Wanted: "Brifters" (as they're called on Sheldon Brown dot com!) Integrated brake/gear levers

Just upgrading my geared road bike and am getting a bit fed up with leaning down to change gear on my downtube shifters therefore I would like integrated brake levers and shifters. Absolutely anything considered but I'm on a bit of a budget.

CRC have hydro & 9spd dualies for £18 a pair. I just bought some just for the sake of it, you know, incase the mood takes me to build yet another bike out of the parts lurking in corners. The feel of them is pretty good, similar actually to xt/xtr dualies which came out in like 2004/5
you can pickup lx/xt/deore calipers & rotors for a handful of quids of ebay and lbs parts bin and hose again, pennies.

Link?

Erm...actually Brickman are you sure you read the OP right????

Sheldon Brown's Bicycle Glossary Bo--Bz:
Brifter. A combination brake/shift lever, such as a Campagnolo Ergo or Shimano S.T.I. unit.

Brifters is a commonly used term to describe the above.

Now you need to tell which speed. How many gears/cogs on your wheel. Come on you can do it.

Well I'm currently running a double on the front (36, 50) and a 5 speed freewheel on the back, so whatever I do I will prob have to buy a new back wheel/cassette and I can whatever I want as soon as I know what shifters are being offered.

@Brickman: can you post a link please cos I'm not sure what you're pointing to.

I have a set of campag mirage9 sp ergo levers doing nothing in the shed pm me if you are interested ?

edit : sutable for a triple got both mechs aswell

There isn't a 5 speed integrated brifter which exists off the shelf. You'd have to go to 7 Speed Shimano at least. Or modify a Campagnolo Ergo.

I've got a 10 Speed Shimano 105 and a 10 Speed Ultegra cassette to match. But the cost will be around £105 for the combination. You'd also have to reconsider the derailleur you're running and rear wheel in order to fit the freewheel.

Other options:

Kelly take-offs

Thumbie mounts

Cheaper option - stem mounted shifters

Erm...actually Brickman are you sure you read the OP right????

kind of :s

I saw brifter and 'bike' and for some reason thought hybrid with discs.

wouldn't help OP, AFAIK sti 5spds don't exist. as skylark, minimum is 7spd sti's
so a 7spd rear wheel + mech + sti + compatible brake calipers if the pull ratio is different.

:)

Cheapest option is probably 7 speed freewheel to replace the 5 speed and 7 speed RSX brifters. What rear mech and calipers do you have?

I think I must be explaining this pretty poorly as I'm being told things I know and am prepared to do.

I'm trying to upgrade to a more comfortable ride and to do that I fully expect to have to change my rear wheel, derailieur and a few other bits. It would be nice if I could run 7 speed so that I only need to replace the freewheel and not the whole wheel, but at the same time I don't expect there to be many Sora brifters knocking about.

@knowthejo: cheers for the DIY suggestions - I'm a massive fan of mashing up bike parts to make them work how I want them to, I just hadn't considered this to be an opportunity but now I see it is. First port of call, the hardware store!

.

What I'd suggest you do is either to go to your LBS and ask for a test ride on a bike with Campag, Shimano or Sram. Or if you have some friends with some of these try riding their bikes for a little while. I much prefer Shimano over Campag/Sram but if you find out which you prefer then it'll narrow down your search a bit and you'll end up happy and not wondering whether you could have gotten a comfier lever.

I don't think I've got the money to be fussy with the lever styles. If I had the choice then I'd run campag because I like the cables to run under the tape as they look a lot tidier. I'm just wondering if anyone had anything available and then I'll work around that.

I may be able to provide sora 7 speed sti levers for you,,will see in the morning!

@Skylark: Can you breakdown any campag brifter and change the indexing to run any amount of cogs?

Yes, and the Ergopower 11 Speed are the easiest to mod and overhaul. However the 10 speed brifter would probably work best with two indexes per shift. But it's going to be a fiddle nonetheless to get the appropriate cable pull necessary to correspond with the cog spacing. The positive point is you have a fair amount of margin on each of the 5 speed cogs to make it work. Friction, as opposed to index shifting in the lever is probably still more appropriate way to do it.

There are other third-party brifters too. Such as from Modolo.

IMO if you're after index based shifting at the brake lever controls, do it properly. Get a complete groupset where everything integrated and set-up for you.

Where's your sense of adventure, Skylark?! In all seriousness, thanks for the detailed info and advice.

I agree with Skylark, but changes need not be so radical:
A pair of brifters (suppose some 9 speed Campagnolo, so will be compatible with Shimano cassettes), a new hub, cassette and mech and there you go.

why not keep an eye out for a cheap group on here? 8 speed and 9 speed groups don't fetch muich when they come up.

Also, what spacing is your frame? (sorry if this has already been covered...) not sure but I think if it's less than 135mm between dropouts you will struggle to fit 9/10/11 speed.

Here's another option - bar end shifter.

I was thinking that, but he seemed to have heart set on "brifters"

brifters is a horrible americanised name for such thing, unfortuantely it is the only good one out there.