I’ve been pondering how to get drop bars + cable mtb disc brakes (bb7) + gear shifter working. From experience a 9spd road sti shifter will work a 10spd mtb rear mech. But the road shifter will not work cable mtb brakes. So i’m currently thinking bar end shifter on the end of the right drop. BUT with a flared drop it will stick out a fair way.

Hmmmm…. Any ideas? Is there a way to mount thumb shifters in-board on the drops?

Why not get road BB7’s? Or do you already have the brakes?

Already got the brakes on the bike, plus I have some drop bar brake levers for them for when it was a singlespeed.

I suppose a set of 2nd hand road bb7’s and sti’s would be one way to solve the problem!

I want to know what this chap did:

Pauls components do a thumbshifter mount for drop bars, not cheap though. Charlie the monger of bikes does them i believe.

want to know what this chap did

He drank long and deep from the crazy juice

Is there a way to mount thumb shifters in-board on the drops?

Anything wrong with Gevenalle’s offerings (other than price, maybe)?

IIRC SRAM Road/MTB 10 speed has the same pull so you can run road leavers with a mtb rear mech, road BB7’s would be required.

Shifters from a thread here drop bar thumbies

I used 10sp sti levers with bb7 road calipers and 9sp rear mech, works ok just wish i ciuld fit a clutch mech.

The bb7 road calipers do make a difference.

Thanks Ontor! So they’re just a pair of thumb shifters mounted under the drops. I quite like the look if that.

Thanks all for your comments.

10spd Sram brifters, road bb7 and cluth mech are your best option probably. Worth remembering that with thumbies on drop bars (and bar-end shifters), you can only change gear from one position, which isn’t always helpful. The gevenalle ones you have to be on the hoods to change, and ones mounted nearer the drops mean you have to be in the drops to change. You’re basically prioritising the ability to use a v-brake drop lever, over the ability to change gear easily in multiple positions.

I used a 31.8 band on front mech mount like this;

And modded an old 10speed SLX shifter (cut part of the original mount off with a hacksaw, leaving the threaded section on the shifter).
Cost was about 4quid from eBay…
Canecreek levers from crc were about £25 and work well with the Trp discs I have.
Using 1×10 – 40t on the front and 11-42 on the back gives offroad ability but spins out at about 25mph on the road (I usually tuck at this point anyway).

I had been using a Dia-comp thumb shifter, but it needed the full sweep of the shifter rotate to work with the mtb mech, as a result it interrupted hand position on the bars when in the mid portion of the block.

I had the same conundrum. An old set of Deore 9 speed shifters and a pair of really old drop bar brakes (just for the bar clamp) and a few minutes with a hacksaw and file:

Worked well. That photo shows the RH shifter on the left. I did work it to get the shifters the correct way round eventually but I don’t seem to have a picture of that. You get the idea though…

I bought one of those bar extender things to attach my Alfine shifter when I was playing about with drop bars.

[url=https://flic.kr/p/R2XtDp]DSCF7893[/url] by Stephen Williams, on Flickr

Worked OK, but would buy a better bracket, that one flexed a little too much.

I want to know what this chap did:

Pic from another angle

Basically put the brake levers on first, mount the shifters as close as possible next then cover everything with bar tape.

This looks quite neat to but dont know where the mounts are from

Or a third option(suntour Command post butterfly shifters)

Plenty of folk riding the reaver with flared drops and bar ends.

They seem to have coped just fine.

Mine werent flared but bar ed shifter are great.

As I have said before, go to the CTC/cuk forum and look for the Kellys takes offs thread