louky

I have been picking up some low cost bikes on Marketplace, making repairs, and donating them to a local charity. They are using biking as a tool to reconnect kids in the system and their parents. Often, these bikes just need tires/tubes and some adjustments. I have been getting parts from Amazon.

I have two bikes right now that need rear derailleur shifters and both have five cogs. Bear in mind, these are low end bikes with low end components. The shifters were basically rotted away. The goal is to get these kids onto ridable bike at the lowest cost point, with the understanding that they probably won't be well treated or maintained.

There are plenty of choices for low cost 6/7 speed shifters, but I guess the 15 speed setup didn't last long enough for the aftermarket to gear up for the 5 speed rear shifters. I did order some friction shifters. Amazon.com : 1 Pair of Mountain Bike Thumb Shifter Set 3X 5/6/7 Speeds, Bicycle Friction Shifters, Combo with 59" - 79" Inner Shift Cable, Black : Sports & Outdoors which I am hoping will work.

I also found this at a slightly higher price. Amazon.com : Sunrace M2 Twist Shifter Shifter Sunrace Hb Tsm21 Twist 5s Rh Gy : Sports & Outdoors

Any other suggestions for a low cost solution?

dsbrantjr

Friction shifting is the way to go for this kind of situation, works with pretty much whatever else you have on the bike. No fiddly indexing adjustments and you can easily trim the front if needed.

Andrew R Stewart 

Some (most) of the copy cat not Shimano drivetrains on the low cost big box bikes are so poorly manufactured that even when new don't shift well with their indexed shifters. But subbing in friction thumb shifters and the low cost stuff can work, sort of OK. At the nonprofit I help at we replace indexed twist grip shifters with friction thumb ones routinely. Andy

Crankycrank

+1 for all mentioned above. I would go with the thumb shifters over the twist shifters as they're much easier to service if a cable breaks and easier for a young rider to work on or slightly less expensive to get it done at a shop.

louky

Here is a shifter that I have on my early Trek 7200. I always found these easy to use for me. I guess that it's not friction but also not indexing, at least it doesn't have a position indicator. I can't seem to find any low end duplicates of this type of shifter, but it seems like it would work in a 5 cog situation?

bboy314

I agree that cheap friction thumb shifters are the best choice for this application, but technically any Shimano compatible 6 or 7 speed shifters should work with 5 speed as well.

louky

I was wondering about that. If you were going to use one of these, how would you do it? Would you just adjust the limit screws so that only 1 through 5 would be available and you just wouldn't be able to go into 6?

Andrew R Stewart 

Indexing has nothing to do with a visual indicator. The imaged shifter is most defiantly an indexed design, and only has indexed movement.

One can cycle the shifter through its range and easily count the number of cogs it is made for (4 clicks is 5 positions, 10 clicks is an 11 cog version). So how many cogs/clicks does this shifter have? Do know that each cog count has its own der movement per click spec and that a 5 cog set has a different cog to cog (center to center) dimension. Mixing a 5 cog set with a 6 cog shifter usually will not work well through the whole range, as the c-c differences add up with each additional shift. Andy

bboy314

Yes, you can just use the limit screws. 5, 6 and 7 speed Shimano shifters pull the same amount of cable per click. However, if the freewheels, chains and derailleurs you’re working with are extremely low quality, it may never feel great and so friction shifting would be an easier way to go.

louky

Before I asked this question on the forum, I ordered a set of these, based on the description that they were suitable for 5/6/7 cogs. I received them today. They are (of course) cheaply made. They have 14 positions on both left and right side with a slight detent at each position. From all the posts I have received on this question I surmise that these probably won't work satisfactorily. The bike this is going on actually had an indexing shifter on the RD and a matching friction shifter on the FD. Amazon.com : AUROR Bike Speed Shifter 1 Pair Thumb Gear Shifters Trigger Set 3X 5/6/7 Speed with Stainless Steel Inner Shift Cable for Mountain Road Bike MTB : Sports & Outdoors

Bill Kapaun

IF the RDER is set up correctly, the limit screws will prevent any shifts into space. It doesn't know how many speeds the front shifter is.

JoeTBM 

We agree with other posters that friction is the way to go.

Those red/black twist shifters are really almost a friction type as the cable pull between clicks are small. Here is another vendor for them and priced at under $7 a set shipped when buying 4 or more https://www.ebay.com/itm/292199954848 quite a bargain considering they come with new grips to work with. We have installed them on a number of 5-speed RDER bikes with no complaints, they work better then they look.

We have purchased and tried all that you found for our volunteer shop but another is a Sunrace thumb friction shifter https://www.ebay.com/itm/374200948548 . We finds these a little bit more durable then the black plastic one (metal handle and body) and at under $10/pair shipped (when buying multiples) they fit our budgeting philosophy.

Last, if you are a 501c3 shop, you can set up your ebay/paypal accounts for tax-exempt purchases.

louky

JoeTBM: Thanks for the reply and links. I need to start checking Ebay as well as Amazon for some of these items. I'm glad to hear you have had some success with the shifters I mentioned. The Sunrace shifters you pictured look more robust than the plastic ones. I also like the looks of the Sunrace with the exposed screw and clip.

Right now I am just one person helping one organization and pretty old so I don't think there is a 501c3 in my future. My budget is me, and that is why I am chasing dollars on each of these bikes. If I can save a few dollars on each, it just represents "another" bike I can do.

BTW, I took a look at the Bikemen of Flagler County website and was impressed. Having donated bikes would be a dream for me. I am not paying that much for the bikes I am getting, but the travel to get them (time and travel expense) is a drag.

Off topic, can someone tell me the steps to do quote feature on this forum? I am not savvy on the computer, so if you could explain it with that in mind it would be great.

70sSanO

Others have already indicated using a 6 speed index shifter with a 5 speed freewheel. The only thing you would need to do is block off the final shift with the limit screw.

The reason behind this is the cog to cog spacing for both 5 and 6 speed freewheels is 5.5mm.

Generally 5 speed freewheels fit into rear dropouts that were 120mm wide. Dropouts for 6 speed grew to 126mm. Thus the extra cog widened the OLD of the rear hub. From that point on, though, mfg kept trying to stuff more gears into a limited space so the cogs were placed closer together; even with more modern 130mm rear spacing.

John

louky

Thanks John. My mind is (slowly) grasping this. Everyone has been very helpful on this thread and it is appreciated.

70sSanO

Basically the shifter pulls a set amount of cable and that causes the rear derailleur moves over a certain amount to index the gears; provided the RD is index compatible. It is the cog center-to-center relationship that matters.

Here is the reference that has been used for years.
https://www.sheldonbrown.com/cribsheet-spacing.html

John

JoeTBM 

You are never too old to do this. We advertise on Facebook and few local forums (Nextdoor comes to mind). I use to fund the parts myself and from $ donations but we are buying about $15,000 a year in parts so we started to sell a few bikes to help pay for the new parts. Steel and aluminum scrap is sold to the local recycler and that money also goes back into our parts fund. We have a local bar that allows us to run raffles to sell off the higher end bikes and that has proven to work for us. We work for many charity and service groups so our word keeps spreading including boosts from PR courtesy of our Sheriff's Office. There are many opportunities out there, just need to is what works in your area.

Bill Kapaun

You probably have a very different device, but my 12 yo Windows 7 Pentium laptop w/Firefox gives a quote button (Red Arrow)c