"PAUL'S" thumbies / "KELLY" take-offs for skinflints

[531colin]

I reckon thats a very old photo....the cantis are well out of production, and the pads are brand new in the shot.
The shift levers are old school MTB thumbshifters, but the mounts are a new one on me...I suspect they are home-made, from bits of something or other that happened to be kicking around. Under the bar tape the nearer mount makes quite a bulge, I wonder if the bit round the bars is an MTB bar end derivative?

Whats broken on your bar end lever?
I havn't got any spare gear lever bits, but I have got several of the mounts that plug into the bars and fit the gear lever.
.....3,4,5 and the bit without a number here..http://techdocs.shimano.com/media/techdocs/content/cycle/EV/bikecomponents/SL/EV-SL-BS78-2282_v1_m56577569830609202.pdf

love the sig, BTW!

[vcznjavrop]

I reckon thats a very old photo....the cantis are well out of production, and the pads are brand new in the shot.
The shift levers are old school MTB thumbshifters, but the mounts are a new one on me...I suspect they are home-made, from bits of something or other that happened to be kicking around. Under the bar tape the nearer mount makes quite a bulge, I wonder if the bit round the bars is an MTB bar end derivative?

Whats broken on your bar end lever?
I havn't got any spare gear lever bits, but I have got several of the mounts that plug into the bars and fit the gear lever.
.....3,4,5 and the bit without a number here..http://techdocs.shimano.com/media/techdocs/content/cycle/EV/bikecomponents/SL/EV-SL-BS78-2282_v1_m56577569830609202.pdf

love the sig, BTW!

Hi 531colin, thank you for the kind reply. Haha the sig? bit of a Monty Python fan lets say!

It is basically the parts 5, 4 and the body of the POD, thinking about it now however I'm going for the kelly take off look as it's such a simple but brilliant idea. It's a shame about the original image I posted if they are custom made wow! but I can see your method of construction there (food for thought, I'm quite the "bodger").

The part i'm replacing is stuck in currently and will just need drilling out when I come to replace taking a second look today.

EDIT: I've secured some thumbies, still looking for take off's however

[531colin]

Update on this, prompted by this thread....http://forum.ctc.org.uk/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=76569

This is the all CNC version....





Its prohibitively expensive, and needlessly complex to assemble due to being screwed together, whereas my hand made prototypes located the tube and the plate by 2 pegs going into 2 holes, the whole lot fastened by the bolt for the band round the bars. Apparently you can't CNC 2 pegs on the end of a tube, so that will have to be laser cut....and most laser outfits only do flat stuff.

So each bracket needs one tube laser cut, a plate, a lever boss and a cable ferrule CNC'd.
I can get all the nuts and bolts and the handlebar band, all in stainless, for about £1.75 a side...
.....but the cost to me is going to be region of £40 a pair, plus VAT plus finishing, and they will need assembling.

They are great to use, you can see the position of the lever is adjustable via a pinch-bolt, which is a boon as I can get all the gears just using my thumb, and you can have Vee brakes and convenient gear levers, you can use MTB front mechs. and chainsets because its friction left shift

But the combined cost of brake levers, downtube levers and brackets to mount them is going to be up there with the cost of STIs.

[mrjemm]

Update on this, prompted by this thread....http://forum.ctc.org.uk/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=76569

But the combined cost of brake levers, downtube levers and brackets to mount them is going to be up there with the cost of STIs.

Thanks for the update Colin. Good to see the idea's not extinct yet. Rather than CNC pegs on the end, would drilling holes for peg insertion or threading work?

Cheers, Jem.

[531colin]

From earlier in this mammoth thread.....my handmade bits....you can see the tube has scallops to rest against the bars, holes for the cable ferrule, and pegs at the end away from the bars, which engage in blind holes in the plate. My tube is about 2mm wall thickness.
The CNC guy didn't want to do the pegs, so the CNC tube is very much thicker to take 2 machine screws, then you have to machine away the extra thickness at the handlebar end to make room for the band round the bars, its a complete pain. ...Cheaper and better to laser cut the tube, complete with pegs, scallops, and holes. The plate has to be CNC, as the laser guys can't do the transverse hole for the pinch bolt, and its right on their limit for thickness.....apparently they can laser cut stainless thicker than they can do alloy, its all beyond me. Cable ferrule and lever boss have to be turned, so they are CNC too.

