Retroshift Brake-Shifter Mounts: Quick Review: by Guitar Ted
In the realm of drop bar shifters there are what is commonly referred to as “brifters”, (The brake lever perch houses the shifting mechanism and is part of the shifting levers), or you have bar end shifters which mount off the ends of your drops. These are the most common types, but certainly there are other variations. One of those variations seeks to combine the old bar end shifter with the brake lever for a new version of the “brifter” called Retroshift.
Retroshift was started by some fellows living in Portland, Oregon that call themselves “The Goats”. These guys are in to cyclo-cross, and in the Pac-NorthWest, that means lots of mud, gunk, and rain. This isn’t very nice to your typical road bike shifting mechanism, so Retroshift was born in part as a way to answer that need for a bombproof, simple, easy to use shifter that didn’t cost an arm and a leg like “brifter” levers do when they get corroded by the elements, broken, or damaged in a crash. 
The Retroshift component is basically a Tektro brake lever with an aluminum and steel mount for any Shimano type friction down tube shifter, or Shimano “bar end” shifter. Retroshift sells plain levers, a set of levers with one Retroshift mount, for 1X set ups, or as our test sample, with two Retroshift mounts. These are called the “zero”,”one”, and “two” models, respectively. The model “two” sells for $119.00 and comes in “Feldman Grey”, (tested), or “Werle Red”.
Installation: Retroshift sends you the lever/mount, you provide the shift lever itself in the form of a Shimano down tube lever or Shimano bar end shifter. Some other friction down tube shifters may also work, like Rivendell “Silver” shift levers.Retroshift does sell flat bases for switching out with concave based down tube shifter mounts.
I used a set of 9 speed bar end shifters that swapped over seamlessly. These replaced a set of older Ultegra “brifters” and in the process I saved about 100 grams of weight. I did use new cables and housings for the install, and I would recommend that you do as well. Using cut cables and housings from the old set up probably will prove to be frustrating, at the minimum, and not possible at the worst. 
After getting everything tuned back up, and the bars re-wrapped, I was good to go. I was a bit concerned about the “flying” cable runs, which were somewhat reminiscent of non-aero levers, but my fears were unfounded. These cables are perhaps unconventional looking, but are definitely not in the way of riding at all. The only issue here was trying to decide how to route everything down the top tube cable stops on my Black Mountain Cycles “Monster Cross” rig, but I finally settled on an efficient solution.
Ride Performance: Retroshift levers will work best if you are a “hoods” riding type of guy or gal. Seems that is the way most folks ride their drop bars on roads these days anyway, so it probably isn’t an issue for most folks. However; if you are one of those rare breed of cats that hangs out in the drops all the time, the Retroshift levers will prove to be a challenge. The “Goats” at Retroshift freely admit these won’t work from the drops, and they are correct. So, it took me a bit of time to acclimate myself to riding on the hoods more than I do, but I figured it out. 
The shifters do something I wasn’t considering at first, but they offer a new way to perch your hands and fingers while riding. I typically will drape my thumb on the inside of a shift lever and my index and middle fingers on the outer side of the shift lever.This was comfortable and actually spread out the pressure of my hands on the hoods in a different way that I happened to like.
Ergonomics aside, the levers were easy to operate from the hoods and of course, being bar end shifters, the action was exactly what you would expect: Crisp, positive, and reliable. The bigger question is how these shift levers would play with braking from the hoods. Well, I am happy to report that this was a non-issue, really. Braking from the hoods was as easy as any other road type shift/brake lever I’ve ridden.
Conclusions: The Retroshift levers just may be the ticket for you if you have access to the shift levers and can’t spend the literally hundreds of dollars for new 9 or 10 speed “brifters” for your cyclo-cross, adventure, gravel road, or drop bar mountain bike rig. I can see cyclo-tourists also gravitating to these for the ease of use, simplicity, and reliability they provide. One thing they don’t do just yet is work with linear pull or mountain bike type mechanical disc brakes, but Retroshift should have levers compatible with those brakes out soon.
They do not cotton to those who have set ups that are dialed for being in the drops all the time, unfortunately, but otherwise, the Retroshift system is an excellent alternative for those with the need to have durable, dead simple shift/brake levers. There is no doubt that my old Ultegra set up was more versatile, but it was also more prone to damage, and was degrading over time more quickly due to my use of them on gravel road rides. Once those Ultegra levers do degrade too far for my liking, the replacement cost will be much higher than this set of Retroshift levers, which probably would be still functioning at a high level in comparison. Is that worth anything to you? If so, the Retroshift products may be for you. For their designed intentions, I can find no fault with them; however, they are not for everyone.
For more information and videoed examples of these shifters in use, see the Retroshift site.
Note: Retroshift sent the Retroshift “two” levers/mounts at no charge to Twenty Nine Inches for test/review. We were not paid, nor bribed to do this review and I strive to give my honest thoughts and opinions throughout.
