Changing gear with one hand

willbevan

Hi all,

Looking to setup a road bike so you can change gear with only one hand (left hand), as the person I'm setting it up for doesn';t have a right hand.

Chap has had a MTB in the past, with one grip shifter, and one indexed thumb shifter, have heard something about some recumberent specific shifters being potentially suitable but can't find anything.

Currently options I can see

1. Flat bared road bike, with grip shifter and thumb shifter both on left side (will have to be unindex old friction style as putting a front shifter from the right to the left puts its upside down!)

2. Old frame with shifters on the frame itself, read about a lot of people only using one hand to shift these, by reaching through the bars for the other side.


Any other ideas or input would be greatifully appriciated!

Thanks



Will

brownbosh

Dude, make contact with british cycling and see how its done for paralympians?

willbevan

brownbosh, thankyou very much for a very good idea!

Infamous

STI shifter for the rear mech, downtube shifter for the front.

Ash_

Left-hand STI for the front, bar-end shifter in end of left drop for the rear mech:


Obviously you'd put the right-hand bar-end shifter on the left. This would even mean all the gears, front and rear could be indexed, and changed without too great a deviation from riding position.

Or, there's those shifters you still get on cheap bikes, which are like down tube shifters but mount on the stem. Might be easier than reaching through the frame.

Jimbo.

Whilst somewhat expensive, I 'spose you could always get inventive with a Shimano Di2 setup?

Eddy S

One of the CWD riders competing at Newport at the National Masters/CWD event had a road bike set up with the a second STI lever mounted upside down on the end of the handlebar so both levers looked in easy reach of each other.

This setup was on drops as well.