Categories: Accessories and GearDefining MomentsLa Vie VelominatusLook ProTradition

Shifting Sands

Three gears: a lever and no more wing nuts. Luxury.

One of my favorite stories in Cycling is of the 1989 World Championships. It was a very lumpy parcours, with a particularly tough climb near the end of the circuit. Sean Kelly had a brilliant sprint but could get over the climbs handily enough that he fancied his chance to finally win the rainbow bands. With only 7 gears at his disposal and a 53/39 chainset, he faced a catch 22: should he select a 13-25 block, or a 12-23. With the 25, he could spare his guns but would be on the short side of his sprinting gear. On the other hand, with the 12-23 he would have the optimal gear for the sprint but risked blowing the guns out with too big a gear on the climb.

The question was: spare the guns and arrive at the finish with good legs but a short gear, or chose the gear to win the sprint but risk getting dropped on the final climb? (LeMond, who won the race, chose a 54/42 and a 12-23 for the race. They were obviously different kinds of riders.)

The modern Cyclist is a spoiled one, with 11 speeds at their disposal. The most common cassette in use today is the 11-28, which features a bigger sprinting gear and a much lower climbing gear than Kelly could ever have dreamt of. Gear choice is not one that seems to factor any more; riders are more concerned with compact versus standard than they are with how closely packed their rear sprockets are. We’ve lost a bit of the art; a bit of the thinking and weighing of options that used to factor into winning races.

To take this even further, I was recently given a Super Record EPS groupset as part of a 40th birthday gift from Campagnolo. I haven’t ridden it enough yet to have an opinion of it, but two things are certain: the shifting is flawless and I have less to do with it than I did before.

Even riding downtube shifters was a way of managing your effort; if climbing out of the saddle, shifting would require sitting down in order to move the gear lever. In a sprint, you could shift with your knee, but this was more hammer and nail than it was precision in action. Even that was comparatively luxurious when compared to the Campagnolo Dual-Rod shifting system and the flip-flop hub which was changed with wing nuts before that.

One of the beautiful things about Cycling is that while it is fiercely traditional, it also embraces technology and the evolution that comes with it. Vive la Vie Velominatus.

frank

The founder of Velominati and curator of The Rules, Frank was born in the Dutch colonies of Minnesota. His boundless physical talents are carefully canceled out by his equally boundless enthusiasm for drinking. Coffee, beer, wine, if it’s in a container, he will enjoy it, a lot of it. He currently lives in Seattle. He loves riding in the rain and scheduling visits with the Man with the Hammer just to be reminded of the privilege it is to feel completely depleted. He holds down a technology job the description of which no-one really understands and his interests outside of Cycling and drinking are Cycling and drinking. As devoted aesthete, the only thing more important to him than riding a bike well is looking good doing it. Frank is co-author along with the other Keepers of the Cog of the popular book, The Rules, The Way of the Cycling Disciple and also writes a monthly column for the magazine, Cyclist. He is also currently working on the first follow-up to The Rules, tentatively entitled The Hardmen. Email him directly at rouleur@velominati.com.

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RobSandy says:

Nov 10 2016 at 3:12 am

@Buck Rogers

@frank

Photo uploads are working again. Sidebar: When David saw my bike and the seatpin height he said, “Well, it’s got to look good when it’s just sitting there, doesn’t it?”

Showed this photo to my 8 year old daughter last night and said “This is daddy’s friend with a very famous cyclist” and she pointed to Millar and said, “He must be the cyclist” and I said “How did you know” and she said, “He’s the skinny one”.

Ha! Had to share! But, in your defense Frahnk, she did not call you the fat one, only Millar the skinny one!

Who's the hipster with the beard hugging David Millar?
wiscot says:

Nov 10 2016 at 9:52 am

@RobSandy

@Buck Rogers

@frank

Photo uploads are working again. Sidebar: When David saw my bike and the seatpin height he said, “Well, it’s got to look good when it’s just sitting there, doesn’t it?”

Showed this photo to my 8 year old daughter last night and said “This is daddy’s friend with a very famous cyclist” and she pointed to Millar and said, “He must be the cyclist” and I said “How did you know” and she said, “He’s the skinny one”.

Ha! Had to share! But, in your defense Frahnk, she did not call you the fat one, only Millar the skinny one!

Who’s the hipster with the beard hugging David Millar?

