BradH

Over in the for sale forum I made the comment to save some non-functional 6208 shifters. The guts can be upgraded and you could have yourself some 9, 10 or even 11 speed Shimano downtube shifters. A couple people had questions so I thought it would just be easier to put it over here on a new thread.

As far as I know you can swap the shifting pods between 424, 6208, 7401, 7402, 7700 and 7900 DT shifters. The 9, 10 and 11 speed bar end shifter pods can be put into those DT shifter bodies I listed. There may be other models that I'm not aware of. I know that none of the 105, exage, 7+ speed 600 or RX100 shifters have the pods that swap.

Why would I do that? I just enjoy the simplicity of DT shifters. I have bar ends and STI shifters on some bikes but I've sort of come back around to enjoying DT shifters.

Top to bottom, 8 speed 7402, 9 speed 7700 and 10 speed 7900 bar ends. All the parts can be swapped around.

BradH

Now, for me, I'd have no reason to upgrade 8, 9 or 10 speed setups. But I had a set of 7401 7 speed shifters collecting dust. The setup they came off had gotten upgraded to 7402 shifters and I unlaced the 7401 hub from the rear wheel and laced a 7403 in. Well, as it turns out, with a small amount of metal removal 11 speed bar end shifter guts drop right into the 7401 shifter.

BradH

Add a 5800, 6800 or 4700 rear derailleur, 11 speed chain, 11 speed cassette, wheels and chainrings narrow enough for the new chain and you're set. The Allez wasn't getting ridden so I used it as a test platform.


14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 21, 23, 25, 28, 32


TA 52/36 chainrings on a MT60 crankset. This works well with the cassette I used.


Way too much black for me and I'm not crazy about unicrown forks but this thing really rides nice.

Reminds me of these guys.

RiddleOfSteel

I forget if you created a thread on how you did this or if it was a part of a different thread (at least I saw that part). How much metal and where did you have to remove it? Was it only for the right lever?

BradH

Right where the knife point is. That's where I removed a small amount of metal. There is a washer with two tabs that sits there. You need the 11 speed washer that will be in the 11 speed bar end shifter. When the shifter can be assembled with that washer in place enough material has been removed. I used a 1/8" or so carbide burr in a Dremel tool.

BradH

And yes, right shifter only. It's probably worth mentioning that although the pods can be swapped into the 6208 and 424 shifters, the left shifters for the front derailleur lack the spring return of the newer Shimano shifters like the 7401 etc. That's an easy fix if you have some light action 6 speed levers, or similar, laying around. Just steal the left lever.