Road tripple options..?

[thecaptn]

Hi All,
I'm currently running SLX tripple on my road tourer, this allows me a climbing gear combo of 22t ring to 36t cassette. Id like to change to drop bars, can anyone recomend a tripple road set which could give me the same ratios?
Pete

[singlespeedscott]

No road triple from Shimano or Campagnolo cones with anything lower than a 30. SRAM only does compacts with wide range cassettes. I would suggest if you want to keep the range I would fit some barend shifters to the drop bars. For touring they are perfect.

[cameronp]

If your current cassette is 9-speed, Shimano Sora STI levers will work fine with MTB gears and derailleurs. The only potential problem may be the brakes - road and MTB brake levers pull a different amount of cable. There are gadgets out there that will fix that, or you can replace the brakes.

The cheapest, and guaranteed-to-work, option is what singlespeedscott suggested: bar end shifters and separate brake levers. You can get drop bar brake levers that work with either MTB or road brakes. Make sure you get the right kind!

[Top_Bhoy]

Are you looking for something like this? http://www.spacycles.co.uk/products.php ... 0s109p2657

You could do worse than trying to email or phone these guys in the UK for help on what combos work and what doesn't for your touring needs.

[thecaptn]

Thanks guys, it's 10 speed. I'll go the bar end shifters and appropriate brake levers or maybe change to centre pulls.

I've never played with them before, this will be a new experience.

cheers,
Pete

[Duck!]

9 or 10-sp? If it's 9, then just lob a set of 3500 Sora levers on & you're laughing. If it's 10-sp, it's a little trickier, but not an impossibility. Do NOT!!!! get 4700 Tiagra; they work on a different leverage ratio to any other 10-sp stuff (suspected but not confirmed the same as road 11-sp.). Any other Shimano 10-sp. shifter set will be fine, but it needs to be paired to a "9-sp." MTB derailleur to get the right leverage; MTB 10-sp. is also different.... Bar-end shifters will also dictate a change in derailleur.

As far as brakes, mini-V, cantliever and road disc (and of course normal calipers) are all OK with brifters, but regular long-arm V brakes & MTB cable discs won't work.

[thecaptn]

Just to confirm, the current setup on the bike is Shimano 3x10 mtb. I could Frankenstein it with sram r/h brifter to GX rear deralier and put the mtb front shifter in the center of the bars?

[Duck!]

SRAM shifter & derailleur will work, as their 10-sp. road & MTB stuff uses the same leverage ratio, and sprocket spacing is the same as Shimano.

Either way you need to do both shifter & derailleur, because the Shimano 10-sp. MTB RD won't talk to anything else, but a 9-sp. is fine with the 10-sp. road shifter.

[thecaptn]

9-sp. is fine with the 10-sp. road shifter.

And this will still give you 10 speeds?

[Espresso_]

I would suggest if you want to keep the range I would fit some barend shifters to the drop bars. For touring they are perfect.

I would support this.

If you don't want/like bar ends, other options include:
- Other kinds of shifters, such as Gevenalle "integrated" shifters or Paul Thumbies
- Drop bars that take MTB shifters such as the Soma Gator

E

[Duck!]

9-sp. is fine with the 10-sp. road shifter.

And this will still give you 10 speeds?

Yes, the gear count is in the shifter. MTB 7/8/9-sp derailleurs & road 7/8/9/10-sp. derailleurs all work on a leverage ratio of 1.7 - the derailleur moves 1.7 times the length of the cable pulled by the shifter, regardless of the number of gears. The indexing just breaks the cable pull into smaller bites to suit the closer sprocket spacing. Shimano MTB 10-sp derailleurs work on a ratio of 1.2, so paired to a road shifter won't swing far enough. Or to put it the other way, to cover the same sprocket space, it needs a shifter that pulls more cable.

[singlespeedscott]

Nothing stopping the use of a straight friction shifting barend. This way you have no need to worry about cable pull.

[Duck!]

Nothing stopping the use of a straight friction shifting barend. This way you have no need to worry about cable pull.

Yes you do. It'll run out of travel before the derailleur has gone across the cassette.

A 10-sp. cassette is 35mm wide between 1st & 10th sprocket centres. A derailleur with leverage of 1.7 needs 20.6mm of cable pull to cover the distance. A MTB 10-sp derailleur with leverage of 1.2 needs 29.2mm of cable to cover the same distance. A bar-end shifter, which pulls just a whisker over 20mm (to allow some tolerance) will run out of travel by about the 7th gear if coupled to the MTB derailleur.

