Is it possible to reverse Enviolo's twist shifter orientation?

[gladiataar]

So Enviolo is a pretty established brand among ebike components these days. There are a lot of them out there and I can't be the only one wondering this.

The twist shifter (with the little guy on his bike climbing an adjustable hill), as installed, seems counterintuitive to me. Is it possible to reverse its orientation by simply reversing the two cables (or their wind direction) at the twist grip handle? Has anyone successfully done this? If so, any pictures or descriptive instructions would be appreciated.

BTW, I don't care if the display of the little guy on the hill is incorrect after modification. All I care about is the ability to shift incrementally in the direction of my choice.

 

[PCeBiker]

You could install your grip shifter on the other side.

That's what they did on my old e-bike. It was built for the European market and they added a throttle on the right for the North American market so flipped the grip shifter upside down and installed it on the left.

 

[AvalancheRun]

Reversing the cables at the twist shifter should do it, unless I’m missing something.

 

[PCeBiker]

I'm pretty sure that there's only one cable.
Twisting the shifter pulls the cable. The big spring on the derailleur pulls the cable back.

What he could possibly do is remove his freewheel flip it over and reinstall it upside down?
That might work.

 

[PCeBiker]

I remember back more than 20 years ago when Specialized introduced a derailleur where the spring was reversed.
The spring would pull the derailleur to 1st gear instead of top gear with no cable tension.
It didn't work. There was too much spring pressure needed to pull the chain up to a larger cog on the freewheel.

 

[spokewrench]

I'm pretty sure that there's only one cable.
Twisting the shifter pulls the cable. The big spring on the derailleur pulls the cable back.

An enviolo derailleur?
I found a couple of enviolo manual shifters at modernbike. They seem to have 2 cables. Putting it on the left bar would also work, I think.

 

[PCeBiker]

An enviolo derailleur?

Oops,..
I didn't bother to Google Enviolo.

On a related note, I remember a Targa ten speed that had two cables for the derailleur.
The derailleur had no spring.

I liked it.
You could feel it settle into gear and it wanted to stay in gear because there was no cable or spring tension.

 

[AvalancheRun]

Here's a good video:

If you reverse, just make sure the cables are perfectly straight - otherwise it could be finicky.

Ninja edit:
I could see how it makes sense the way they have it. Twisting backwards = higher gearing for faster riding. Similar to acceleration with a twist throttle.

On the other hand, when riding uphill on a steep incline the opposite would feel more natural.

 

[PCeBiker]

,.. Similar to acceleration with a twist throttle.

I've always thought that the throttle twisted the wrong way on my dirt bike.
When I would start to get lifted out of my seat going over the handlebars, my throttle would naturally roll off, making the situation worse.

 

[gladiataar]

You could install your grip shifter on the other side.

That's what they did on my old e-bike. It was built for the European market and they added a throttle on the right for the North American market so flipped the grip shifter upside down and installed it on the left.


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Love this out-side-the-box thinking. This short-term solution is quick and costs nothing to implement.

That said, at some point in the long-term, I'll probably investigate @AvalancheRun "reverse the cables" approach using the attached video. It seems feasible. I was just curious if any others here on EBR had actually tried doing it with any success.

To do it right, I'll probably purchase and replace the shifter with a non-display version (~$40), cutting the new cables to proper "reversed" lengths.

MANUAL CONTROLLER TWIST WITHOUT DISPLAY PURE/PRO

orders.enviolo.com

Thanks again everyone. Unfortunately, I've just had some major surgery that will have me away from the bike for a few months, but I'll be sure to post my efforts -- should I decide to go this way - when implemented some time in late June.

 

[AvalancheRun]

Love this out-side-the-box thinking. This short-term solution is quick and costs nothing to implement.

That said, at some point in the long-term, I'll probably investigate @AvalancheRun "reverse the cables" approach using the attached video. It seems feasible. I was just curious if any others here on EBR had actually tried doing it with any success.

To do it right, I'll probably purchase and replace the shifter with a non-display version (~$40), cutting the new cables to proper "reversed" lengths.

MANUAL CONTROLLER TWIST WITHOUT DISPLAY PURE/PRO

orders.enviolo.com

Thanks again everyone. Unfortunately, I've just had some major surgery that will have me away from the bike for a few months, but I'll be sure to post my efforts -- should I decide to go this way - when implemented some time in late June.

Run the reverse idea by your LBS, but I don't see why it wouldn't work.

Wishing you a speedy recovery!