Hi GT,
Nice article. Do these shifters work on salsa “woodchipper” bar? i’m running them on my touring bike with “V” brakes.
BigE
@BigE: The current Retroshift levers will not pull enough cable to make your V brakes work correctly, but again, as stated in the post above, Retroshift has a V brake compatible model coming. (Note: The term “V brake” is a Shimano term for linear pull brake. They are one and the same.)
I guess I don’t understand that because those look exactly like the long-pull Tektros I have on my gravel rig for use with V-brakes.
Some thoughts:
First off, I’m always delighted to find a review here of a non-29er-specific part. Clearly, I visit the site because I’m a fan of 29 inch wheeled contraptions. But not every bike part worth mentioning is 29er specific. So thanks for bending the rules and making a point to bring interesting innovations such as this (Carnegie’s handlebar, for one illustrious example) to the attention of people who, like me, rely solely on twentynineinches.com for my internet bike-info fix.
On the other hand, I’m surprised to find in this review no discussion of the comparative pros and cons of bar-end shifters on 29ers. I can imagine that ‘cross racers might prefer these lever-mounted units, being more out of the way during regular dismounting and such. But – this being a 29er site
– I imagine that most 29er drop bar setups will use a bar such as the aforementioned Woodchipper, which is designed be used primarily from the drops. I don’t have any interference issues from the bar-ends on my Woodchipper-equipped Fargo when riding trails, and I imagine that the Retroshift would have the disadvantage when attempting a quick shift from the drops.
That’s my two cents.
Dave: Yes, the levers look the same as the long-pull models on your bike. But if you used these with your v-brakes, two problems would occur.
You would have to set up the pads really close to the rim in order to achieve proper engagement of the brake, probably causing pad-rub problems.
But more problematic would be the fact that these short-pull levers (designed for use with caliper, cantilever, or road discs only) have much more leverage and would make it extremely difficult to modulate your v-brakes. In other words, you’d be more likely to send yourself over the bars while fiddling with your shifters!
Last thing:
I kept thinking that GT messed up and meant to post this on the cyclist. So I went on over to the cyclist – which I otherwise rarely visit – to find that they are moving over here! Makes a heck of a lot of sense to me, and helps clear up some of my own confusion about this non-29er-specific post. True one-stop shopping!
@Dave: Divad is correct. While looks may be deceiving, these are short pull levers. Tektro makes identical looking long pull levers, as noted by yourself.
@Divad: bar end shifters on drop bar mountain bikes are generally, (but not always), less desirable due to crash prone position of the bar end levers, and some set ups may actually cause bar end levers to contact the top tube in crashes, causing damage to frames. In these cases, a Retroshift lever could be a great solution.
Finally, yes- We are moving everything over from the Cyclistsite due to the fact that (A) 29″ers are not all that unusual anymore in that a 29″er specific site is desirable, and (B) we have been getting asked to do more non-29 related reviews of products in the past two years and with traffic here dwarfing that of the Cyclistsite, it behooves our audience and the folks who provide the gear for review to have us place those reviews here instead of there.
I mean, let’s face it- If you ride a 29″er, you likely use a helmet, cycling shoes, pedals, handle bars, nutritional items, and apparel- None of which is 29″er specific. (Despite all the cracks made to the contrary
)So we feel it is not diluting the site at this point, but bringing the reader more value.
We hope you enjoy it. But never fear! Our main focus is still on big wheeled bicycles and related components.
Are these indexed? Is it click, click, click or “friction mode” only?
PS I love thumbies, really miss them and an hoping that somebody comes up with a 10 speed indexed thumb shifter. Anything in the pipeline?
GT – did adding these shifters require you to change to a shorter stem or shorter reach bar?
Yogi:
The Shimano bar-end shifters that these are designed for can be converted (with the twist of a lever) from index to friction to suit your tastes. And yes, they make a 10 speed Dura-Ace shifter that would go on here. Can’t be certain that it is compatible with their mountain rear derailleurs, though, if that’s what you have in mind. Can anyone vouch for this?
@yogi: As Divad say, yeas, you can mount 7, (if you can find them anymore), 8spd, 9spd, and 10spd road bar end shifters which will work on Retroshift mounts and they all index.
Mtn 10s rear dérailleurs and Road 10s shifters do not match up however.
Retired bike tech – I run a 11-36 Shimano ten-speed cassette on the back of our Co-Motion tandem, operated by SRAM 10spd bar-end shifter. A Dura-Ace shifter should shift a 10 speed mountain cassette just fine.
Bp: Within reason, repositioning shifters is no issue as long as you have the correct housing lengths and a long enough shift cable.
@Yogi, Have you looked at Paul’s Thumbies. http://paulcomp.com/thumbies.html
See Kelly take-offs for a simpler option. http://kellybike.com/2nd_xtra_takeoff.html