sayochi

I have 7x3 geared old bike which i want to renovate (i dont know anything about bikes). I want to buy a new gear shifter and rear derailleur (oh my god i hope these terminologies are correct). I disassembled and reassembled my bike few times so i believe in myself when it comes to putting it together even tho i lack few important tools. My question is.. do i need to keep in mind some important information while buying a gear thingy? Like... do all gear shifters pull the same length of wire? Or can any rear derailleur work on any gear sized bike? Are there different kinds of shifters and rear derailleurs which requires other stuff/ wont work together? Any information or links to other posts is appreciated.

AdventureManCO 

First of all, welcome!

Second, if you've taken apart and rebuilt your bike before, you are no newbie! I try to learn something new every time I put a wrench to a bike.

The first question I have is about your reason for wanting a new shifter/derailleur. Is the current one not working well? Getting worn out? Skipping on the shifts, or not shifting quickly? Have you tried a cable/housing replacement? Is your current shifter an indexed (meaning 1 click = 1 gear shift) or friction? Typically, there are trigger shifters that you operate with your finger and thumb to shift, or grip shifters, which sit on the handlebar inward of the grips and you twist it to shift, sort of like a motorcycle throttle. Or, if it is a road bike, the shifting can be integrated into the brake levers. Knowing what you have will help others make good suggestions.


I believe Microshift makes a new 7 speed trigger shifter set - I *think* it is Shimano compatible, but I'm not sure. Shimano M315 is a new 7 speed shifter that is another option. Shimano Altus rear derailleurs (the ones with the bigger lower jockey wheel) look a bit clunky, but I've heard great things about them from more than one person. There are short cage and long cage derailleurs, and how big your cassette is (cluster of cogs on the rear wheel) may require the use of a longer cage rear derailleur. Many, many rear derailleurs can work w/ your setup. Depends on how fancy you want to go. If you want to go to a higher number of speeds, it will require more parts to change out and can get more complex.

With 10 posts, you can start putting pictures in your posts, and that would help a lot.

soyabean

My suggestion is for you to join a local cycling club where you can meet other DIY to get hands-on experience, especially if you need to use someone elses tools.

If your city is big enough, there might even been a LBS community co-op where it is staffed by friendly volunteers, and volunteers aren't focused on time and profit so they are more likely to explain stuff to others.

Iride01 

Keep most all the components of your shifting system from the same group and version. Then you won't have to worry so much about all the little specs that might bite you when you do mix and match of your components. Use road bike components for a road bike and mountain bike components for a mountain bike.
Yes, you need to start learning what the gear thingy's are called. Each component as a specific name. STI, Shift lever, front derailleur, rear derailleur. STI is actually a Shimano term, but it's used often to refer to the same thing that many also in a vulgar term call a brifter. <grin> And there are down tube shift levers and all sorts of other things you need to know so we know what thingy you are referring too.
Nope. Not always. But if you keep your components the same brand, model and year version then you won't have to worry much. If you do mix and match you have to be careful.
Yes. There is a lot of stuff that won't work together. That's why you need to learn how to read the specifications or keep everything in the same model and version.

It can get quite expensive to replace your shifting components depending on what your actual goal is. I've done it several times. However I've found out that it doesn't really improve the bike any. Even going from 8 speeds on the rear to 11 speeds on the rear, it didn't make the bike perform materially better. New bikes I've found are the best bang for your buck. But the experience of changing your components might benefit your DIY skills if you lean that way.

​​​​​​​Welcome to BF.

mpetry912 

all great comments. at least "brifter" only got used once.

if you are going to mix and match components, your likelyhood of success goes up with earlier generation components.

in other words, if you have a 12 speed cassette and want to run a 9 speed shimano "brifter" haha, using campagnolo Record 11 derailleurs, you are facing a challenging integration problem

keep your component versions within one standard deviation and you should be fine.

/markp

VegasTriker

Microshift makes good products and some of them are pretty inexpensive. You may be able to keep your current rear derailleur if it is a Shimano RD. The only brand the current Microshift 3X7 shifters work with is Shimano. You can see the choices for 3X7 is here: https://www.microshift.com/products/...ents/shifters/ Use the 7 speed filter. Then you need to take into account what type of handlebar you have. The twist and thumb shifters are inexpensive but the combination shifter and brake lever (brifter) gets pretty expensive. If your bike is older and entry level, stick to the cheaper choices. If you have the curved drop bars you may be limited to the expensive replacements.

soyabean

I'd like to hear from the OP as to why they think they need a new RD.

A lot of times, when clients have a shifting problem, they think it's because of their shifter, cable, chain, or the RD itself.

The RD can get bent out of alignment easily. One fall of a bicycle onto the drive side is all it takes.

Recently discussed here and how to fix it:
https://www.bikeforums.net/22937750-post7.html

LarrySellerz

The 7 speed shifter is supposed to work with a cassette with 7 rings on it, but you can mix and match. I have an 8 speed shifter with 9 rings on the cassette and it works fine.

kommisar

I would start with this page here:

https://www.sheldonbrown.com/speeds.html

When you have something you want to get come back here and the good folks here will reality check it for you...