I picked up a couple old frames off E-bay, a Panasonic and Nishiki, and want to turn one of them into a fixed gear and the other into a commuter. Without a lot of foresite, I blasted them and had them powdercoated. They both look great but now my problem is this: I want to put STI on the commuter (the Nishiki) but it has no provision for cable stops on the down tube. It does have a somewhat funky shifter mount on TOP of the downtube, but not on either side of the tube as you would expect. What I should have done is had my local guy braze on stops before I had it coated. Maybe I could take a photo of the shifter mount and post it....Anyway, does anyone have a solution for getting cable stops for this frame, short of having them brazed on and then repainted? Thanks.

I picked up a couple old frames off E-bay, a Panasonic and Nishiki, and want to turn one of them into a fixed gear and the other into a commuter. Without a lot of foresite, I blasted them and had them powdercoated. They both look great but now my problem is this: I want to put STI on the commuter (the Nishiki) but it has no provision for cable stops on the down tube. It does have a somewhat funky shifter mount on TOP of the downtube, but not on either side of the tube as you would expect. What I should have done is had my local guy braze on stops before I had it coated. Maybe I could take a photo of the shifter mount and post it....Anyway, does anyone have a solution for getting cable stops for this frame, short of having them brazed on and then repainted? Thanks.

There are clamp on cable stops that were used with barcons before braze-ons were common, but they are hard to find unless you buy a complete NOS set of Suntour non-indexed barcons that go for about $40 on Ebay. If you do buy a set, try them out. You may decide that STI is not all that great compared to a nice set of friction barcons, especially if you go 8 speed instead of 9 or 10. I put a set on my beater and now have them on all 3 of my bikes.

Including a real nice Campy clamp and 10 Suntour clamps.

Go to Ebay, Cycling and search for cable stops.

Rivendell has clamp-on cable stops. $10 for members at:

http://rivendellbicycles.com/webalog/shifters_derailleurs/17109.html

--Shannon

It does have a somewhat funky shifter mount on TOP of the downtube, but not on either side of the tube as you would expect. .
is almost certainly for SunTour Symmetric self-trimming DT shifters. Pretty cool. Cooler than STI. Rare these days, worth looking around for a unit.

is almost certainly for SunTour Symmetric self-trimming DT shifters. Pretty cool. Cooler than STI. Rare these days, worth looking around for a unit.

Yes, that's what is it. It was the self trimming unit. Guys at the shop thought it was pretty cool to see one. It has a square mount on the top of the down tube with a bolt hole in the center that the lever unit mounts to. What I ended up doing was to take the levers off, put the unit without the levers on and I was able to screw in cable adjusters/stops where the levers would go. Thanks for all your replies.

Yes, that's what is it. It was the self trimming unit. Guys at the shop thought it was pretty cool to see one. It has a square mount on the top of the down tube with a bolt hole in the center that the lever unit mounts to. What I ended up doing was to take the levers off, put the unit without the levers on and I was able to screw in cable adjusters/stops where the levers would go. Thanks for all your replies.
I tried it once many years ago in a midguided attempt to convert to bar-cons, but the little moving cam in the unit (the weird thing that magically trims the shifters) caused the stops to move up and down weirdly. Forced me to keep the cool Symmetrics intact as the gods intended.

I tried it once many years ago in a midguided attempt to convert to bar-cons, but the little moving cam in the unit (the weird thing that magically trims the shifters) caused the stops to move up and down weirdly. Forced me to keep the cool Symmetrics intact as the gods intended.

nothing moving here. i just took the chunk of square metal that the levers and innards screwed into and mounted just that on the frame then screwed the adjusters into the sides. Should work, I just need to get the rest of my parts now....