlebars. I thought that it would be a simple project to replace the original drop bars with low risers and replace the Suntour bar-end shifters with some good quality trigger shifters. After a fair amount of research, it seems as though I was wrong about the simple: aspect of it all. My research results suggest that If I want to keep the Suntour index shifting working properly, I would need to keep all components of the 3x7 Suntour XCE drive train including the shifters. Is this correct?

Hopefully, there are users that have knowledge about this old Suntour setup, I would appreciate any advice you can give.

John Nolan 

If you don't mind friction shifting your options are wider. Friction thumb shifters are nice on low rise bars.

bowwow

Right, I do understand about the friction shifter option. I really like index shifting and want to keep it. I am even considering putting the barcons in the ends of the risers. However, ideally, I would like to have bar-mounted, trigger index.

Prowler 

Another possibility is a hybrid thumb shifter system. Friction front and index for the rear. I have Deore thumbies on my dropped mtn bike. Friction front is easy to live with. Friction rear would need the shifter and, probably a compatible FW or cassette as cog spacing is critical. I'm not sure you would need a new RD as the RD just does what it's told. However if the "cable pull" on the shifter does not work with the Suntour RD then you would need to change that too. Just go all Shimano for the rear and get on with it. Such stuff could be easy to find at a co-op/bike kitchen. Or buy a cheap mtn bike and swap the parts over.

BTW: the old 7spd Deore index thumbies probably have a "mode lever". If the index shifting gets wonky, as mine did recently, just change the mode to friction to get you home. Nice feature.

bowwow

Oh, your thoughts on the hybrid thumb shifter are good. The bike, and its components, have a fair amount of sentimental value to me and I would like to keep things as original as I can, while still being practical. The Suntour components have very few miles on them and I feel a certain obligation towards the ppl who designed and built them years ago. An obligation to get some use out of them.

Your idea of an index thumb shifter that can easily switch to friction mode would certainly be satisfactory. Thank you for that thought. And if you or anyone else knows just which shifter would work, please advise.

I'm also thinking about using the Suntour barcons in the riser bars. Does anyone have experience with that?

John Nolan 

You do know that most riser bars won't accept the barcons, right? The bars' interior diameter is usually too small.

Some bars will work, but right now I can't think of which ones.

Pompiere

A taller stem, such as a Nitto Technomic or a Soma Sutro, might raise your original bars up high enough for your comfort, then you could keep the original shifters and brake levers. The Technomic has about 2 inches of extra height, the Sutro about 1 inch. They are around $40-50.

The Golden Boy 

I assume you’re aware that the pull ratios with Suntour indexing (Accushift) is different from Shimano indexing (SIS) which is different from early Dura Ace indexing…

There’s people who play all kinds of mix n match games- I like keeping an indexing system as together as I can. Pairing Accushift shifters with an Accushift derailleur. I don’t know about the robustness of Accushift trigger shifters- The ones I’ve seen are farther down the hierarchy- but trigger shifters from like the XCE group are available.

If’n it were me putting shifters on flat bars- I’d change to XC Pro thumbshifters.

bowwow

Thank you, I do recall reading about instances where the barcon would not fit a typical riser bar. Some people talked about having the dia. enlarged. Some ppl even said that they had done it themselves with a file !! If I were to decide on the barcons in the risers, I would be more than willing to have the bars machined or whatever.
I also considered welding a piece of tubing onto the riser bars so that the barcons could be mounted in a position like thumb shifters would be. The problem with that idea is, once I weld a piece of tube to the bars, I cant remove them from the quill stem. Thoughts on that dilemma would be appreciated!

Germany_chris

Paul Components makes converters to convert barcons to thumb shifters, If the square is the same size as Shimano, Microshift, or SRAM that's the route I'd go.

https://www.paulcomp.com/product-cat...ing-solutions/

bowwow

Do you know the name of the XCE trigger shifters that would work with my drivetrain? I have not been able to find any.

bowwow

The Paul thumb shifter mounts were an option however, first off I do not understand how they can work. I've been having a hard time visualizing how you go from a vertical lever to a horizontal lever. Secondly, they are almost ridiculously expensive, although I might spend the money if they were available. They are totally out of supply. I need to get this project done within the next few weeks.

bowwow

I appreciate the suggestion. I've already experimented with raising the present bars, It's not going to work. I need some risers.

John Nolan 

Really, I think you'd be better off hunting for a bar that accepts barcons.

Might randonneur bars work, and possibly a longer stem, as suggested by Pompiere?

bowwow

I have experimented with longer stem lengths. I don't think that randonneur bars would change much.

Do you have any suggestion as to a way to find a 30mm riser bar with the needed interior diameter?

dweenk

Velo Orange has i or 2 models of flat/low-rise bars that may work for you.

70sSanO

The simple solution to what you want is to get some 3x7 Suntour Xpress shifters. They were Suntour’s version of Shimano’s Rapid Fire.

They used to be dirt cheap as they never competed well against Shimano. Now they are quite expensive and maybe not as good as Shimano’s current lower level M310/M315.

You will need to research The compatibility to your Suntour components. There are Suntour catalogs online, and maybe older threads, that might help.

Ebay is your source for Suntour Xpress shifters.

John

John Nolan 

If you don't mind changing the stem there are a few options I know of, none of them your typical riser bars:
Eagle Bar
Far Bars
Nitto Losco

John Nolan 

EBay shifters

Looong shipping time!

beicster 

What kind of riser bar are you looking for? Nitto Albatross (expensive) and Soma Oxfords (cheaper version of Albatross) accept bar end shifters. I have used that set up many times. If you are looking for bars that are more traditionally used with mountain bikes, you will probably have to look into modifications.

Germany_chris

They’re not really out of stock you’ll get them in a few weeks I’m sure. If you can’t visualize how they work they’re probably not for you.

bowwow

Thank you, John

If Suntour Xpress shifters would work, Id jump on them. A quick search tells me that they are comparable to Shimano Rapid Fire. I love Rapid fire! Would love to have a comparable shifter. Until I heard from you, I had not heard anything other than Suntour won't work properly without Suntour.

It appears as though I can get some Suntour Xpress shifters.

I wouldn't hold you to it, but... are you confident that they would work well with the drive train I have described?

bowwow

Thank you Andy, I am not looking for bars. I am changing bars but have already ordered. Thank you for the help

bowwow

Thank you very much for your input.

70sSanO

I’m not confident at all because Suntour had 2 different 7 speed freewheel/cassette spacings. One was the Ultra with standard 5.0mm and one was MicroDrive which was a 4.8mm/5.0mm spacing mix (according to Sheldon Brown).

But what I would do is Google Suntour catalogs from the early 90’s and try to figure out the RD/Shifter/Cassette compatibility.

If you can use a Shimano freehub, you can technically space a 7 speed Shimano, or compatible, HG cassette to whatever you need. Plus you can continue your setup with replacement Shimano compatible cassettes for as long as your shifters keep working.

John