I didn't recognize our Dear Leader either. Is he going for Sagan hair?
Teocalli says:

Nov 10 2016 at 10:02 am

@wiscot

Do you suppose he's gone full Winter Wookie?
Buck Rogers says:

Nov 10 2016 at 10:13 am

@wiscot

@Teocalli

@wiscot

Do you suppose he’s gone full Winter Wookie?

That must be it, you know, in honour of the new Rogue One movie coming out in a month (although I do not know if Chewie is in it or not?--No spoilers please!)
Spaghetti Legs says:

Nov 10 2016 at 11:36 am

Resolution for 2017 - figure out how to get on Campagnolo's birthday gift list.

Regarding the problem with the loose Syncro shifter. I've used blue loctite on my Campy friction shifters that come loose and fixed that problem. Haven't had that problem on any of my Syncros but expect it should work. There is a little play in the shifter on one of mine after -really- tightening it down but it still shifts crisply.
MangoDave says:

Nov 10 2016 at 12:32 pm

@Oli

That's a beautiful Vitus! I used to see those on the road quite often, but it's probably been two decades since the last time now.
Randy C says:

Nov 10 2016 at 7:31 pm

@frank

@ChrisO

@KogaLover

@ChrisO

Mind you, how a 14 year old who can’t keep her phone charged is going to cope with electronic gears is going to be interesting.

See @Chris‘ advice: “On the flip side though, as the shifting gets easier, people shift more often rather than working harder to maintain momentum as the gradients change.”

I was thinking of it from the point of view of being stuck in the big ring because she forgot to charge the bloody battery.

Seen more than a few adults do it !

I think Campa lets you set it in whatever gear you want once its dead, but my bullshit meter is landing somewhere between “I am sure I heard that” and “I might have dreamt that”, so there is no telling if that’s true or not. And, on account of me not being a sissy, I’m not looking it up in the user manual.

Di2: at something like 10% or whatev battery life… once ya shift in to the little ring it stays there. Can mash the FD button and will only get a blinky red light at junction box but no shift. The thing about Di2 is that the battery is recharged in pronto time. Maybe 30 minutes and certainly less than an hour. So it's just not a big deal to juice up the battery before a ride if realize haven't done it in a while. I've been caught out only once with the FD stuck but still plenty of juice for RD function to complete the ride. I think that the logic behind the FD no longer operating is that that is the little servo motor that consumes the all the juice vs the RD motor. Cheers

I love push button motorized shifting. But I keep telling myself my next bike will be external cabled mech DA (CAAD frame set is good ex).
wiscot says:

Nov 11 2016 at 6:56 am

@Buck Rogers

@wiscot

@Teocalli

@wiscot

Do you suppose he’s gone full Winter Wookie?

That must be it, you know, in honour of the new Rogue One movie coming out in a month (although I do not know if Chewie is in it or not?–No spoilers please!)

Quite possibly. Clearly Frank is growing "Sagan Hair" and, as far as we know, may be doing the hairy legs a la Sagan too. Not a bad role model to be sure, but hardly rule compliant.

Hells bells, you can always tell when the road season is over as threads on this site start taking really weird directions. We're discussing the shaving and body hair management of our Dear Leader.
RobSandy says:

Nov 11 2016 at 7:00 am

@wiscot

@Buck Rogers

@wiscot

@Teocalli

@wiscot

Do you suppose he’s gone full Winter Wookie?

That must be it, you know, in honour of the new Rogue One movie coming out in a month (although I do not know if Chewie is in it or not?–No spoilers please!)

Quite possibly. Clearly Frank is growing “Sagan Hair” and, as far as we know, may be doing the hairy legs a la Sagan too. Not a bad role model to be sure, but hardly rule compliant.

Hells bells, you can always tell when the road season is over as threads on this site start taking really weird directions. We’re discussing the shaving and body hair management of our Dear Leader.

I'm going to put my hand up and say since velodrome season started I've been back to Rule #33 compliance and I've just upgraded my hair clippers to ensure I comply with Rule #50. I don't think stubble contravenes this rule, which is good because I'm sure as hell not going clean shaven.
Ron says:

Nov 11 2016 at 7:37 am

Good god. Frank, you hit 40 and now you're wearing a beard and talking of using the 39 more?! What is going on around here! Things are not right, not right at all.