my commuter is an elderly cannondale f900 now running a 39/53 105 double chainset with an ultegra front mech. this never worked very well with the original LX rapidfire front shifter so I recently bought a l/h sram x9 gripshift expecting it to be non-indexed. turns out it is indexed and so still doest allow the trim adjustment I need

I’ve tried everything to get it to run acceptably but i’m convinced there’s a fundamental difference in either the chainring spacing or the pull ratio of road and mtb shifters

so, short of searching for some old xt thumbies, what’s the solution for road gearing on flat bars??

Shimano r440 flat bar shifters might be the thing.

Shimano SLR shifters will work. pricey though

I’ve got some 9spd shimano flat-bar shifters that came off of a flat bar road bike (running Tiagra front and back) that I’m getting rid of for £25 inc. postage. Good nick too. Think they’re R441’s. Let me know if you want them and I’ll get ’em sent.

thebullheart@gmail.com

Bullheart – I’m interested but need to confirm compatibility first.
Does anyone have experience of this combination?
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seems to suggest that the flat bar road shifters need to be used with sl-r440 mechs – surely that can’t be right?? This has the potential to become expensive and maybe I’d be better getting a £5 thumb shifter of a halfords special??

If you are running flat bar road shifters you should use the specific flat bar road front mech as well.

I have the front mech as well (not Tiagra actually, but definitely compatible as they came together), and I’m happy to chuck it in for an extra tenner. To be honest, there’s little chance of me using them again as I’m always on drops for the road.

Let me know.

From what I can gather, the deralieur is the unique part, seems the deralieur is set to work with flat bar shifters all of which are basically the same (so the sl-r400 shifter is the same as any other mtb shifter)

I’m going to have a go at using the existing deralieur using a poverty spec thumbshifter first but Irtysh doesn’t work I’ll drop you a line bullheart.

SL-R440 flat bar shifter is different cable pull to an MTB one. To get proper flat bar road shifting you need to use the shifter and mech together. SL-R400 is a downtube shifter.

No probs. I’ll bung it on the classifieds after I hear from you.

Success!! Perhaps a little Heath Robinson but it works, and I can trim as required. £4 delivered from eBay

Bullheart – thanks for the offer anyway.

Good work fella!

petrieboy I ended up doing the same thing after flat bar converting my roadie! Tried different indexed shifters and the trimming never worked, and also kept snapping the gear cable. The retro-style non-indexed lever works a treat! Managed 500 Scottish hilly miles on a single cable after that 🙂