We found our mystery shifter, the Versa from Sussex. Image courtesy of Sussex Enterprises Co, Ltd.
Bike Commuters let us know after our article earlier today that MicroShift is not the manufacturer of the mystery STI shifter/brake levers compatible with Shimano Alfine and Nexus internally geared hubs. While the casing my be done by MicroShift, Bike Commuters took a look at the innards and they are very different from MicroShifts ARSiS designs for standard road derailleurs. Instead, Sussex, another Taiwanese component manufacture developed these shifters.
I visited the Sussex website and sure enough they have an announcement of their Versa VRS-8 Road Shifter and Cranksets. They also make the Shaft Drive Transmission System, a chainless system which is on all the other Dynamic bikes. This explains the tie in with Dynamic for this product roll out. the The Versa shifter is confirmed to be compatible with Shimano Alfine and Nexus 8 speed internally geared hubs, and the cranksets come with a single 46T cog for either external bottom bracket or square tapered.
Unfortunately, there is no information about availability on their site or who might be a U.S. distributor. We’ll keep you posted as we learn more.
on Jun 23rd, 2009 at 7:17 pm
I received my shifters from Dynamic Bicycles today. Package includes a pair of brake levers, with the shifting mech in the RHS, a Ritchey barrel adjuster, cabling, housing, ferrules, pinch bolt (for hub).
Shape is very similar to my 9sp 105 STI levers.
Will be setting up my Nexus with these shortly.
Patrick from Dynamic was very helpful in getting these to me in Australia.
on Jun 23rd, 2009 at 9:15 pm
Andrew,
I got mine last week. They look good and appear to be of good quality though I was a little disappointed that they didn’t have any with silver levers available (apparently polished aluminum is completely out of fashion as I’ve had a hard time getting versions of several different components in polished aluminum versus black.)
I’ll be putting them on a test bike and testing them in the next couple week’s and writing up a review.
on Jul 7th, 2009 at 3:58 pm
I have mine installed and about 100 miles on them. I love the concept and first 100 miles of riding were perfect. Very smooth and quiet shifting on my Bianchi mtn bike, long converted to drop bars and recently upgrade to Alfine hub. I think I have some normal cable stretching causing slippage between 4th and 5th when I shift. I have the 26″ wheel geared at 44×18 and that seems to be good for me.
The only issue I have and Patrick is working with me is the screws that hold the end cap are not long enough. The end caps pop off easily and Patrick is sending some longer screws.
on Jul 13th, 2009 at 12:52 pm
A lot of us have been looking for something like this – any word on availability in the UK would be very useful!
on Jul 13th, 2009 at 1:55 pm
Chris,
I’d contact Sussex, the Taiwanese makers of the shifters, directly about UK distribution. They are linked in the article above. I e-mailed them last year, and they had Dynamic followup with me when they began their US distributor deal. I’m sure they could get you in touch with any European distributors.
on Jun 2nd, 2011 at 1:17 pm
[...] Update on the STI shifter for internally geared hubs mystery: VersaBike Commuters let us know after our article earlier today that MicroShift is not the manufacturer of the mystery STI shifter/brake levers compatible with … We found our mystery shifter, the Versa from Sussex. Image courtesy of Sussex Enterprises Co, Ltd. [...]
on Sep 25th, 2011 at 2:43 pm
I’ve read through the comments on this thread and there still seems to be some mystery about the availability of these shifters, so I thought I would chime in on the subject.
In the US, they can be obtained by your favorite shop via BTI. They are not showing the VRS-11 as yet but they do have the VRS-8. In the UK, I would contact SJS(Saint John Street) Cycles. They do return some hits on Google when searching on a string such as “Versa VRS-8 STI Shifter.”
I don’t actually own any of these…yet, but I have a regular customer with a brand new Bike Friday Carbon Drive Tikit. It has the 11 speed hub and VRS-11 combination and it works great. He only brings it to us for work and I believe I was the first to touch it since it left the factory in Eugene.
I do own an Alfine 8 which is in heavy service on my Karate Monkey…got tired of tearing off derailleurs when riding off road, especially the time at Mt St Helens, miles from the car!