Changing grip twist shifters to rapid shifters?

[ringer069]

My wife wants to change her shifters from grip twist to rapid shifters. How do I go about doing this? What type do you recommend? Do I need to match the derailleurs with the shifter? She has a Comfort bike with Shimano front and rear derailleurs.

Would the SHIMANO ALTUS 21 SPEED SHIFTERS/BRAKE LEVER SET ST-EF50 work? How hard would this be for a novice?

[xerxes]

Assuming that your bike has 21 gears, 3 up front, 7 at the back, then you can use any Shimano 3 speed left hand and 7 speed right hand shifters. Stick to Shimano shifters to be on the safe side, or be sure they are Shimano mech compatible.

[Surly LHT]

She might like down tube shifters. I like mine but my bicycle is a touring bicycle too. Yep it's a Surly LHT. :-)

[Joe_W]

@Surly: I don't like them, they are inconvenient (and a bit dangerous) to use on trails (I have an old road bike with cyclocross tyres). Sure, they are lighter, but shifters that you can use without reaching down are widespread for a reason. The only reason for me to still use downtube shifters is that mine are not indexed and I could easily upgrade to a 9 speed cassette. Also, the upgrade to STIs is quite expensive and I'm not too sure about the brake compatibility...