Light Weight Shifters - Are They Out There?

[MuchAlohaNui]

Who made the light weight, simplistic and functional shifters of the early to mid 90's? Shimano? Sram? Did anyone care or were the engineers (innovators) of the smaller shops and names more focused on derailleurs, cranks and brake levers and hubs?

The Sram SRT grip shifters of the mid-90's weigh between 120 to 145 grams depending on who's scale you use. Shimano XT m737 thumbies are around 190 grams (excluding the integrated brake levers), and XTR m900's are around 180 grams. To get the Shimano's to work, one would need to source something like Grafton shifter perches (aside from even being able to find those $$$$...) or the old Magura perches, which add additional weight to the Shimano shifters pushing them closer to 200 grams. This is unacceptable by any standard!

So, did anyone in the 90's reinvent the wheel or was Sram and Shimano it?

 

[ferrus]

Campag Record OR/Icarus thumbshifters are light and lovely. They can be made to work ok with Shimano, Suntour etc

 

[My_Teenage_Self]

Suntour XC pro thumbies are a smidge heavier than gripshift Xray, and all kind of lovely.

 

[FluffyChicken]

SRAM were literally the wheel reinventors, a small company with a twist shifter coming in and taking business from the others, lightweight, simple, nice to use (better once in the SRT range from the CX range) and works well. Got the Pro's to use and and got the marketing right.

Only in the mid-late 90s and then onwards did they move on to bigger things.

 

[FluffyChicken]

M008s the top end Shimano clamp on shifter of the 737 era is still a hefty 240-250g

Im.assuming were looking for 8 speed stuff here?

 

[dirttorpedo]

I don't recall anyone really caring about shifter weight BITD - it was all about frames, hubs, rims, stems, bars, and saddles. If grip shift is too heavy for you I think you're SOL

 

[MuchAlohaNui]

SRAM were literally the wheel reinventors, a small company with a twist shifter coming in and taking business from the others, lightweight, simple, nice to use (better once in the SRT range from the CX range) and works well. Got the Pro's to use and and got the marketing right.

Only in the mid-late 90s and then onwards did they move on to bigger things.

Fair enough. Your logic makes sense in that Sram was who basically invented the wheel with the grip shit system.

Im assuming were looking for 8 speed stuff here?

Mhm, I am curious about any innovation in 3x8 shifters.

 

[hamster]

Lightest is Pauls / SJS Cycles mounts with road downtube levers...get the number of speeds you need and off you go.

 

[MuchAlohaNui]

Lightest is Pauls / SJS Cycles mounts with road downtube levers...get the number of speeds you need and off you go.

What'ts that weigh out the door- 100 grams? Were they as reliable as Shimano?

 

[KermitGKona88]

There is a lot of information in here...

Gear Shifters

Suntour Thumb Shifter XP-SL01 (XC-PRO/COMP ~1993) Front = 73g Rear = 77g (150g/pair)

www.retrobike.co.uk