Modified gear shifter

[weirdfish]

I have a Shimano Tourney shifter at present that I find awkward to use when I'm using the throttle on my Alien Aurora so i thought I'd change it for the excellent value Altus shifter that I'm used to on my non assisted bike.

I now see why the bike is fitted with non rapidfire shifters, as the throttle grip gets in the way. However it still looked feasible if the up-shifter was longer and the down-shifter's thumb pad was below the lever.

I've come up with a working prototype that now clears the throttle but still presents the shifters in a comfortable & usable position. I've only done a rough job with the rivets at present which I'll redo once I'm happy with the positioning in real use.

 

[Scimitar]

Well done; very interesting mod.
I suspect I might have to do something similar.

 

[jbond]

My old hybrid has the old style rapidfire shifter combined with the brake. It's got a trigger change up above the bar and a push lever, change down below the bar. I wonder if that style would fit round the throttle.

 

[weirdfish]

The problem with the throttle grip is two fold. Firstly is the bulky section that houses the throttle components that positions the shifter too far away for the levers to be where they need to be, and secondly the bulky throttle cable exit just simply gets in the way. A combined brake/shifter would probably be better as it would sit next to the throttle as opposed to my case where the shifter has the brake bracket, then the throttle. However, due to the extra bulk at the inner end of the throttle the levers may still be too short.

When I changed the front brake to the Juicy 3.5 I did look at which systems offered a combined brake shifter, however, there was nothing available that suited the 7 gear set up. I could have changed the gears at the back but I dint want to get too involved with the gearing at that point. Famous last words!