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Bar/Shifter question

6K views 22 replies 11 participants last post by  jonnybags 
#1 ·
I am building up a Rohloff 29er.
I don't care for the str MTB bars.

I wanted moustache type bars, but the shifter won't fit,
without the adapter.

Any ideas?
 
#5 ·
I ordered the Mittelmeyer Rohloff shifter for curved bars and it should have arrived either Friday or yesterday at Black Sheep, where they are mounting it on a one piece Ti bar similar to that on this year's NAHBS winner. I will send pics and post a ride report when it arrives, which should be within the next week.

One initial warning - it took it a full month to arrive from Germany after ordering and looked for a while like it had been lost by DHL.
 
#7 ·
Here's a picture Todd from Black Sheep took of it mounted on my extra wide/long one piece bar before shipping it out to me. (Note curve of bar, obviously - the Rohloff shifter would absolutely not have gone on there other than at the bar end, where I had it mounted for testing before the Mittelmeyer unit arrived.)

The outside diameter is a little bigger than the stock shifter for the obvious reasons but looks reasonable. Ride report to follow when she arrives late next week!
 

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#8 ·
Update: Ok, I've got 60 miles or so on the shifter. At first it squeaked against the bar tape (which was running under the shifter - could be avoided by taping differently), but it's worn in now and the squeak is gone.

So, the thing is a little big, such that you don't really want to ride with your hand around it, at least if you have small hands like me. (Might be totally comfortable for larger guys.) But, I can ride with my gloved hand right against the side of it without a problem, and often do.

As far as shifting performance goes, it seems a little less crisp than when I had the stock shifter on - I can more easily put the hub in a position where I can hear the gears are not quite right, and then give it a little tweak and it goes away, where this was not the case with the Rohloff shifter I had on for the first 40-50 miles. I think this may just be a matter of cable adjustment though, and have nothing to do with the actual shifter design, so I wouldn't assume this is them - it's really just a roller, as the indexing is, after all, in the hub.

On the whole, I give it an B+ - it would be a solid A if I could comfortably leave my hand around it in ordinary riding, but then again this may not be good for hub/shifting performance either, and would not be possible without a different design - you could, I suppose, design a shifter like the base Rohloff unit that split cleanly in half and bolted together in a flat spot on the bar, and get the best of both worlds, but alas, no one has done this yet, and then again, that would not work if the bar had any curve at all in the place where the shifter actually bolted on.

As far as the Mittelmeyer goes, most importantly, it works - I now have reliable Rohloff shifting on a curved bar, in a reasonable position where I can shift without taking my hand off the bars (as would be necessary for a perpendicular mount) and without moving my hand to the very end of the bar. It also looks good and the cable placement is convenient. Two thumbs up.
 
#9 ·
If you haven't found a solution, this might work:

Brown Yellow Photograph Flooring Black


minoura light holder - Google Search

It's called the Minoura Besso & it's designed as a front fork light holder but can be adapted to other uses. I used it to mount an older power (watts) capable Polar bicycle computer to the stem but had to come up with an extension so used a bit of titanium tubing to lengthen the mount. Very secure. Never had an issue with it.

Good luck.
 
#16 ·
Sucks to be you!!

Can't imagine you want to lose those Ragleys so the only thing I can think of is to contact Mittelmeyer and ask if they could mill out the eccentric insert to fit the oversize bars...unless the bars are too big for the whole thing to fit round them. Also try contacting Gilles Berthoud as they have an Aston Martin version of the Mittelmeyer (I just fleabayed my Mittelmeyer to get the GB one 'cause it's so damn pretty....but that doesn't help you!
 
#21 ·
I contacted Gilles Berthoud and they don't make a Rohloff shifter that fits an oversized bar, so I decided to go with a 24,5 mm Salsa Woodchipper bar instead.

I'll be keeping the Mittlemeier one.

I called Mittlemeier and talked to the boss; he said that next year in March they will be bringing out a Brake lever/shifter like on a road bike. For a Rohloff and hydros! How cool is that? Probably cost a fortune though.

When the bike is finished I'll post a few pictures to see what you all think. :)

Phil
 
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