Using an "old" Shimano 7 sp rear mech and shifter

mattrixdesign2

Retro Guru
Using an "old" Shimano 7 sp rear mech and shifter

Hi

First post on here, recent fan of the forums, thinking of rekindling my youth with a retro build in the near future. :cool:

Any way I have a question I thought you guys would know.

My son has a Carrera Blast MTB, it has Sram X3 rear mech and grip shift.

Since getting back on his bike this year the grip shift has become very stiff, done all the cables etc, still not solved, even taken the shifter off and its very stiff in one direction, despite lubing it etc.

My idea was to but an X3 under bar shifter, ordered one, fitted it, wouldn't work properly, took it apart and discovered the cable end was all mashed in the shifter (factory fitted!), returned it, my mate picked up another in Manchester, I opened it up, the display is broken and missing a part.

So I am getting frustrated with cheap Sram stuff now!!! (has Shimano all my life).

So my thought is look for some older 7 speed Shimano R.Mech (say Deore LX) and a shifter... would that work with the spacing on the 7 speed cassette I have, it looks fairly standard but it does have a big ring to give a extra help on the climbs.

Any other ideas, e.g. shifter that would work with the X3 mech?

I need to get my lad out and fit as we will be holidaying near Grizedale Forest soon :D
 
I have a lx mech for sale but to be fair I would just try and get a shifter for starters start their if that wont sort it then try a new mech. Oh and get the boy some proper shifters not those mickey mouse gripshifts :LOL:
 
Think most shimano/sram 7 speed stuff is compatible. I would go with rapidfire. Kids will find it easy to deal with as its like using a ps/xbox pad :D
 
poweredbypies":36qp64ip said:
Think most shimano/sram 7 speed stuff is compatible. I would go with rapidfire. Kids will find it easy to deal with as its like using a ps/xbox pad :D

Well I obviously don't want to doubt your knowledge, but I was under the impression that the Sram 1:1 thing was not compatible with Shimano... so I have learnt a new lesson already.

So the shifter you linked on Ebay should work fine? Or any other new Shimano 7 speed shifter?
 
In my OP I stated that I tried twice to use new Sram thumb shifters (both X3), and both of poor un-usable quality.

I am going to put it down to bad luck, and try Sram one more time, or else I will be on the look out for 7 speed old school Shimano.
 
The cassettes are the same. So go either with Shimano or SRAM. The better SRAM stuff is good - the longer cable pull per click makes it less finicky in British mud.
 
Thanks for the info... Its a kids bike, nice frame, and the sram Mech seems to be of a good quality, its just the shifter, so will try a Sram thumb shifter one more time... then its over to Shimano (shifter + r.mech).

Did some searches on the WWW and it seems like these grip shifts can just go stiff, so presume there is a fault.
 
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