Drop bars and hub gears rule! I’ve been running an old friction bar-con with a Sram 3-speed hub for a while, and it’s a great combination for the city. Because the 3 speed is so simple, friction shifting works okay. If you want a bit more range and indexed shifting though, have a look at this sweet Surly Crosscheck from Hiawatha Cyclery in Minneapolis. Look closely, and you can see the combination of Shimano 8 speed internal Alfine hub, drop bars, and a bar-end shifter. Super cool setup right? Normally Shimano hub gears and drop bars are incompatible with each other. These guys made it work by using this item which is technically designed for something else, but sort of works okay here.
Now have a look at this..
…pretty mean looking piece of kit, I’m sure you’d agree. It’s a new indexed bar end shifter, specifically designed for Alfine/Nexus hubs from Jtek – a new, neat and elegant solution for drop bar hub gear city bikes. The even better news is that they’re going to be available in Australia very soon, so your dreams of a bike like the Crosscheck up the top could soon be a reality. Let us know if you’d like a quote for a build.
I’d like a price & approximate date on the shifter, posted to Melbourne. I’ve been following the Hiawatha barcon progress via the Kogswell / Surly mailing lists and was very happy to see this released as I can go back to dropbars on my Crosscheck.
Comment by Andrew — January 22, 2009 @ 10:16 am
I was just speaking to Jesse from Speedshop in Melbourne, and he has made some of those babies just recently!!
Comment by adam — January 25, 2009 @ 2:13 pm