I just want to thank you, Eric, and this community for being so amazing. I bought a used 58cm Homer Hilsen last year from a Riv rider in Costa Rica. My goal was to set it up as an all-day All-Road bike with drop bars. It came set-up with Albastache bars and Silver2 bar end shifters. I rode it as is for a while and really liked the set-up, but, expectations being what they are, I just had to see how it felt in proper drop-bar configuration. As it had an 8-speed Shimano 11-40 cassette with the absolutely incredible Acera 3020 RD, I went Shimergo setup with some beautiful Campy Chorus 10-speed brifters with the drop bars. Well, it didn't feel as comfortable as capable as it did with the Albastache bars and friction shifting. I'm not in the process of returning it to its previous form, but I noticed that the right shifter had no audible or tactile ratchet action, unlike the left. I'm really not a tinkerer at all, so my first thought was to buy a replacement Silver shifter. Rivendell's pages about dismantling the Silver shifters, plus Eric's post and his amazing Silver Shifter Youtube video gave me the confidence to attempt the dissasembly. I'm also recently living in Switzerland so getting parts is a bit of an ordeal. I followed Eric's video and when I opened-up the shifter I discovered a bunch of dirt or something caked into the area where the pawl pivots away from the ratchet. It was stuck in such a way that the spring was always compressed and the pawl never engaged with the ratchet. I carefully removed all the parts, storing them in a plastic bag and then thoroughly cleaned the gunk out of the shifter body, especially in that pawl pivot area. I reassembled everything and voila! That sweet feeling and sounding ratchet action was back! I'm now at the stage of running new cables and housing and my awesome Homer will be back in its Albastache form but now with much nicer shifting action. Thanks, Eric and all. -Taylor
On Wednesday, September 20, 2023 at 5:02:06 AM UTC+2 [email protected] wrote: > Hi all — I'm looking for some neglected, cast off or broken Silver 1 > shifters to scavenge so that I can repair some broken Silver 1 shifters > sent to me by forum member Pam Murray. If you have some you aren't using or > that you think are broken which you are willing to send me for the cost of > shipping please let me know. I will use them to repair Pam's shifters and > get them back to her! > > I recently read enjoyed Pam's thread on broken Silver shifters > <https://groups.google.com/g/rbw-owners-bunch/c/HIqS567cjio/m/XvTLS759AQAJ>. > And right on time one of my Silvers broke. So I took mine apart to have a > look. It turns out the spring was clogged with corrosion and wouldn't > compress, allowing for the pawl to hold the ratchet wheel and hold tension > on the shifter cable. Luckily the spring and pawl only needed to be cleaned > and reassembled. > > Pam sent me three broken Silver shifters. As many of us know, Pam has put > tens of thousands of miles on her legendary Betty Foy. She's worn out many > parts and she's interested in getting them back into service when possible. > I took a look and was able to fix one of the shifters. The other two > require new pawls, which I can't locate. > > [image: Screenshot 2023-09-19 at 10.59.05 PM.png] > > I reached out to Dia Compe in Taiwan about spare parts. They replied > quickly but said they could not send me any bits and pieces and suggested I > contact Rivendell. > > So I wrote to Will Keating at Rivendell, who's a wonderfully helpful and > nice guy and a friend and he said he'd send me some parts. Well, they > arrived today and they're *brand new* Silver 2 levers. I really don't > want to destroy brand new shifters to revive old shifters! I'm sure the > pawls I need are inside but I can't bring myself to tear them apart. > They've very definitely never been installed on a bike. > > I have found some replacement springs from McMaster-Carr > <https://www.mcmaster.com/9657K257/>. They're heavier gauge wire and > slightly longer than the stock springs from Dia Compe. But they fit and > they work. They do result in a lever with heavier action but they do not > make the lever difficult to operate. > > My plan, once I locate some pawls, is to make a Silver shifter repair and > maintenance video. I hope that with donated parts from other members I can > fix Pam's shifters, show the process of disassembly, repair and re-assembly > and share it with the group (and the rest of the web). I'll include a > detailed look of the proper order for all the bits and how the get the > shifter closed back up. > > Thanks in advance! > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/rbw-owners-bunch/ce1af075-fb75-48a9-877f-48f2566d8df2n%40googlegroups.com.
