UKC

Just wondering if Shimano 2 x 9 road shifters will work with Claris 8 speed mechs (with a 9 speed cassette equipped wheel in the bike) or would i need to fit front and rear Sora 9 sp mechs too,
Would the Claris 8 speed mech have the range to work with a 9 sp cassette, and Sora 9 shifters fitted to the bike, or would i also need to fit a Sora 9 rear mech?
The front mech shouldn't be a problem as both are double chainring,
Basically would like to be able to use the different wheel/tyre sets i have, on 2 bikes and have interchangability, by putting Sora 9sp shifters on the bike which currently has Claris 8sp shifters on it, if that all makes sense.
Any advice gratefully received!

In reply to Michael-H: I believe so. All 7-9 speed shimano mechs are interchangeable. As long as you have shifter which can either index or friction shift the range of your cassette you will be fine. As you have 9 speed with 9 cassette that should work. It's only once you start mixing sram or campaign with shimano you have problems. SRAM and shimano cassettes are compatible too...

In reply to Michael-H:
It 'ought' to work, if you have a nine speed chain as well. Shimano have changed their cable pull ratios for some of their MTB mechs and shifters, but I don't think they've done the same with their road parts.

In reply to Timmd:

10 and 11 speed road cable pull is different to MTB 10 and 11, so you can't mix and match for example a shimano clutch derailleur with road shifters, which is a real pain if like me you want to run 1x10 with an MTB rear dearilleur on a dropbar bike. You have to go SRAM in that case as the ratio's are the same, or Gevenalle or Microshift barend...

In reply to beardy mike:

Thanks for the info, will give it a go, as it would be good to be able to put the wheels with road tyres on them on the 'cross bike if needed.
Have seen the clutch type rear mechs on a few drop bar bikes on adventure cross type rides with the 'thick/thin' single front chainring, but never really looked at what shifters the bikes had on them.
would there be any difference in the gear spacings between a 9 sp road cassette and a 9 sp mtn bike cassette then? I'm sure my 'cross bike (bit of a bike jumble/Ebay parts econo - build) has an XT 9sp mtn bike rear cassette which seems to work fine with Sora road shifters.

In reply to Michael-H:

No, spacing is the same on shimano and sram 9 speed cassettes. And 10 and 11. Not sure about campag.

In reply to beardy mike:

My great uncle managed to have a Campag rear mech working alright with his Shimano shifters, and when we took it to a bike shop we were told it was 'luck' that the indexing was working alright. I gather that the spacing and pull ratios are a little bit different, but that as the cogs have got closer together to fit more in, the difference in spacing has become less pronounced (in theory making it easier to mix and match).

I think there's a table somewhere on the internet showing which shifters work with which rear mechs from the two different brands.

Also, some people found that after Campag changed their pull ratios towards the end of the 90's, and made a point of saying the two 'eras' of parts weren't compatible with one another, that they worked together okay.

It's the kind of topic which can make my head spin after trying to absorb a certain amount.

In reply to Timmd: you're on about the dark arts of shimergo. If I had the time and money I'd develop a system to make universally interchangeable shifting system to get around it all. Had a winner idea, just need the time!

In reply to beardy mike:
Yes, Shimergo, I saw somebody running a Shimano MTB rear mech with the newest shape of Campagnolo shifters recently, not sure what speed. Friction is much simpler.