Shimano’s great Alfine (and Nexus) hubs have been the domain of the flat bar world for a while now, but road riders and tourers have had to look on with envy…
Now, those cheeky chappies at Sideways Cycles have sourced a Shimano-compatible lever for drop handlebars.
Versa produce the VRS-8 combined brake and shift lever for the Shimano Nexus 8 and Alfine 8 internal hub gear. The levers are compatible with caliper, cantilever and road disc brakes, enabling a pretty looking drop-bar set up on touring, road and cyclo-cross bikes. This unique lever is the answer to your prayers if you want to run Shimano’s internal hub system on your drop-barred bike.
The levers retail at £179 a pair and are available in black or silver, including inner gear cable, inline cable adjuster and pinch bolt. (Trade enquiries are welcome too).
For more information call Sideways Cycles on 01270 883785 or email info@sidewayscycles.co.uk www.sidewayscycles.co.uk
All I need now is for a version that will fit my beloved bullhorn track bars and all my niche-on-a-stick prayers will be answered.
Respect to sideways by the way for recognising that a lot of folk over here like drops and gearhubs.
hmmm. strokes soul patch.
Do Alfine hubs come in disk and non disk flavours?
Alfine is the disc version, Nexus is none disc. There ‘may’ be other differences, but I’m fLIcked if I can spot them.
http://www.singletrackworld.com/blogs/2009/11/cyclocross-cheap-fun-cycling/
Hmmmm I see a plan forming Tim
That was part of the reason. There’s loads of singlecross frames out there at the minute and you can octouple the fun with this set up 🙂
I think they’re a fab idea, but do Shimano know they’re making those? I’d be surprised if the big S don’t have some sort of patent on shifters with the exact amount of cable pull required to change gear in one of their hubs.
Unless they’ve left the hub gear format free in some sort of benevolent open-source type arrangement? Or they don’t own the rights in the first place?
Can you please confirm what type of brakes these are compatible with? The words say cantilevers and calipers, the pictures suggest V brakes. I’m right in thinking that V’s need different leverage from the other types?
the pictures suggest V brakes
From the pics, it looks like they need a Travel Agent in order to work with Vees?
Yup, they’re compatible with caliper, cantilever and road disc brakes. I’ve set that bike up with V’s and used Travel Agents, as I like ’em. In case you don’t know – Travel Agents increase the cable pull on regular road lever or really old MTB levers, so you can used V’s without constant scraping or them having that mushy feeling.
Darn, I was resisting a Pompino frame on ebay as a SS wouldn’t be great for commuting….
Blimey – I’m gibbering like a fool in my last reply. I blame the Kirsch and Rum that I’m sipping to ease my cough.
Don’t forget that road and ‘cross frames have 130mm hub spacing and alfine and nexus have 135mm OLD. Surly frames (as you can see in the example above) have 132.5 mm so you can use either hub and the steel construction allows you to wedge in a wide hub or clamp in a narrow one without the welds cracking. If you want to run a clean Alfine/Nexus setup, you’ll need to use a singlespeed hybrid frame such as the Trek district or soho and retro-fit drops.
You can just alter the width of the hubs down to 130. It’s quite easy to do by simply replacing the non drive locknut with a 5mm thinner one. Obviously not recommended for Alfine as the disc spacing would be out, but good with Nexus.
Luckily the Genesis Day 01 drop bar has a 135mm spacing so the Alfine wheel I am looking at will drop straight in.
I’ve been running an Alfine hub on a Cotic Roadrat for a few weeks now
I have drop bars on it and am using a trigger shifter filed out to 24mm
I am using special tektro drop levers (supplied by Cotic) with a long cable pull and shimano v brakes