SunRaceM96, R800 8 Speed Thumb Shifter

Great product. This is not some cheap plastic shifter. It can't be turned to friction shifting, but that's ok. The shifting is precise and solid. I would recommend this to anyone who wants those old school thumbies.

8 speed setup with microshift derailleur and cassette. No issues at all.

Adjustment is easy dials in nicely. Only three stars because I went from rapid fire to this to get more space on my moustache bars. So I'm not too used to it yet . It can be rotated around to find your own sweet spot. I don't miss the gear indicator at all. Ahh , the sweet simple life. It is nice firm click seems strong not wobbly. will continue to adjust and evolve. update: good shifter , I have moved and reconfigured it so many times I stripped the clamp screw , but was able to drill through and re tap for another screw. Now I've switched to drop bars and was able to spread open clamp and file the sharp corners and it fit! yes. I have it mounted close to the brake lever in the curve. still performs well and not wobbly. It would be nice if you could have a replaceable clamp but, It is integrated with the unit so I will have to fabricate spacers or something to modify it.

This was a great upgrade from the factory shifter on my e-bike. I shipped quickly and the price was reasonable. I installed it as part of an upgrade from 7 speeds to 8 speeds. It shifts cleanly with each click of the index moving exactly 1 ring on the rear sprocket. I'm definitely happy with the purchase and recommend it highly.

Good news if your part of that select group that hated to see Shimano thumb shifters go: these work! Have been frustrated for years trying to get smooth shifts with Shimano 7 speed thumbies with the phantom click to work with 8 speed cassettes. The Sunrace thumb s***ers appear to be well made and shifts are smooth and positive. There is no adjustment twist knob, but who uses those anyway. Sunrace also offers a nine speed model available elsewhere.

This has been working okay for me and I really love the look and simplicity of it. I think I would prefer that it were friction instead of 8 defined clicks because occasionally it does not want to center over the cog and if it didn't have clicks I could make a fine adjustment on-the-fly rather than shift to the next gear to stop the chain jumping. I used Shimano bar end shifters for years which were purely friction and I never had issues shifting but sadly I can't find a handlebar shifter like that.

I wanted all metal shifters over the more common & some less money plastic component units. A broken plastic shifter on a long bicycle tour would be unwelcome. Purchased this and the left side to replace the drop bars and bar end shifters. These went on my trekking bars which are smaller diameter than drop bars. Work great even tho' my touring bike is a 7 speed. Had to go past slightly the middle cogs but that's not something I think about now. Very pleased with how these shifters work.

Pro mechanic here, have installed several of these with no satisfying results. The main issue is the internal friction of the mechanism. I have noticed that the shifter hangs up in the spaces between the detents, so when the rider is done downshifting (up into lower gears/bigger cogs) the cable doesn't pull the lever back down to the "click", preventing the rear derailleur from centering under your cog of choice. This is slightly less an issue with the 8-speed version than with the 9-speed one, probably because the 8-speed cassette cogs are farther apart. Can work if you fiddle with the shifter after you make a shift. The "tension" bolt on top serves only to introduce play into the stiff mechanism. This negates the simplicity of the above-bar thumb shifter. For slightly improved performance, try the Microshift or IRD versions. For excellent performance, put Shimano bar ends on Paul thumbies.