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Is there a 10spd shifter with a gear-indicator window?

2.8K views 28 replies 17 participants last post by  flash4092  
#1 ·
I want to upgrade my cargo bike from 8-speed to 10-speed so I can use a clutch derailleur. It has a triple crankset that I'm going to keep.

I bought some 10-speed parts, the 10-speed I-spec shifters I bought don't have any indicator on them to tell you what gear you are in. This is sort of a problem for the cargo bike because the rear cassette is completely hidden under the saddle bags. So when I walk up to the bike, I have no idea what gear its in and I can't look at the cassette to find out. And when riding, how am I supposed to tell when I get to the end of the cassette...when I mash on the lever and it doesn't shift, then I guess I know it's the last gear? This is a big setback compared to the 8-speed shifters, because I shift through the front rings all the time.

Is there any 10-speed shifter with a gear indicator on it? Is there any way to add a gear indicator somehow?
 
#3 ·
I can tell if I need a harder or easier gear WHILE I'M PEDALING. The two problems are 1) I have no way to know when I'm going to hit the end of the cassette until I just miss a shift, which obviously always happens right in the middle of an intersection or while going up a steep hill with a heavy load. I go all the way through the cassette every 20 seconds on this thing and have to shift the front rings all the time 2) you can't go by feel when you aren't even riding. When the bike is parked, it could be in gear 1 or gear 10, and I can't even tell because I can't see the cassette. It's hidden under the bags. I have no idea if it's in a reasonable gear until I get on it and start pedaling?
 
#7 ·
I never know what gear I'm in, unless it's the very top or very bottom and I run out of range...but that almost never happens. I go purely by pedal feel...if it's hard, downshift...if it's easy, upshift.

Maybe there is an issue with crosschaining/etc if you have a front derailleur, but it's really not a problem on a 1x.

I guess I don't see the issue with not knowing what gear you're in starting either... Just shift to the right feeling gears once you start moving. I tend to downshift a couple times when coming to a stop so it's never hard to start again. I learned early not to make a habit of coasting to a stop in a high gear. But again, I imagine it's a lot simpler on a 1x than a 3x.

Another thought is that even if you can see what gear you're in, you'd have to shift anyway if you were in a bad gear, so other than cross chaining, how does knowing the specific gear you're in at any given time help?
 
#12 ·
I never know what gear I'm in, unless it's the very top or very bottom and I run out of range...but that almost never happens.
That's nice for you, but for me I am in the very top and bottom of the cassette range literally hundreds of times per day. I have to shift through the cassette twice just to get to cruising speed.

Maybe there is an issue with crosschaining/etc if you have a front derailleur, but it's really not a problem on a 1x.
Again that's nice for you, but this is not a 1x bike.

Another thought is that even if you can see what gear you're in, you'd have to shift anyway if you were in a bad gear, so other than cross chaining, how does knowing the specific gear you're in at any given time help?
Because if you are already at the highest or lowest gear of the cassette, you CAN'T "shift anyway if you are in a bad gear". You already admitted that you "never know what gear you are in", and neither do I unless I am keeping count or I have an indicator. Unless you have like, Lance Armstrong-bike-whisperer-level extreme ninja cadence-computing skills, you can't be REALLY sure at a certain moment that you are in the 28t 2nd and not the 32t 1st, and so you literally don't know if it will be possible to shift or not. The only thing you can do is just try to shift, usually at a time when you really need to shift, then find out you can't shift, and by then you already lost momentum and it's too late to shift the front too. This is not an edge case on a cargo bike. This is happens like, every small hill.

Tiagra 10-sp flatbar shifter may work. The 10-sp 11-36 cassette is the same as the old XT 10-sp 11-36. Ask your shop mechanics.
The derailleur is a MTB derailleur. So a Tiagra is a road shifter, and Shimano is evil and makes their parts not work together, so it has to be a MTB shifter.
 
#18 ·
I'll look through my stuff. I am almost positive I had either SLX or Deore 10speed shifters that came with the indicators on, but also came with blank covers. They got taken off after a few rides when I went 1x and switched to 11 speed. So I may have both shifters and indicators, but I'll check.
 
#19 ·
i'll be nice and shop for you:

 
#20 ·
Your problem is the i-spec! Shimano's 10 speed clamp-on shifters came in the gear indicator flavor, but for whatever reason the i-spec ones didn't. There should be some clamp-on, indicator-having, 10-speed shifters on eBay right now, or at least in the near future. The i-spec ones come up more frequently, but the clamp ons do come.
 
#23 ·
i think it's a mistype in the ad, but call contes. Generally speaking tho Deore has been a mid level MTB product.

 
#24 ·
About starting out in the wrong gear... I just make it a habit to down shift when I get off my bikes. My garage is at the bottom of a long decline, so if I get on a bike and didn't downshift it's really annoying because I'm usually hauling butt when I go down the driveway. I get on expecting to spin up the driveway and then I realize I'm in too tall of a gear. Shifting isn't good when done under load, and I use SPD pedals so it's annoying to hop off and hand crank the gears, so I totally understand where the OP is coming from.

I know real mountain bikers think those optical displays are dumb, but I really miss the ones I had 20 years ago. There was this one climb that was steep and pretty tall... a lot of riders couldn't clear it, and if they did they were barely chugging it out at the top. I spent a day figuring out how to approach it and clear it, and the gear display really helped out with that. I knew what gear to be in and how hard to pedal leading up to it and precisely what gear to shift to so I could catch the momentum I had and blast over the top.

I wasn't very fast back then, but those gear indicators helped me figure out that climb to the point I would drop the faster guys I rode the trail with, and when they'd catch up to me, they always commented on how fast I cleared it.

I don't think it's as easy knowing which gear is the perfect one for certain hill sprints without those indicators. I do well enough now without them, but I think I could be faster in a lot of places knowing I was on the right cog. It's too difficult when you're pushing at threshold and blasting through the trees to count your cogs or know exactly which one you're using at a glance.
 
#25 ·
Exactly...the big need is just to let me know when I am going to run out of gears and need to shift the front. But you reminded me I also have certain hills where I force myself to shift to certain gears at certain points... like I need to pull 4th gear until I get to the tree, then 3rd until the fire hydrant, then start shifting back up at a certain point....if I don't follow the program on some of these gnarly hills I can easily run out of steam and not make it up them or else run out of energy later. I'm sure anyone who commuted the same route over and over knows what I'm talking about.

I ordered one of the shifters suggested above.