Togo, Togo, Togoh.
Giants ace Togoh is surely thinking about a move to the major leagues in a few years, but so far this season, he’s been in a terrible slump.
An ace struggling behind the scenes even as Masahiro Tanaka finds his way to a comeback win.
Show us that electrifying pitching soon!!
…
That was the opening I had in mind, but the other day, someone told me, "Your blog posts always start with baseball," and I’ve been a bit troubled by that (lol).
But I’d say I’m less of a baseball "fan" and more of a guy who just loves drinking beer at the ballpark.
From the perspective of a true baseball fan, maybe they’d want to separate the two?
But I love baseball specifically because it accepts me, integrating me into the fold without drawing lines.
Wait, what am I talking about?
Anyway, this time, we’re talking about integration, shared use, and compatibility.
As equipment continues to evolve, as designs and adjustments become increasingly stringent, we lose many things along the way.
One of those is compatibility.
I hate to sound like "things were better back in the day," but there was a time when combining components was a bit more loose—you could use road levers to shift MTB derailleurs, or vice versa. There was a flexibility that existed back then.
Our friends at microSHIFT still preserve a piece of those good old days. Today, we’re going to dive into one of microSHIFT’s deeper layers: the compatibility between their bar-end shifter and thumb shifter mounts.
microSHIFT offers both bar-end shifters and thumb shifters, and the great thing is that you can share the actual lever unit between the two types.
In other words, by simply swapping the mount, you can use your favorite, familiar lever on either drop bars or flat bars.
That said, it doesn't work for absolutely every combination, so let’s check the details.
Broadly speaking, the levers are split into road and MTB categories.
And each has its own corresponding mount.
Road
・YBS-204 Thumb Shifter Mounts
・YBS-201 Bar End Shifter Mounts
These two work with 8, 9, 10, and 11-speed road shifter levers.
MTB
・YBS-205 Right MTB Thumb Mounts
・YBS-202 Right MTB Bar End Mounts
These can be used as mounts for Shimano 9, 10, 11, 12-speed, SRAM 11, 12-speed, and Alfine 8-speed levers.
The reason road and MTB are kept separate is because of the difference in the size of the levers themselves.
As long as you get the hang of that, you can switch back and forth between drop bars and flat bars to your heart’s content.
So, while this is knowledge 99.8% of cyclists will never need, maybe tucking it into a corner of your mind might come in handy someday (lol).
I’d be happy if this niche bit of trivia hits home for someone.
Though I suppose nobody can really hit a heater aimed at the inside-low corner like this.
And with that, another blog post that starts and ends with baseball.
