Hi,
Thank you for your detailed response and valuable suggestions. I realized I omitted a crucial piece of information in my initial query. Apologies for any confusion.
To provide more context, I'm currently working with an 11-speed MTB setup and, indeed, I'm looking to install drop bar shifters. Specifically, I'm seeking recommendations for drop bar shifters compatible with Shimano 11-speed MTB derailleurs.
Considering your expertise, could you kindly offer advice on drop bar shifters for an 11-speed MTB setup?
Any insights or suggestions you can provide, especially regarding the compatibility of these drop bar shifters with my existing MTB components, would be immensely helpful.
Once again, I appreciate your assistance and expertise.
Best regards,
OK, I see. That's a more interesting (complicated) problem. Especially since you are also using hydraulic MTB brakes.
As far as I know, most Shimano hydraulic road bike STI levers (integrated brake and shifter levers for drop bars) will work OK with MTB hydraulic brakes.
However, they won't shift well with an MTB derailleur.
At the same time, I don't know of any hydraulic drop bar brake levers that don't have integrated shifters.
So, on a budget, it might be cheaper to get some high-quality road bike mechanical brakes. Alternative to that is to get hydraulic STIs to use just for brakes, and get separate shifters.
For shifters,
bar-end shifters are what I used for
my gravel bike build (mine work in friction mode, as I like it
). They have a downside: for technical tracks, I would prefer to have nothing protruding out of my handlebar ends. Unfortunately, my down-tube is too wide to easily mount any
down-tube shifters.
Guevenale shifters are another interesting option (too expensive for me to import to Serbia). According to their site, they have also started making Hydraulic levers with shifters, for most available MTB and Road derailleurs:
https://www.gevenalle.com/product/hydraulic/
I have no idea whatsoever about how durable those are (their mechanical brake levers and shifters are highly regarded as very reliable and durable). They certainly are expensive.
For the mechanical levers, I think they are machining a square hole inside the $30 Tektro levers, for mounting some good-quality Microshift downtube shifters. I can't confirm that until I see a sample in my hands. Machining in USA costs a lot, so the price is what it is. I'm not sure about their hydraulic stuff.
Microshift also makes bar-end shifters:
https://www.microshift.com/models/bs-m11/
Shimano bar-end shifters are indexed for road derailleurs so that's not an option. Having said that, if you get a derailleur hanger extender, you could use an 11-speed Shimano road derailleur with the MTB cassette - we did that for my friend Starča's bike:
Pairing Shimano 11speed MTB cassette with a road groupset
Those are some options that I could think of. Can't really say which option is the optimal choice (and am happy and thankful that it's not my call, as it's a tough choice
). I've completely "switched back" to rim brakes and friction shifters for all my bikes. It's very cheap, robust, durable and hassle free to adjust or replace, even on the road, and it's robust enough to not need any fixing on the road almost never, even though I fall down a lot.
I hope I've explained this well - let me know if you have any other questions.
Relja
