On Thursday, June 4, 2020 at 4:31:19 PM UTC+2, jbeattie wrote:
On Thursday, June 4, 2020 at 12:30:27 AM UTC-7, Dennis Davis wrote:
In article ,
jbeattie wrote:

...

I think that the curmudgeon handbook, chapter six, has a lengthy
discussion of the benefits of DT friction shifters. IIRC,
they a (1) slow and imprecise shifting, (2) missed shifts,
(3) conspicuous contrarianism, (4) longevity like an incurable
skin condition, (5) inconvenient location, and (6) conspicuous
contrarianism. Clearly superior to any STI/Ergo like system.

A double dose of "conspicuous contrarianism" ("3" and "6"). Isn't
that overkill?

Perhaps (6) is better replaced by:

(6) Requires levels of skill not present in modern cyclists.

Really? So one should buy DT shifters to develop a useless skill? At least that should translate into some performance advantage, which it doesn't..

I raced for decades on DT shifters along with my cohorts -- who then ****-canned them because they were clearly inferior to STI. No more pack wobble going into or out of high speed corners on a rolling course as riders reached down for gears, no more sitting to shift while climbing out of the saddle, no wrong gear when sprinting because riders could just shift -- and shift a lot. And friction had all of its problems with missed shifts and shifters that would loosen and ghost shift. And I couldn't imagine friction shifting a modern 11sp cassette, but I'm sure more than five gears is somehow wrong or unnecessary.



...I'm planning to put some Simplex Retrofriction downtube levers on
my next bike...

I'm buying a musket for hunting!

I had Simplex DT shifters on my '69 PX10 which is thankfully long gone along with all of its odd-ball French metric components. My 26.6 Simplex seat post was heavy enough to use for home defense. And the bike came with the AVA death stem -- ah, the good old days.

-- Jay Beattie.

Gee Jay you still bother to respond? That is admirable but useless.
By the way yesterday was a glorious day: after multiple f*ck ups my gravel bike frame arrived at the LBS just (a couple of days) within half a year from the initial order (december 7 2019)! The last f*ck up was that they didn't include the right documents so the frame couldn't clear customs and was stuck at the Fedex depot for more than a week 18 km from the LBS. Unbelievable...

Lou

Lou