>>1301025Alright. looking at those shifters, yours are Deore fingertip shifters which desu are pretty good. They last forever and have backup friction functionality and are made of metal, not plastic.
You can get ‘integrated’ shifters- but that’s a barrel of monkeys right there. Your brake system is Cantilever. Nothing wrong with canti, with good pads and cables they work well and tend to not need adjustment as often as their more modern ‘linear pull’/v-brake types.
Your gearing is the bigger issue provided you don’t go with integrated shifters (most of which are long-pull and would require you also change your brakes.)
The problem is most bike manufacturers are convinced that more = better in every way. Which isn’t true, but what it means for you is that any 6speed shifter you can buy is either high end and as vintage as your deore shifters, or cheaply made plastic crap. Not a great choice to be forced into making.
eBay has some older trigger shifter 6sp ones from the ‘00’s that are still ‘standard pull.’ They’re not great but they’re perfectly serviceable- if that’s what you’re after.
Personally I’d look at getting a new rear wheel (you’re running a 6sp. Freewheel by the looks of it.)- a cassette with 8+gears and a very wide range, and a matching shifter/derailleur. SRAM x-4 has worked well for me personally and it’s cheap. It handles 11-48 well for the cost. Put a decent sized front chainring on, get single crank bolt size chainring bolts (I picked five different coloured ones off eBay in infinity stone colours- yeah I like capeshit, sue me.)
That will fix the need for three gears up front and save you considerable weight from not needing a left shifter/housings/derailleur/two chainrings. That all will add up to make your bike lighter without compromising its functionality, and even making it a bit more reliable since you will have one less part to worry about getting maladjusted/dropping the chain.
