Play & Slipping with Silver Bar End Shifters

[Den John]

Hello RBWers,

I've been having problems with a set of older type RBW Silver bar end shifters.

There seems to be a lot of play in the shifters. They've been like this out of the box.

They also slip a  bit in the middle sprockets, ghost shifting from the bigger to smaller

sprocket. Tightening the bolt that holds the shifter lever doesn't make much difference,

even with the bolt done up pretty tight the play and slipping seem to persist.

It seems this is a bit of a known problem with these shifters. Does anyone have any suggestions for a remedy for this? E.g. is it possible to add an additional washer somewhere?

Thanks for any help,

Johnny in Belgium

[Sam Perez]

I had a similar post. For me I tried so many things , I changed the cassette and chain to eliminate warn variables. I was using a 9s xt deor rear dr that I suspect adds to it also I'd check frame alignment. Those helped although I still experience the occasional ghost shift. Latest theory is perhaps some rd's have a really tight spring but that somthing I don't know how to test myself.

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[Bill Lindsay]

OK one step at a time

1. Do you have one Silver Bar end shifter or two?  Do both have a problem or only one?

2. Did you buy these Silver Bar end shifters complete from Rivendell Bicycle Works as bar end shifters?  Or did you or somebody else cobble together Silver Downtube shifters onto Shimano, or somebody elses bar end pods?

Bill Lindsay

El Cerrito, CA

[Den John]

I have a complete set. It's the right hand shifter that's causing the problem. 9 speed. I have a double chainring on the front with a granny gear and a 36t big ring. This is setup to avoid shifting the front derailleur too often, so I don't use the left hand shifter enough to say if it's got a major problem. I tried a few different derailleurs, mostly variants of Shimano Deore, but the slipping/ghost shifting persisted.

The setup is a full Rivendell branded barend shifter set. No cobbling together. I ordered it as a Dia Compe barend shifter set, and the shop I bought it from sent me the Riv set. 

Cheers,

Johnny

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[Bill Lindsay]

OK, it came from a shop, not from Rivendell, but we're assuming that it is stuff that's supposed to work together.  That's good

There is no particular Left vs Right.  Either one can serve either role.   It's just a matter of whether you want the D-rings on the outside or the inside.  Since you've swapped things around liberally, can I assume you've already swapped the shifters?  Did they both do equally badly when used for the rear der?

Next, please describe the "play".  What does this mean?  Do you mean you can wiggle the shifter side to side?  Do you mean you can wiggle the shifter in it's normal travel direction and it moves a bit before the cable starts moving?  

Bill Lindsay

El Cerrito, CA

[Den John]

I didn't swap the levers from one side to the other. There's no reason not to try it I suppose, just never got round to it.

In any case, both levers, left and right, seem to have a lot of lateral play in them. Like about a mm or more at the pod where the lever bolts on.

I have tightened the D rings about as far as possible by hand. There is still a slighly loose fore-aft feeling in the lever before the ratchet clicks when I want to shift,

but it's not like a friction shifter that's not been tightened enough - nothing is actually slipping.

I have a couple of sets of old suntour bar ends, both the first generation ones and the later barcons with 7 speed indexing on the RD side and ratcheting on the FD side.

Neither of those shifters have any play in and I've never had any problems with them slipping.

Thanks again for any suggestions.

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[Joe Bernard]

It can't hurt to grab the new harder plastic washers Riv sells for these but yeah, there's some play in them that never goes away. The washers may solve the 'slipping in gear' part though, that's what matters in my opinion. 

[John P. in SF]

HI

I have had maybe 6 pairs of silvers over the years and not all of them slipped, used both as bar end and as dt shifters.  

 

I have solved some of my silver shifter slipping problems by placing a thin slice of beeswax in between all the various parts and reassembling. I have only had problems with right hand shifters slipping - not sure why, and I never thought of swapping the left to right or vice versa. The beeswax seems to work for a year or two and then needs refreshing. 

I have also used a metal outer washer from a different shifter instead of the plastic jobby, and on one stubbornly slipping shifter (gifted to the girlfriend, fool that I am) I swapped out the d-ring bold for a regular m5 bolt so I could torque it down enough to stop the slippage. Then she took it to a shop for some maintenance and they took the m5 out and put in a d-ring bolt and the shifter started slipping again...she was not happy.

Not all silver shifters slip, but some do and it can be frustrating.

On Monday, February 1, 2021 at 1:29:59 AM UTC-8 john...@gmail.com wrote:

[Den John]

Thanks, the beeswax is an interesting idea. I'll give that a try. (BTW, any idea if beeswax is a good substitute for anti-seize? I have had a tube of Shimano anti-seize that's lasted

me about 6 years but it's starting to run out).

I'll also see if any of my other shifters have metal washers. I think I have some bits of Campagnolo stuff that might do.

Cheers,

Johnny

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[Nat Lichten]

Hi Johnny,

No solutions to suggest, but I had the same irritating issue with a rear Riv silver shifter running 9 spd shimano mtn rear derailleurs. For me tightening the thumb screw that held the shifter did help somewhat, but only temporarily. I was going to try some loctite, but passed the bike on to someone else before I had a chance.

-Nat in DC

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[Graham Spencer]

I had the same issue with mine a decade ago. Never cared for them. My solution was a used set of simplex retro friction from eBay. They bolt right on to the pods you have and happily shift my 9spd system smooth as butter with no slipping, no need for repeat tightening in 10 years. All with no clicks. 

[Den John]

Thanks everyone. I'm in Europe so those Simplex Retrofriction come up every so often on places other than ebay. I'll have a look out for them.

Cheers,

Johnny

On Sun, 7 Feb 2021 at 04:13, Graham Spencer <gwsp...@gmail.com> wrote:

I had the same issue with mine a decade ago. Never cared for them. My solution was a used set of simplex retro friction from eBay. They bolt right on to the pods you have and happily shift my 9spd system smooth as butter with no slipping, no need for repeat tightening in 10 years. All with no clicks. 

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[Patrick Moore]

I owned 2 or 3 pairs of the original issue Silvers, and fixed the slipping with blue Loctite. The bigger problem with the Silvers, in my case, was breaking the body when the bike fell over. 

I prefer the old Suntour barcons and have built up a small stash. I can shift 10 cogs with my right on on only a bit more than 90* of travel (8-sp road rd, DA 7401, IIRC), and the shifting is perfectly accurate, and they body doesn't break when the bike falls over.

I use blue Loctite on the Suntours too, but only for that easily lost, cosmetic, chromed, domed locknut. 

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Patrick Moore

Alburquerque, Nuevo Mexico, Etats Unis d'Amerique, Orbis Terrarum

[Den John]

yep, I've been able to get barcons to shift 10 sprockets too. I've also lost that little domed nut. Fell off on a dark, rainy commute home and I couldn't find it. I replaced it with a nut from a toe clip which so far hasn't fallen off.

Cheers,

Johnny

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