| I'm in the process of upgrading an old mountain bike, and I decided to use
Gripshift as it appeared to be the least expensive option. I can't report on
how it works as I'm still waiting for a new (7-speed) freewheel to try
everything out.
The mountain bike was so old that it did not have indexed shifting and the rear
wheel spacing was 122mm. I spread the stays to 126 and built a new wheel. I
went with a conventional hub & freewheel because of a good closeout deal on hubs
that Nashbar had. If upgrading it makes me appreciate mountain biking more,
then I may add on some type of shock absorbtion.
Rich
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| Dunno if this qualifies...
but I put a pair of GripShifters on a 1992 XT-equipped mtn bike
without any modifications, save for cutting off the shift part of
the brake handles. The chain rings were already upgraded to non-XT
round platinum rings; the front shifter is stock XT.
The XT shifters would often be picky (even with the old chainrings)
as to getting into any gear at any time; the Gripshifts go anywhere.
The XT shifters also collected dirt (despite the little rubber plugs)
and were a nightmare inside, whereas the Gripshifts are a much cleaner
(pun intended) design. The only minor nit is that it takes a little
bit of finesse to brake and shift at the same time with GripShifts,
whereas that was trivial with the XT arrangement. I don't have any
data to back this up, but it would seem to be a good idea (if you sweat
a lot) to wear gloves with the GripShifts and keep the sweat from
working down into the space between the twist part and the stationary
part.
Kratz (who really enjoyed removing a Shimano component and replacing
it with something that costs less and works better).
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