# J-tek drop bar shifter for Alfine 11



## wschruba (Apr 13, 2012)

Since I was unable to find any reviews for this particular item, and had a credit on my Paypal account, I decided to buy one and try it out. Information was pretty sparse--other than that it existed--but I was hopeful given J-tek's reputation, even after being purchased out.

First impressions:

The shifter is well machined, and operates very smoothly. Tolerances are tight, with no slop at the individual indices. Compared to the flat-bar control, it is easier to move; I always found the Shimano shifter to be somewhat stiff, especially releasing cable.

Installation:









Installation is straight-forward. Rather than the traditional method of an expander plug in the end of the handlebar, the unit clamps _over_ the end of the handlebar, roughly 1/2" or 1 cm. I found that the exit port for the shifter is slightly too far from the bar center to comfortably wrap over with tape. I felt that is would needlessly stress the connection, so instead, wrapped the bar, and whipped the housing to the finished product. Since the shifter lacks a barrel adjuster, an in-line version had to be used to provide for adjustment. Well aware of how finicky the Alfine 11 is with cable tension, I used machined brass ferrules where possible, for the best fit; the adjuster itself was treated with a mild thread preparation, in addition to the internal spring, to combat potential loosening.

First ride:

The shifter performed better than the OE shifter, with no slop in the cable movement apparent. After minor adjustments outside of the "correct" range, which seems to be the norm for i11 hubs, there were no further mis-shifts. The body of the shifter, while certainly larger than the handlebar, did not prove intrusive/uncomfortable...but it was definitely there. The lever end of the shifter is much longer than a traditional bar-end shifter, much closer to a downtube shift lever in length. If one's knees are in line with the shifter, it would be easy to bump when standing. Since my bars have a flare to them, placing them outside the range of my knee, this was not an issue.

Other thoughts:

One of the first things I noticed about the shifter was that the bore for the shift housing was 6 mm, not 4 or 5 mm. This immediately struck me as odd, since the information that came with the shifter specifically called for _not_ using a ferrule on the end of the housing, claiming the shifter was designed not to be used with one. Having personally worked on bicycles that used compressionless housing that, for whatever reason, was not capped, this struck me as absurd. Strands have a habit of making a "birds nest" when left to their own devices, and I respectfully disagree with their assessment, especially in a housing section that has a bend that moves as the handlebar does, with excess play in the mounting point of the housing. I used 4 mm shift housing (SP-41) with a special ferrule designed to fit into frame stops intended for bare 5 mm housing. Not aware of any source for these, I can only conclude that the shifter was not designed for such housing, though why it was not eludes me. With the above mentioned ferrule, fit into the shifter was acceptable.

I was initially perturbed by the way the shifter mounted, but after seeing it in person, realized that the pulley for the cable is quite large, and would have necessitated a larger shifter, which may not have lent itself to a more traditional mounting system for a bar end.

So far, I am happy with the purchase. Stay tuned as I will update this post with any further thoughts as I own it longer.


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## CS2 (Jul 24, 2007)

There have been a lot of problems associated with 11. Does using a better shifter make a difference in your opinion? BTW that was an excellent review.


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