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Permalink Reply by Kevin Mulcky on November 20, 2014 at 8:19am

You'll need to do A LOT of work that is going to cost at least $200. I suggest mounting the shifters you have on the handlebar or stem. 

you'll need to spread the frame to 130mm (which is a bad idea if the Vitus is aluminum), new rear wheel, new cassette, cables and housing, cable stops, front and rear derailers that are compatible with your brifters. 

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Permalink Reply by Cooper T. Washington on November 20, 2014 at 10:37am

Thanks for all the inputs! He let it be known during one of our recent rides that he cares only for brifters. 

He doesn't want any more hassle of moving his hands away from the hoods, just to shift. IT may have been my fault. We are the same size so we swapped and I let him use my Scott.  The poor guy is hooked on brifters now, but he loves that Vitus like it's one of my siblings.
Andy Moss 9.5 said:

Would bar-end shifters fit in his bars?  Most can be set to (or are exclusively) friction, in which case it does not matter how many speeds the shifters are.  It may be possible to use the existing DT shifters in bar ends, although you may need some kind of spacer.  May be easier just to buy a used set.

If thumbies are an option, these cheapy SunRace or Falcon ones work very nicely.  http://www.rivbike.com/product-p/sh3.htm; http://store.velo-orange.com/index.php/components/shifting-freewhee....  I have a SunRace on a beater 1x8.  Friction only, but it has a nice, solid ratchety feel to it, and it's bullet proof.

For stem mounting, I see tons of old Shimano and other branded stem shifters on eBay, often for very cheap.  Again, you may be able to mount the DT shifters on one. 

For the DT braze ons, you need DT cable stops:  http://store.velo-orange.com/index.php/components/shifting-freewhee...

 

 

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Permalink Reply by Cooper T. Washington on November 20, 2014 at 10:44am

So this is what I've educated myself on for the last 2 hrs. Correct me if I'm wrong on any of these.

1. Are there any brifters that work with 6-speed freewheels? No. Brifters were introduced on after 6-speed freewheels/freehubs were already passe. So no 6-speed brifters were made.
2. If not, do I need to swap out the freewheel? To what kind? Yes, specifically for the Vitus you have to work with the 126mm spacing and the 7-speed is the only other one that fits. you go up to 8-speed and above, you have to spread the chainstays + seat stays to fit the new one in. And that's a no-no for an alu frame. 
3. Will they fit into his current 126mm rear hub spacing? 7-speed will.
4. His rear derailer is friction. Do I need to get indexed? Yes.
5. Which derailer? Should be same group as the brifters. 
6. Which brifters? I don't have a lot of money but I also don't want to do a crappy job. Looks like either Shimano Tourney or get lucky on finding older 2x7 RSX. 
7. His bike has braze-ons on the DT for the shifters. Do I need cable stops on there? What kind? Yes, Shimano makes/made them. 
8. I'm assuming the rear derailer/freewheel is the hardest part of this job and the front derailer can stay as it is. Is this correct? Yes but it is not that hard. There are Youtube vids showing how it's done. the harder part may be adjusting the shifters to make sure they work well.

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Permalink Reply by djm on November 21, 2014 at 2:17am

Cooper T. Cooper III said:

So this is what I've educated myself on for the last 2 hrs. Correct me if I'm wrong on any of these.

1. His rear derailer is friction. Do I need to get indexed? Yes.
2. Which derailer? Should be same group as the brifters. 

RD doesnt care if shifting is indexed or friction;  it just needs to have compatible cable travel and be able to traverse the cogset (e.g.: cannot mix SRAM and Shimano without additional gimmicks).  Modern RDs designed for indexing may shift better but this may not matter for 7-speed.

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