The lever boss in the picture is my handmade one, the CNC one has a round section to go inside the lever, then the 12mm square boss, then another round section that fits in a drilling in the plate, which nips up on the pinch bolt. I never found a way to hand make a boss where I could adjust the lever position.

[johnmac]

Is this going to happen Colin? I've just tried and failed to buy some Kelly Takeoffs, so I don't think you'll have much competition.

[531colin]

Is this going to happen Colin? I've just tried and failed to buy some Kelly Takeoffs, so I don't think you'll have much competition.

I have spent 2 or 3 hundred pounds so far, including the CNC prototypes that I can't really use much from.
I could spend another hundred or two on prototyping in order to sink another £2,500 into getting a batch of fifty pairs made, so I need to sell those fifty for about £70 a pair just to break even with postage and running a website, taking no account of my time assembling and packing.
Or I could spend even more on prototyping with water jet cutting, to see if that brings the cost down at all...(I didn't know about that one....expensive learning curve, though....)

Or I could just leave my money in the Post Office and go out on my bike.......

[anothereye]

...I could spend another hundred or two on prototyping in order to sink another £2,500 into getting a batch of fifty pairs made, so I need to sell those fifty for about £70 a pair just to break even with postage and running a website, taking no account of my time assembling and packing.
Or I could spend even more on prototyping with water jet cutting, to see if that brings the cost down at all...(I didn't know about that one....expensive learning curve, though....)
Or I could just leave my money in the Post Office and go out on my bike.......

& if you don't have a patent pending; someone else could just rip off your design!

[mrjemm]

...It seems the 'skinflints' aspect is a memory for you now Colin.

Been a while since I went through this thread, but I remember there are some interesting variants on the theme shown. I am rather tempted to have a go at making something myself, but my talents (& toolbox) don't really offer much hope. Think I may have a play with designing something in the meantime...

[531colin]

...It seems the 'skinflints' aspect is a memory for you now Colin.........

Yes....this is how I started the thread, way back when I had no idea of production costs.....

I have often thought about Paul's thumbies or Kelly take-offs.....I don't think I'm particularly mean, but I just can't get past the price!

All you need is a bracket of some sort to get a fitting like the familiar down tube lever boss in your chosen place on the handlebars......

I'm still amazed that with all the technology, its so expensive to make something that I can lash up in my shed using hand tools.
It makes "consumer goods" look really cheap!

[mrjemm]

Just looking at Problem Solvers' site, and seen an interesting new product- http://problemsolversbike.com/products/ ... ter_mount1

It's not a new thing, quite the opposite, but potentially a source for bits, or re-bodgable for this purpose with shims and addition of a cable mount? OK, and splitting...

[johnmac]

Sorry Colin - didn't mean to pressure you

[JonMcD]

..........one thing that I don't quite understand about the Kelly Take-offs. Why would you want such a gap that necessitates moving the whole hand to change gear (and reduces in-bar space for Bar bags etc)?

Make no mistake Kelly's are ergonomically in the perfect position for easy changes from tops,hoods and drops, I've used them for some years off and on.
They don't restrict the use of a big barbag either,unless you use extremely narrow 'bars.

May be fine if you don't have my small hands! On my Kellys I've measured 50mm from the side of the unwrapped bar to the centreline of the DT shifter's "cable drum". Reaching the DT lever whilst keeping my hand on the hoods is just too much of a stretch to be comfortable. In Colin's design the gap looks more bridgeable.

Has anybody seen these before also?



...I think they are a WTB but struggling to find the model, I'm very interested in a set. Anyone know a UK dealer, or, if one of you guys are making a set (even prototype) I'm willing to send some pennies your way for the effort.

This thread on an mtbr forum shows WTBs, and other interesting products, but they think the WTBs were mid-80's production only.

[reohn2]

............May be fine if you don't have my small hands! On my Kellys I've measured 50mm from the side of the unwrapped bar to the centreline of the DT shifter's "cable drum". Reaching the DT lever whilst keeping my hand on the hoods is just too much of a stretch to be comfortable. In Colin's design the gap looks more bridgeable..............

To be fair I don't have small hands and isn't something I'd thought of TBH,so I'll take your word for it.

BTW the WTB's in the photo look to be only usable from the drops.

[531colin]

I just Googled "Kelly take off photo"......came up with all sorts of stuff!






You gotta love this one......