Matching Rear Mech & Shifters for Flat Bar Hybrid?

jonnyboy77

I have built up a Ridgeback Flight 05 from components, and been riding it on and off over the past few months, but now I have the itch to finalise some of the compromises I made. Notably the drivetrain.

I run the bike 1x8 at the moment, with a Surly single chainring at the front (46t) and an old Megarange cassette, LX rear derailleur & 8sp Grip shift (all taken from an old bike). The LX mech has been better days, the megarange cassette is a little annoying too, my regular (MTB) commuter uses the SRAM PG 950 11-32 but I was looking to go a little more road orientated.

What I'd like to do, on a budget, is look at something like a Sora short cage mech, a Tiagra 12-25 cassette and shifters to suit .. and that's my current puzzle, which shifters (flat bar) would work best in this setup? I like gripshift for the clean lines and simplicity, but wonder if I'd be better with thumbshifters like the Deore 9sp M590 - assuming they'll work with the chosen rear derailleur?

The bike in question:


Any help appreciated

Thanks

Jon

CarlosDSanchez

rosebikes.co.uk are pretty cheap for shifters, but only sram do twist versions and I think you will need a sram rear mech to work with them. They also have reasonably priced 9spd Shimano flat bar shifters.

jonnyboy77

Thanks.

Some more web research has led me to the conclusion that I could easily mate the Sora rear mech with a set of Deore thumb shifters.

My only remaining dilemma is that if I want to go conservative on the rear cassette (11-32) then I need to get a long cage mech, or I could bite the bullet and go with the Tiagra cassette and stick with short cage,

- Jon

CarlosDSanchez

The sofa rear mech might not like the 32 tooth cassette, the top jockey wheel may rub against the largest sprocket when you are in bottom gear. A short cage mech will cope with quite a large gear range though, I have 28-11 on the back and 50-34 on the front with no issues.

jonnyboy77

I have started to look more at sticking with what I know and getting a Deore MTB rear mech, which leaves me with a wide range of choices on rear cassette. I'll hook this up to some Deore thumb shifters and see what happens!

The Rookie

A Sora rear won't go larger than 28T, Shimano tech docs and our effort on the daughters bike both confirm this! SRAM road rear mechs seem to do it though, otherwise stick with an MTB rear mech.......

Have an XT short cage rear mech for sale..........

Simon

jonnyboy77

Simon

I've sent you a pm

Thanks

Jon

Initialised

CarlosDSanchez wrote:

rosebikes.co.uk are pretty cheap for shifters, but only sram do twist versions and I think you will need a sram rear mech to work with them. They also have reasonably priced 9spd Shimano flat bar shifters.

Not true, I'm using SRAM GripShift MRX 3.0, Shimano SLX Mech on an SRAM 12-32 cassette.

The above logic applies to the newer SRAM 1:1 Actuation Ratio Shifters and Mechs