[thecaptn]

Just for arguments sakes, I have a 9 speed cassette at home. I could match this to a 9 speed Shimano mtb rear deralier and Sora 9 speed brifters yes? Would I need to change the 10 speed crankset and/or front deralier to work with the Sora brifter? Will the 9 speed cassette work on the 10speed freehub?

[Duck!]

All hunky dory, just chuck a 9-sp chain in to complete the package - it's widr to suit the wider sprocket spacing (9 & 10-sp cassettes are the same total width). If you're specifically after a 36T, although they exist they're not common on 9-sp. I'd also recommend a Shadow type RD (like you currently have, but for 9-sp) to suit the 36, as the regular type doesn't quite have the clearance.

[cameronp]

A 10-sp. cassette is 35mm wide between 1st & 10th sprocket centres. A derailleur with leverage of 1.7 needs 20.6mm of cable pull to cover the distance. A MTB 10-sp derailleur with leverage of 1.2 needs 29.2mm of cable to cover the same distance. A bar-end shifter, which pulls just a whisker over 20mm (to allow some tolerance) will run out of travel by about the 7th gear if coupled to the MTB derailleur.

Great explanation, cheers! My thinking had been along the same lines as singlespeedscott's.

[ironhanglider]

How much cable do Campag brifters pull?

Cheers,

Cameron

[Blakeylonger]

How much cable do Campag brifters pull?

a question for another place. Varies over the models.

http://blog.artscyclery.com/science-beh ... atibility/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Duck!]

How much cable do Campag brifters pull?

a question for another place. Varies over the models.

http://blog.artscyclery.com/science-beh ... atibility/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Thanks for posting the link, saves me digging around for it again.

For the sake of sanity, leave Campag out of it!

Here goes anyway.... Campag brifters pull a total of 25.5mm, with a derailleur ratio of 1.5, on a cassette width of 38.25mm. Aside from the fact that none of those figures align with any Shimano stuff, the sprocket spacing, and resultant indexing is actually different at various points through the cassette!

So let's keep it within the Shimano family....

All road rear derailleurs for 10-sp and less - with the notable exception of new 4700 Tiagra - and all MTB rear derailleurs for 9-sp. and less use the 1.7 leverage ratio. Therefore any shifter and any derailleur from this lot will work together; only the shifter and the cassette need to match the number of gears. Although there are slight differences in overall width between 8, 9 & 10-sp. cassettes, derailleurs have considerably more range of travel than is needed, to allow for different hubs having different lateral offsets.

Road 11-sp (+ probably [still 10-sp] 4700 Tiagra, but TBC) with leverage ratio of 1.4, MTB 10-sp. at 1.2 & MTB 11-sp. at 1.1 are all their own little families that don't talk nicely to anything else.

[thecaptn]

Ok, I've found Some Sora 3x9 brifters, deore 9 speed shadow deralier and a Sram 9 speed chain on Wiggle which should do the job and the cassette I had is 11-34 which is close enough. Can do it for under $300 which seems pretty reasonable.
Thanks for the advice everyone,
Pete

[thecaptn]

I just realised the brakes will be an issue, I've got xt V brakes. Can anyone recommend some decent calipers or cx brakes bearing in mind that I've 32 and 35mm tyres on 1" rims?

[Duck!]

Ok, I've found Some Sora 3x9 brifters, deore 9 speed shadow deralier and a Sram 9 speed chain on Wiggle which should do the job and the cassette I had is 11-34 which is close enough. Can do it for under $300 which seems pretty reasonable.
Thanks for the advice everyone,
Pete

Or you could buy a set of 4600 Tiagra shifters, that Deore derailleur & use your existing 10-sp. chain & cassette..

[rangersac]

I just realised the brakes will be an issue, I've got xt V brakes. Can anyone recommend some decent calipers or cx brakes bearing in mind that I've 32 and 35mm tyres on 1" rims?

Mini Vs work with brifters provided you have an arm length of 85mm or less. Swap out the crap stock pads for a set of Koolstops and these will work amazingly well for not much coin. Otherwise it's a fair step up to something like a TRP CX-9.

[thecaptn]

Mini Vs work with brifters provided you have an arm length of 85mm or less. Swap out the crap stock pads for a set of Koolstops and these will work amazingly well for not much coin. Otherwise it's a fair step up to something like a TRP CX-9.

These are in my price range, thanks

[thecaptn]

Or you could buy a set of 4600 Tiagra shifters, that Deore derailleur & use your existing 10-sp. chain & cassette..

This is a better idea and I think I can do it a smidge cheaper.