I'm less than satisfied with right/rear Silver shifters. I've tried two (used and new, with both gray and black plastic discs) and encountered the same problem: the tension screw is very finicky and doesn't stay in place very long.
Within a couple hundred miles, the screw will back out a fraction of a turn and I'll lose shifter friction, resulting in an abrupt shift to high gear. When I attempt to re-tension the screw, I invariably over-tighten it and the effort to move the shift lever is too high (I cracked one gray plastic disc this way, in the middle of a tour). Unfortunately, the "sweet spot" of just-enough tension doesn't last long until it loosens again. Grant has alluded to this in previous Reader/Blug articles, and says that messing with the tension bolt is a minor issue that's easy to remedy. My opinion differs; I find it more frustrating. That said, I don't feel that it's such a problem that I expect Riv to refund me. It's a foible of the design of these shifters, not really a failure. I prefer to use Shimano bar-ends for rear shifting on my bikes. However, I am very satisfied with the shifting of the front/left Silver shifter, specifically with triple cranks. The Silver front shifter seems to throw more cable than the Shimano ones. This means that I have to move the shift lever less to effect a front shift, which gives the shift lever a more direct, commanding feel. The front Shimano bar-ends require lots of lever travel and end up near a 10 o'clock position when in the biggest ring, whereas the Silver is still at 8:30 in that situation. I recently took the right Silver shifter off my Riv and set it up with a Shimano 10s index shifter (with XT M772 RD and 11-32 cassette), but I kept the left Silver shifter for the front derailleur (IRD Alpina-D with Campy Racing T crank 52/42/30). My KOM is set up with 9 speed Shimano bar end shifters, and I plan on replacing the front Shimano shifter with a Silver bar-end. FYI, the bar-end pod on the 10 speed Shimano shifters is black and oh-so-slightly different than the standard pod on the 7/8/9 speed Shimanos and Silvers. The 10 speed Shimano shift lever fits fine on the 7/8/9 speed pod, BUT the 10th click is locked out. The top of the 10 speed pod has a little less material and this allows the lever to reach the 10th click. If you want to use the 10 speed Shimano bar ends, you have to use the black pod (included). Tim -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch@googlegroups.com. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
