Front shifter controlling rear derailleur

I am building a recumbent bike with a mid-drive gear/suspension pivot
made from a rear wheel hub. I have fabricated a dropout for the rear
"triangle" that has a derailleur mount. I don't have any extra rear
shifters laying around, but I do have an SRAM ESP 9.0 twist grip set.
I wanted to find out if the front shifter could pull a rear derailleur
through at least 4 gears (which is what I will have on my mid-drive).
I connected a cable and discovered that it will pull through 6 gears,
so I have enough range. The shifter is a "micro stepping" type with a
bunch of click stops between the 3 chainring stops. It looks to me
like the click stops move the derailleur (a Shimano unit) exactly
one gear per click (the mid-drive is an SRAM 8 speed cassette).

Unfortunately, I am not finished with the bike yet so I can't ride it
to check to see if it works pulling a chain. Does anyone know if it
will be possible to make it line up and shift the gears properly?

Thanks

hmmmm wrote:
I am building a recumbent bike with a mid-drive gear/suspension pivot
made from a rear wheel hub. I have fabricated a dropout for the rear
"triangle" that has a derailleur mount. I don't have any extra rear
shifters laying around, but I do have an SRAM ESP 9.0 twist grip set.
I wanted to find out if the front shifter could pull a rear derailleur
through at least 4 gears (which is what I will have on my mid-drive).

This should work, but it may not index 100% correctly. SRAM's ratchets
for the front shifter might be fine enough to allow you to hit the four
cogs on your mid-drive and then the floating pulley on the Shimano
derailleur will allow the chain to run fairly noiselessly.

The perfect solution would be to get a "rear" shifter from a SRAM
non-ESP set, similar to this:
http://harriscyclery.net/site/page.c...=49&SKU=LD4755

An equally good solution would be to control the mid-drive derailleur
with a friction thumbshifter. These cost a couple bucks at the most.

Jeff

Thanks for not laughing!

I will be using an SRAM derailleur on the rear end, and got the
shifters I have really cheaply, so I wanted to try to use them. I
could use a friction shifter on the mid-drive derailleur, but it
wouldn't match the other side and would look a little weird. I guess
I'll try to use what I have and if I don't like it, I'll get a Shimano
compatible shifter.

Actually, I have never had a bike with twist shifters and I'm not sure
I like the idea. Maybe I'll decide to dump both in favor of trigger
or bar-end shifters, both of which I have on other bikes and like.

Hmmmm.

hmmmm wrote:
Thanks for not laughing!


You want a laugh- check out this 20-year-old photo of me:
http://www.pacifier.com/~jwills/Gallery/index.html

I will be using an SRAM derailleur on the rear end, and got the
shifters I have really cheaply, so I wanted to try to use them. I
could use a friction shifter on the mid-drive derailleur, but it
wouldn't match the other side and would look a little weird.

Buddy, you're building a recumbent. It's going to look weird. Get used
to it.

I guess
I'll try to use what I have and if I don't like it, I'll get a Shimano
compatible shifter.

Actually, I have never had a bike with twist shifters and I'm not sure
I like the idea. Maybe I'll decide to dump both in favor of trigger
or bar-end shifters, both of which I have on other bikes and like.

Hmmmm.

Bar-end shifters are the best, bar none. However, I don't think they
will work with the SRAM x.0 derailleurs. There was some discussion
about this on the Bentrideronline forums, but I can't remember the
details.

Jeff