G'Day Boys and Germs!

Newbie question of the week is this:

Can Shimano Shifters be run with SRAM rear derailleurs?

Answers on a postcard please!

My wife struggles with her SRAM shifters as she has tiny hands and the thumb/thumb action is not very easy for her so I wanted to swap them over for Shimano which is thumb/forefinger.

Thank you kindly for allowing me to pick the brains of the panel today!

Regards

Ben

No

Yes.

I mean no.

Yes but you'll shift up two gears at a time! Shimano shifters pull twice as much cable as sram shifters.

Modern SRAM pulls a different amount of cable to shimano but sram do make shimano compatible shifter. SRAM is 1:1 cable pull shimano is 2:1 or 1:2 I forget.

More info here

http://www.ctc.org.uk/desktopdefault.aspx?tabid=3946

The easy answer is no.

However, how about getting her to try some gripshift instead of trigger levers ?
My wife finds them much easier to use. Also gripshift can be bought that will work on either Sram or Shimano (but not both due to different cabel pull)

Surprised nobody's suggested your wife ditch the gears if she's struggling with them.

Shimano shifters pull twice as much cable as sram shifters.

isn't it the other way round ?

no, Sram are 1:1 pull, shimano are 2:1

Ok, I will take this as a no, then, and refit with a new rear (ahem! second hand from here) and new shifters (guess from where :wink:)

For me it is a win/win – I get to practice and learn about fitting gears and she will be happy.

vinnyeh – Member
Surprised nobody's suggested your wife ditch the gears if she's struggling with them.

Vinny – you laugh! She bloody well asked me what the funny thing hanging off the back of the wheel was!?

Gears, says I, easier to go up and down hills!

Dont be bloody stupid, says she, that's what my 4×4 is for! 😯

Mind you, took us a wee while to get her down blue runs on her snowboard so hope springs eternal she will get used to her gears and go up hill and down dale by next Summer………..

thank you very much to the regular panel of clever clogs – much appreciated!

Ben

SRAM pull more cable… Nick, you've got the ratio for Shimano the wrong way round.

It's actually obvious if you look at the point where the cable moves the mech from (SRAM's is much longer – 2 times so pretty much)

righty-ho… 😳