3x10 Tiagra 4703 Flat Bar Shifters

[GeekDadZoid]

Good morning,

I have not been very active in here for a while are the real world has been very busy. WIth the better weather I have started to do a post winter bike assesment.
My super galaxy's main job these days is to be the Dad bike I take the youngest out on the tagalong. I do not find drop bars very comfortable for that now he is a bit bigger so I thought I may convert to flats for now on it.

I currently have 3x10 Tiagra 4700 Brifters on it so if I could find a set of 4703 flat bar ones it would be an easy swap over and return to original if I ever decide too.

I have seen them online for around £80 but it would be better if i could spend less.

Anyone got some in the spares?

Thanks

 

[si_c]

Found the three speed one for £40 on ebay (link). There's a related 2x10 pair of shifters there which you could also pick up to get the rear shifter - you'd end up with a spare front shifter for 2x but it works out about £70.

 

[GeekDadZoid]

Found the three speed one for £40 on ebay (link). There's a related 2x10 pair of shifters there which you could also pick up to get the rear shifter - you'd end up with a spare front shifter for 2x but it works out about £70.

Thanks that might be the best option. Annoyingly available in Germany for about £44.

 

[si_c]

Thanks that might be the best option. Annoyingly available in Germany for about £44.

Depends if you can find a return flight for about £30 or not.

 

[wafter]

Just to irritate you I have these on my Genesis (albeit in 2x format) - I'll likely be shifting them soon as I plan on changing the bulk of the groupset, although appreciate that they're not ideal.

I vaguely recall seeing a 3 speed job used on ebay for about £30... they do seem to hold their value pretty well and to be fair are pretty nice in use. I'd be happy with mine if they'd shift the MTB components I intend to fit - bloody Shimano!

Also, be aware that while the rear and 2x front shifters use different pull ratios between 4600 and 4700, it appears that the 3x FDs have the same ratios / use the same cable pull - so at a pinch you could use the 4603 shifter. It appears to be exactly the same unit in a different colour; if you can tolerate that. Last time I looked a Chinese seller on ebay had these for about £30...

Out of interest, what crankset and FD are you running - is it all Tiagra or something else?

 

[wafter]

Oh, also whilst perving at your old thread on the bike to get some more info on your drivetrain it seems the shifters pictured are earlier than 4700 (assuming 4600) - be aware that as above the cable pulls are different on some bits to 4700, so unless you've changed to 4700 recently you might like to have a re-think.

Still interested to hear about your FD and crankset arrangement though - don't suppose you fancy measuring some cable pulls for me?

 

[GeekDadZoid]

Oh, also whilst perving at your old thread on the bike to get some more info on your drivetrain it seems the shifters pictured are earlier than 4700 (assuming 4600) - be aware that as above the cable pulls are different on some bits to 4700, so unless you've changed to 4700 recently you might like to have a re-think.

Still interested to hear about your FD and crankset arrangement though - don't suppose you fancy measuring some cable pulls for me?

Well spotted. I'll double check later on today, I have been distracted by a 3 speed city bike project with a dodgy rear hub.

I'm sure it's a deore chainset but I'll report back.

 

[wafter]

Well spotted. I'll double check later on today, I have been distracted by a 3 speed city bike project with a dodgy rear hub.

I'm sure it's a deore chainset but I'll report back.

Good work!

FWIW I've just done some more digging and my previous assertion about 4600/4700 triple shifters / derailleurs being compatable might be incorrect. While the FDs look very similar, according to official Shimano docs they're not..

Further I found this review on what appears to be your exact model. While the spec list isn't perfect details can be inferred from the images.

Shifters are evidently 10sp and from their fat heads not 4700 (which are a lot slimmer) so they must be 4600.

FD is listed only as "Tiagra", presumably the same 4600 series as the shifter.

Chainset is listed as "Deore" as you suggest, but looks to be a later non-ish series item. Either way it will be an MTB item with an associated 50mm chainline.

This is interesting as the Tiagra (road) FD shouldn't "officially" work with the MTB chainset (an area of compatability I'm currently very interested in thanks to hating the road cranksets on my Genesises).

While chainring pitch is likely the same / very close, the chainline should be 5mm further outboard on the crankset... this could potentially be addressed by running the FD at the extremity of its range or maybe spacing it out a bit.

Also from the shape of the crankset it looks very much like my old M591; which had crank arms offset by 6.5mm to the drive side to accommodate a chain case. Getting creative with the spacers on the BB the whole crankset could be shuffled over towards the NDS by 3-ish mm; giving even pedal spacing and pulling the crankset closer to the FD to offset some of the difference in chainline... although this would make it a bit less ideal re. the chainline relative to the cassette.

Finally the shape of the FD cage should be a little less than ideal since the Tiagra triple crankset is a bit larger at 50/39/30t, while that fitted is the typical touring stalwart 48/36/26, so worst case 4t / 13% smaller at the bottom end.


How does it shift up front? From my perspective this is very interesting as it apparently represents an example of my holy grail - a wide Q-factor MTB crankset used with road components.. albeit not exactly what I'm after.


Anyway, ultimately all that's probably of little interest to you... In answer to your OP it appears that you need SL-4600-series shifters if you want to go flat-bar. Seems the LH triple shifter (SL-4603) is relatively cheap - there's one for sub-£30 from a Chinese seller on ebay - however the corresponding RH item (SL-4600-R, IIRC) is a load more and the whole lot from the same seller comes to about £95.

Sport and Leisure list the 10sp RH item at £45; they're currently doing 10% off on their ebay shop but irritatingly this isn't listed on there.

Perhaps unsurprisingly these bits are looking a bit thin on the ground since they were superceded in 2016 and probably weren't hugely popular to begin with.

There are other compatable flat-bar shifters, however these will be even older so probably even less viable in terms of finding a decent example.