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As first seen on BikeRumor and BikePortland, the Retroshift is a new spin on an old shifter design. Born from the muddy races of the Pacific Northwest cyclocross scene, the concept is easy enough to grasp—it’s a downtube (or bar-end) shifter grafted onto a modern aero brake lever. It’s simple as compared to rather expensive brifters for thrashing around in the mud, more or less impervious to the elements, and allows you to bail into friction mode in case of a bent hanger or other indexing problems. BikeRumor really gets into the tech side of things, but the short story is that the lever is currently a modified Tektro model that gets sent to the machine shop for a fitting, but assuming sales go as expected will move towards a locally produced lever from the ground up. Pairs will be available for $140 each, and you’ll have to add your own shift levers which when fully assembled are lighter than most brifters.
It’s not the solution for everyone, but personally I’m pretty into the Retroshift. It in some ways reminds me of the Kelly Take Off and the Paul Thumbies, but gives another option of where to locate the shift lever. I have used the Paul versions with 10-speed DA shifters for years across a number of different bikes—they’re relaible, and with practice you can more or less shift the entire cogset in one motion, or dump gears 3 to 4 at a time. For someone that rides in the hoods a lot of the time, the Retroshift seems like an interesting option. It’s obviously already out on the ‘cross circuit but I can see it finding a home on dirt drop setups, touring bikes and road riders just not in love with brifters for one reason or another.
Uhm, nobody thought of that re-positioning of the retroshift levers before because they are unhelpful to the common rider except to Portland riders I guess. Why shift levers are commonly positioned behind your braking lever? When you brake from the hoods why should you give attention to where you put your fingers figuring out where the shifting lever is in that moment? From the drops you can’t change gear so easily while braking. Ok you can shift a multitude of gears in a single move but does it values more than bringing all your teeth home? Why don’t you suggest to wear your old retroshift levers as finger rings? Pherahps you don’t break your nails. For $220 I get a new set of Shimano STI levers that do the good job without being assled. If you multi geared riders really NEED to have them and look original like some kind of fixed credo, go get them and play.
Sign me up! Wish I could order a pair now! I just put a down tube front shift lever on my Gunnar as my left brifter died. Want it, want it now! If they need capital then they should do a kickstarter and put some levers out there.
I really like this idea. I’m definitely going to use these when I build a touring rig. Brifters feel great, but I’ve a soft spot in my heart for simpler, and innately more durable designs. The price, however, definitely needs some work though, especially for what’s essentially a modified $25 lever set. $140+$80 for some new DA DT levers is a tough bargain compared to an STI set. If they used a pair of TRP RRL levers as the base, or a MUSA set, then I might be more inclined towards them.
I don’t quite understand this. Is there something specific to cross that makes brifters undesirable? Just the friction shifting mode if things get gunked up? Just seems like a solution to a problem that doesn’t exist…
This sounds like the SunTour commander to me. I’m still a little curious, this could be a great shifter for the mustache handlebar.
@ Luca
I have no idea what you’re saying. It appears that you’re an upset fixie rider that doesn’t like Portland, but beyond that you make absolutely no damn sense.
@ Raiyn
Hey, I like Portland. I’m not upset fixie rider. I just ride my mtb with rapidfire shifters and road bikes with Shimano STI or Campy Ergopowers shifters. I also love to ride my vintage Rossin with downtube shifters. It doesn’t need to make sense to you. That was only my opinion.
Peace & Cheers
@John, a lot of folks would like to run smaller chainrings of their cross and tour bikes which requires them to use “mountain” front derailleur. Mountain front derailleurs are not compatible with Shimano brifters. The Retroshift could be the answer, keeping the shift levers close to the hoods where most folks place their hands most of the time.
It does look like the shift levers might get in the way of braking from the hoods and I think the Tektro brake hoods aren’t as wide as most brifters.
Oh dear God this makes so much sense….unfortunately most if not all Aero brakes have semi perminent levers, if only there was a way to replace shorter/straighter levers with and adjustable limit screw (similar to a bmx brake lever) instillation of a shifter that would be installed via bolt mount…..some one get some fucking drafting paper and a blank check, its time to reinvent this bitch
Luca – why should you give attention to where you put your fingers. This is a valid concern but in use luckily not a reality. Braking is unaffected by the position of the shift lever so you really do end up with much of the best of both worlds (reliable simple shift levers with integrated braking).
A review noting this can be found here: http://twentynineinches.com/2012/03/09/retroshift-brake-lever-shifter-mounts-quick-review/
Cheers!
The Goats
retroshift.com