Ok, here’s the deal. I’ve been riding a Soloist for the past few years as my Ironman racing bike. Decided it was time to bite the bullet and buy a new true Tri/TT bike. The bike arrived this afternoon via UPS from the LBS I purchased it from. Now my brain is getting in the way of riding the bike.
Here’s my question: I am having trouble figuring out if the bar-end shifters are working as expected (and I’m losing my mind), or if something really is askew. They seem to be 1., working differently then I remember, and 2. the rear shifter just doesn’t feel “natural” in it’s shifting.
Example: Front Shifter seems to work as expected. Push it forward and it goes to the larger chain ring. Pull back and it drops down. Great. However, the rear shifter seems totally counter-intuitive to me. When it’s pushed forward it goes to a larger (easier) cog, and pulled back it drops to a smaller (harder) cog.
I could have sworn on my earlier P3, it was just the opposite. I would pull the rear shifter back on hills to go easier and when I was cruising a long, I’d slowly notch it forward to move to a smaller cog.
Am I missing something here and just losing it? If I actually am right, any ideas on a quick fix?
(I will post pics, but gotta figure this out first)
The bar end shifter can be installed either direction. I for one like them the opposite of the way your current ones are installed i.e. pull back to get bigger rings/cogs.
They can be mounted either way. It’s a matter of personal preference. I prefer to have my barends “hook down.” So when I pull on the rear shifter the chain moves to a larger (easier) cog and when I pull the front shifter it moves to the larger (harder) chainring. Again. It’s all about personal preference. The shirters can be mounted either way.
They’re working right. Push one lever forward, and you get easier gears. Push the other lever forward, you get harder gears. Even if you switched the levers around, the same thing would be true, you’d just reverse which lever did which. And it was the same for downtube shifters (unless you had a top-pull front derailleur). Don’t worry, you’ll get used to it.
As for how to switch the levers around (assuming you’ve already untaped the bars):
Shift the levers into the most slack cable position (yes, this will cross chain, but you’re not going to be putting any stress on the chain, so don’t worry).
Loosen the bolt on the side of the lever that holds it onto the lever body. Pull the lever off the lever body.
Take an allen wrench and loosen the bolt inside the lever body that goes into the handlebars. Only loosen this a LITTLE bit.
Turn the lever body around in the handlebar.
Tighten the bolt to secure the lever body inthe handlebar.
Put the lever back onto the lever body, being careful to line up the tabs on the lever to the holes inthe lever body. For the rear lever, there is a square recess in a ring that goes between the lever and the lever body. Make sure this is aligned correctly or your shifting will never dial in.
Just to clarify step #3 - the bolt that tightens/loosens the shifter body in your bar ends is reverse threaded (turn counter-clockwise to tighten, clockwise to loosen). They’re really easy to strip if you don’t keep this in mind.
If I remember right, my down tube shifters worked exactly like my bar end shifters - for the rear, pushing forward made it harder, for the front, pushing forward made it easier.
I have considered just flipping the left shifter so pushing it forward would move to the large chainring, pulling back would move it to the small.