Dura Ace bar end shifters

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I have just bought some to fit on my trike, and in the instructions it states that they will only work with Dura Ace gears. Is this true? Surely a gear mechanism cannot recognise who, or what, is pulling its cable. Help please.
 

RedBike

New Member
Location
Beside the road
I seriously doubt this is true.
However, when they were first released it's highly likely only dura-ace was 9/10 speed (or whatever) so they will of only worked with dura-ace parts.
 
Indeed. They'll work with any 10sp Shimano system if they're 10sp Dura Ace barcons, or any 9sp Shimano system if they're 9sp Dura Ace barcons.

In a similar manner, the 8sp Ultegra barcons have a sticker on them saying they only work with one specific model of rear mech. Not true, they work with almost any 8sp rear mech, apart from ancient Dura Ace stuff.

The reality is that Dura Ace went 8sp before any of the rest of the Shimano groups.
They then changed it in (I think 1997, 98 ?), changed the amount of cable pulled-per-click of the shifter.
So post (1997, 98 ?) DA 8sp shifters work with their corresponding post (1997, 98 ?) rear mechs, and pre (1997, 98 ?) shifters work with their corresponding pre (1997, 98 ?) rear mechs, but you can't mix-and-match them.
When Ultegra, and then 105, etc went up to 8sp, they used the same pull-ratio as the new DA, so they work fine with the later-model DA 8sp stuff

The sticker on the 8sp barcon, which was sold back in 1998 or so as DA and then more recently has been rebranded as Ultegra, thus has a sticker saying it can only be used with one model of post (1997, 98 ?) rear mech, because at the time that was true, it wouldn't work with the pre (1997, 98 ?) rear mechs.
And it still has that sticker, even though it can be used with any post (1997, 98 ?) 8sp rear mech, be that DA, Ultegra, 105, Tiagra or even Sora !
 

marxist_fixie

Proper tea is theft [with apologies to Prodhom]
Location
Near Cambridge
I have a RD-7400...which is pre 1997.....i have a set of Ultegra SL-6400 shifters...Will they work with the rear mech?.....If not what can i do?.....7 speed DA shifters are available occasionally on ebay.....What about 'modern' 9 speed DA downtube or bar end shifters...are they compatible with the RD-7400?.....Or have i bought a puppy...and should put it back on ebay?
 
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