[jabpn]

I have an old Raleigh that I'm using as my winter beater. It's came with Shimano's Exage shifters. The problem is that while installing front V-brakes I kindof trashed the front shifter and brake combo lever. So I threw out the messed up shifter/brake lever and took off the front derailleur. Now that there's eight inches of snow to slog through I'm really missing that granny gear to get through the snow plow packed sidewalks. So I bought a cheapo tourney indexing shifter from Alfred E. Bike (here in town, yeah!) and when I couldn't get that to work ( the shifter would hold it's place due to the front derraileur spring overcoming the "indent" forcing things back into the granny gear setting) I went with some Rapidfire STX shifters. These "click" into place and hold there but I can't seem to get the derailleur set right so that the chain won't rub the deraileur cage in the middle chainring. Since this is the ring I'm in the majority of the time this would get annoying. I've tried the limit screws, adjusting the amount of cable slack/tightness, and barrel adjusters on the shifter.

So my question is this. Is it possible that a front derailleur will only be compatible with friction shifters or should the index shifters work and I just have to keep playing with the settings until I get it right? If the index shifters should work what element of the settings should I focus most on. I've focused primarily on the limit adjustments so far. I've also been through my copy of Zinn and I've been to the Parktool website but to no avail.

 

[steveit]

the indexed shifters SHOULD work with the right adjustments. i dunno what kind of chain line you are keeping which may contribute to some rubbing. me? ive always liked the non-indexed (friction) grip shifters in front, but thats merely my preference. they are simple, durable and minor tuning can be done on the fly, a click at a time, to stop any rubbing i experience.