What's an appropriate derailleur for 5 speed indexed flat bar shifters

tonyf39

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It's a ladies Carlton Courette 531 mixte, had a long cage that wasn't appropriate as you couldn't even get the original chain to wrap the small c/ring with the 28T sprocket, the shifter is a basic Shimano 5 speed Indexed thumb/finger job that were fitted to cheaper MTBs.

I tried with a nice Tiagra 4600 but it's just a fraction off when it gets to the 28 and when I adjust other way it skips from 5th to 3rd, I've got a NOS Huret Eco but it doesn't have an adjuster and not sure if there isn't actually something wrong with it as it sits at a bit of an odd angle when fitted, there isn't an adjuster on the shifter either and no option for friction mode. The Huret looks wise and capacity is bob on but would like something in similar with a cable adjuster on it
I've seen an inexpensive short cage Suntour ARX but that has no adjuster either, what other Suntour models would work, have an adjuster and be plain silver/chrome? It has to be shiny silver so that limits me with Shimano offerings without it getting expensive.

TIA
 
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I have a Shimano RX100 modified with a short cage DX cage, officially 7 speed but sure it will work fine on a 5 speed.

£20 posted
 
^ That one should work.

I think you basically want any of the older SIS branded Shimano ones if you want it to be or look period correct. In theory, any Shimano derailleur from the indexed era up to 10-speed* should be compatible as long as it can handle a 28T cog at the back. There are loads of mtb ones that will match, if you trawl eBay. I’d stick with Shimano, because outside of the friction shifting there’s no guarantee it’ll work.


*The only outlier I think is the new 10-speed 105 5800 which I think now has the newer 11-speed shift ratio and is not backwards compatible.
 
Thanks, I've got a shiny RSX but it and yours is not quite the look I'm after, appreciate you offering it up and taking time to add a photo
I think something from the late 70s to mid 80s is what I'm after
@Jonny69, tried the 10 speed Tiagra and it didn't quite work though it had a look about it that seemed to fit in
 
The tiagra you have should work with a shimano indexed lever

The problem I think you have is that the shimano branded lever you have is probably a copy. Donkeys years ago when my kids were young, we bought a used childs bike which had a shimano 5 speed thumbshifter and I could never get the setup to index until I put a proper shimano lever on and it then indexed perfectly. So I drew the conclusion that the original "shimano" thumbshifter was a copy
 
Well that's what I thought that the Tiagra should work, the shifter looks original to be fair, it's certainly not a new component, I was going to buy a friction shifter, they're so much less hassle all round and not that hard to get used to especially when there's only 5 sprockets to choose from.
thans for the iinput though pigman
 
The shifter on the child's bike looked pukka. It just didn't work.
If I try to remember what it looked like, it said Shimano, had quite a big "circle" where the cable wraps and the Shimano logo was black with a yellow or orange surround. It was a long time ago.

I'd suggest trying an alternative shifter and then you can either corroborate or discount my post
 
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