My wife suffers from arthritis in her hands and finds lever shifters painful to use. Prior to its onset, she enjoyed riding our Orange Prestige. We are almost the same height so that made sharing a bike easy but now need a second bike so that we can go out as a family on road/ light X country with our 9 YO.
I bought a ’90’s Clockwork as everything new around the £600 mark was way too heavy for my taste. It’s not going to be a purist retro build. To get around the gear problem I have gone for SRAM twist shift & associated mechs. I’m thinking that if we go for a more upright riding position that will help take the pressure off her hands. I think the 130mm original Stalk stem with no rise is probably not a good choice. I am not in touch with modern stuff at all and cannot fathom the trend for ugly looking stems with clamping bolts all over, there seems to be all manner of adjustable riser stems and bars etc and I appreciate that a 1” steerer is probably a limiting factor. So the question is what sort of combination of bars and stem would make a good choice without completely ruining the look of the bike ? I don’t want to have to keep swapping out parts to get it right if I don’t have to.
Secondly the old Deore cantis seem OK but I can’t reuse the original levers as they have the integrated shifters which I don’t need, shame as the levers are massive 4 finger jobbies which would help with the arthritis. I don’ like the look of v brakes and discs are probably OTT IMHO for our needs, I don’t have a suitable wheel set either. Can anyone recommend some suitable Shimano (ideally) lever models ideally 3 or 4 finger – I’m aware that the v brake levers would not be suitable. Finally I saw something about 2mm cables – will I need them on those old cantis ?
Any suggestions welcome Thanks
Tony
I bought a ’90’s Clockwork as everything new around the £600 mark was way too heavy for my taste. It’s not going to be a purist retro build. To get around the gear problem I have gone for SRAM twist shift & associated mechs. I’m thinking that if we go for a more upright riding position that will help take the pressure off her hands. I think the 130mm original Stalk stem with no rise is probably not a good choice. I am not in touch with modern stuff at all and cannot fathom the trend for ugly looking stems with clamping bolts all over, there seems to be all manner of adjustable riser stems and bars etc and I appreciate that a 1” steerer is probably a limiting factor. So the question is what sort of combination of bars and stem would make a good choice without completely ruining the look of the bike ? I don’t want to have to keep swapping out parts to get it right if I don’t have to.
Secondly the old Deore cantis seem OK but I can’t reuse the original levers as they have the integrated shifters which I don’t need, shame as the levers are massive 4 finger jobbies which would help with the arthritis. I don’ like the look of v brakes and discs are probably OTT IMHO for our needs, I don’t have a suitable wheel set either. Can anyone recommend some suitable Shimano (ideally) lever models ideally 3 or 4 finger – I’m aware that the v brake levers would not be suitable. Finally I saw something about 2mm cables – will I need them on those old cantis ?
Any suggestions welcome Thanks
Tony
