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I was replacing cables on grip shifters recently and when I put them back together they acted as if they were on the wrong side. By that I mean the front shifter (3 chain rings) were shifting 7 times and the rear shifter (7 speed) was clicking 3 times. I was baffled at this and did not know what was wrong. Is there a way to change them back?

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When you replaced the cables, did that involve actually removing the rubber grip parts, or are they the sort that have a little port in the main bidy that the cable feeds through? If the grips were removed, I reckon they were replaced back to front. – Mere Development Jan 31 '12 at 20:53
I had to pry one side away from the other. They looked like these kinda. aawyeah.com/… – Stopher87 Jan 31 '12 at 22:56
Can you add some more details? Maybe some photos showing each shifter and the cable runs to the derailleurs? – Mac Jan 31 '12 at 23:22
While replacing the cables did you remove any parts (such as little levers) from the shifters. You may have gotten parts swapped. – Daniel R Hicks Jan 31 '12 at 23:28
Perhaps you can post a picture or two to help diagnose? – jilles de wit Feb 2 '12 at 12:41

2 Answers

up vote 4 down vote

It sounds like you have accidently mixed up the cables and routed the front dérailleur cable to the rear shifter and vice versa.

You can change them so that the front shifter goes to the front dérailleur pretty easily. Just swap them at the shifters.

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I can assure you that that is not the case. I had another person check the bike over to confirm what I was seeing. – Stopher87 Jan 31 '12 at 5:33
Maybe I've misunderstood you then. If the shifter that's connected to the front derailleur clicks 7 times and the shifter that's connected to the rear derailleur clicks 3 times it seems pretty clear that the shifters are connected to the wrong derailleurs to me. – Mac Jan 31 '12 at 5:45
I did not hook up the cables backwards. I turned the front shifters and they moved the front derailleur. They just simply moved it in different increments then I expected. Similarly with the back. Rule that out. What else could it be? – Stopher87 Jan 31 '12 at 12:47
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Then it looks like you swapped the "levers", putting the right shifter on the left side and vice-versa. Then, your "rear" shifter is actually a front one assemblet on the wrong side. That's the only remaining reasonable possibility, I think. – heltonbiker Jan 31 '12 at 15:54
That is also not the case. One of the shifters never left the handlebars. – Stopher87 Jan 31 '12 at 21:29
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up vote 1 down vote

Is it possible that the shifters were not in the correct position when you routed your cables?The front shifter should have been pointing to NUMBER 1,the rear indicating number 7.

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The numbers line up correctly. It's just that the one that is only supposed to click 3 times clicks 7 times and the one that is supposed to click 7 times clicks 3 times. – Stopher87 Feb 2 '12 at 0:57

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