How to friction shift 10/11 speeds - technical, possibly boring
Nothing pleases us more than circumventing Shimano's compatibility rulebook and we've been able to do a lot of that with our Silver shifters, but until recently we weren't totally sure how well they'd work with 10 and 11 speed stuff. It turns out that they work perfectly as long as you ditch the hi-falutin clutch 10/11+ speed rear derailers - the trick is to go low-brow back there. Here are a couple tests we did that all worked:
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This is a 10 speed 11-36 cassette with a 7/8 speed Altus rear derailer controlled by a Silver2 bar end. We were worried that lower speed rear derailer pulleys might not mesh well with higher speed chains but it turned out to be a non-issue. Shimano says the Altus can take a max rear cog of 34 teeth, but it works fine with 36.
Bar ends are trickier than thumbies because the shifter's range of movement is more limited. A thumbshifter can rotate as much as it wants - it might end up in a funky position, but it'll work. Bar ends eventually get blocked by the pod. Here's what the shifter on the bike above looks like when the bike is in the lowest gear:
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No problem there.
11 speed Shimano road cassettes have a longer freehub body, so the shifter will have to travel a little bit farther, which means a bar end might not work although a thumbie would. An 11 speed Shimano mountain cassette would likely be fine with a bar end although I haven't tested that yet.
Here's another scenario that works perfectly:
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That's a Shimano mountain 11 speed 11-40t cassette with a Deore M592 9 speed rear derailer controlled by a Silver2 thumbie. The M592 is rated to a 36t rear cog, but like the Altus above, it punches above it's weight and works with a 40t low gear.
It gets nerdier here:
The rear derailer that was on here before, an 11 speed, clutch-havin SLX, wouldn't work with a Silver shifter because the higher speed Shimano stuff has a different rear shift ratio. Silver shifters like rear derailers that move 1.7mm for every 1mm of cable pull - newer Shimano mountain rears move 1mm for every 1mm of cable pull and that means a Silver shifter on a bar end will top out maybe 3/4 of the way up the cassette.
Here's what will happen when you shift to the low gear with a 1:1 Shimano mountain rear derailer (in this case, a Deore 11spd RD) and a Silver2 thumbie:
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It works, but that's outside of what we'd call acceptable.
The 9 speed Deore M592 however, moves 1.7mm for every millimeter of cable pull so it easily covers the range. Here's what the thumbie looks like in the low gear:
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Good!
And here's the last, goofiest scenario tested:
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That's an 8 speed Acera M360 with the same 11-40 11 speed cassette. The Acera is rated to 34t and I was worried it wouldn't clear the 40t so I added a Sunrace extender tab. I think it could have worked without it though.
Because the Acera has the same 1.7mm to 1mm pull that the M592 has, the shifter ended up in the same acceptable spot while in the low gear.
I want to test a 12 speed cassette with a 9 speed rear derailer and a Silver thumbie, but 12ers require hubs that we don't carry and I think all of them are thru-axle and 142mm spaced.
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Not only did all of these tests work - they worked really well. I thought for sure it would be tough to friction shift 11 speed, but actually, because there are so many small steps it's hard to miss a gear.
What this means for us Silver Shifter users is that there's a lot more stuff out there that'll work than we previously thought. It means that even if 9 speed cassettes go away we can easily move on to 10 or even 11 speed cassettes and still shift friction. Get yourself a rear derailer off our site (they all have the 1:1.7 ratio) and a Silver2 (Thumb mounts aren't far off) and the world is your oyster - you won't be locked into a particular group or number of cogs on a cassette.
Also, personally - I don't like shifters that make a bunch of noise when you shift. The cheaper trigger shifters are quieter than the higher end ones, but a good friction shift is totally silent except for the quiet ratchet from the shifter and the satisfying thkk as the chain falls or climbs onto the next cog. I like that.
-will
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Monarch overhaul video
I solved a nasty click in one of my older Monarch pedals by taking it apart and adding some fresh grease. Here's a how to video. It's fun!
We used ocean waves as the soundtrack because we couldn't find any rights free music we like. I think we'll stick with that until Bob Dylan gives us permission to his discography - and even then, it's hard to beat white noise for videos like this.
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Mark's mullet (650b front, 26' rear) 90s Bontrager is up on the staff bikes page. This frame has a lot of unique features, like that chainsuck guard underneath the chainstay.
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My friend Max brought Anchovy, an Italian Greyhound, on a ride last week - I was worried about her spindly legs on gravel, but she did fantastically on the dirt and she had to pace herself to not get too far ahead of us.
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Max rolls her into the bag when we get back onto the street - she loves it in there.
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We have two new mini pumps in, both made by Lezyne. Get the one on the right if you use a BananaSack, and get the one on the left if you like bigger bags. The Zefal frame pumps are our "go-to" but the hose feature on both of these is nice because you don't have to worry about bending your valve while you're pumping.
The bigger one on the left has a fold out foot paddle so you can use it like a floor pump. The one on the right, despite it's short length, has a fat barrel so it'll pump up even 2.25ers without wrecking your arm.
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Back in stock 6/25/21
The lock is back, not the bottles.
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Just saw this on the NY Times. Amen!
Song of the week
Have a good weekend,
-will
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