Has anyone taken apart a SRAM Force shifter? I am toying with the idea of painting the double tap shifter paddles black and applying some faux carbon to them. I want to achieve a Campy “full carbon” look to the shifter without having to wait for the Red group to come on the market. If anyone knows of a location of a exploded view of the inner workings of the shifters, that would be great.

I decided to paint my Force shifters black.

At first, I tied removing the silver paddles by removing the small c-clip from the pin that holds the paddle to the rest of the assembly. I was able to remove the clip and pull out the pin, but the small return spring holding it in place didn’t want to budge. Fearing trying to dissemble the shifter further without instructions would cause some mystery part to fly out of it, I opted to put the pin and clamp back in.

Pulling back the rubber hood I noticed that enough of the paddle could be exposed to paint it in place. I applied quick release masking tape around the shifter leaving the silver paddle exposed and painted it with Krylon Fusion satin back, which is made to bond to plastic. I am satisfied with the results. There is still some silver showing near the pivot, but that area shouldn’t too noticeable once the shifters are mounted on the bike. Worse case, I could always touchup the area with a small paint brush.
<O:p</O:p

The shifters are still in the process of drying, as shown in the pictures. Once the paint fully cures, I plan to apply the small faux carbon cutouts to both sides of each paddle.

Interesting Stuff. Looks like you could have lots of fun with a Rival shifter!

you are painting your shifters. Please send me some of whatever you are smoking.

And the faux carbon fiber sticker will match the carbon levers perfectly! :rolleyes:

wtf. i agree with jhamlin38... all types of doping problems in cycling... not all for performance.

That's the craziest thing I've ever seen!!!


(Now will you do mine?)

For a spray bomb job, it looks pretty good.

Now you can tell people they are experimential pre-release test levers for the European market

what is the carbon cutout from. I'm thinking I should do this with my Tektro r200a levers so that they look even more like campy, only instead of 10 speed make it say 1 speed.