Advice Flat bars - Front Mech

[Chris Hatcher]

I have recently purchased SLR440 shifters as part of an upgrade my 2001 Trek 1500 triple to flat
bars following good advice from this NG but am having trouble with the front shifting. The front
shifter won't travel to it's full extent . Shifting from low to high I can engage middle and the top
rings but changing back down it goes straight to the smallest ring with no trim function. The window
indicator only moves to the middle. I have checked against the old Ultegra STI's and found that the
STI's pull 10mm of cable to the 440's 20mm. Has anyone heard of this before? Do the shifters need to
be compatible with the front mech? The current front mech is Shimano
105.

My MTB has LXrapidfire shifters / LX front mech and pulls approx 20mm so I am concluding that I need
a new front mech with a longer lever arm to give 20mm of pull. Any advice would be very welcome.

Thanks

Chris

[David Nutter]

In article <bskoqr$5oo$1@news8.svr.pol.co.uk>, Chris Hatcher wrote:

*snip*

> My MTB has LXrapidfire shifters / LX front mech and pulls approx 20mm so I am concluding that I
> need a new front mech with a longer lever arm to give 20mm of pull. Any advice would be very
> welcome.

I use the mech that matches your shifters: the R443. It cost me slightly less than 20 quid, though I
use it with a friction bar-end shifter rather than an indexed shifter[1].

You could buy that or fit a friction shifter somewhere (downtube or a MTB style thumbshifter) to
operate your existing front mech. Your LBS will probably have something suitable in their bits box.

Regards,

-david

[1] I distrust indexed front shifting due to the Luddite Within.