I suspect that whoever first put a set of downtube shifters on a bike immediately knew that while it was superior to having the shifter on the seat stay, it was a design that was going to be improved upon. Not only did it require being seated to shift, it also required taking your hands off the bars. Shimano got close with the introduction of the STI shifter in the early bit of the 90’s, although the decision to allow the brake lever to pivot laterally was a fundamental flaw.
I remember the first time I saw a set of STI levers in person; I was at County Cycles and they had a complete set of Dura Ace 7400 in the box. It was a truly beautiful groupset, and the metal details on the shifters were as stunning in my hands as they were glinting sunlight off the Pros as they crossed countless finish lines with their arms aloft. The price point was well out of reach, and so I dove headlong into various experiments to find a way to get my shifters on the bars.
Bar-end shifters didn’t look cool so they were out, full stop. I first tried Grip Shift, which was a complete disaster, partly because they didn’t shift well, and partly because they required twisting the bars and invariably introduced a terrifying wobble toward either traffic or the ditch. The low point of my experimentation involved mountain bike thumb shifters mounted near the brake levers, but I couldn’t get them positioned in a way that I could reach them. Cue more wobbling into traffic. Finally I got a set of Suntour Command Shifters, which were basically double-ended thumb shifters that were mounted at the brake lever. These might have worked well, except I couldn’t afford a Suntour rear mech, and the Command Shifters couldn’t get along with my Shimano 105 drivetrain. I had no alternative but to set those shifters to friction, which meant even more wobbling about as I tried to coax it from one gear to the next. But being unsuccessful didn’t mean it wasn’t fun, and when Shimano finally released a 105 STI version – which I could afford – I was that much happier to finally realize my dream of having functional handle-bar mounted shifters.
I’ve never liked the lateral pivot off the STI system, though, and once I could afford to, I moved to Campa and their superior design of incorporating a Go Button along with a paddle shifter. Campagnolo, for all its beauty and functional flawlessness, does require some coddling. It doesn’t particularly like being dirty, and I find myself tweaking the cable tension a few times a week – just a fraction of a turn – to keep it perfect. Because a perfectly tuned Campa drive train runs more perfectly and more silently than anything else – and the Principle of Silence holds sway over all else.
When it came time to building up my Graveur, I never seriously considered Campa because doing that on a bike intended for taking regular mud baths demands something less finicky. And I really don’t want my brake lever wobbling about as I’m trying to control a bouncing, bobbing machine on a twisting gravel or single track descent. Shimano was out, which left me with the choice between Command Shifters and SRAM. SRAM it is, then.
It took me an age to get used to how to adjust it, and how to shift. It requires a lot less cable tension than Shimano or Campa, a trick that took me a while to discover. Upshifts are totally awesome – tap, tap, tap and the chain just drops down along the cassette irrespective of mud or sticks or whatever is in there. I found half a tree trunk in my cassette after my ride this morning, and it didn’t adversely affect the shifting. The front shifting is absolutely blazingly fast, once you get the thing adjusted correctly. And the hoods themselves are very comfortable, possibly even more so than my 10spd Ergos.
But to this day, I still have to think about downshifting (push, *click*, push a bit more, *click*). And Merckx forbid I try shifting more than one gear at a time – I’ll invariably lose track of my clicks and wind up air-shifting between cogs. That’s going to inspire some new curses in a race situation, so there’s that to look forward to.
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@Nate
it works on the tiniest of punctures. anything bigger than a pinhole, kiss your $20 pitstop good-bye!
I first had the Suntour command shifters with a Suntour drivetrain. They worked OK but they got in the way of my thumbs when I was riding with my hands on the hoods. Then I got a good price on a set of Ultegra STI levers that I retrofitted my Trek 2300 with. It was equipped with Shimano 600, the Ultegra precursor. The only problem in theory was that the drivetrain was 7 speed and the levers 8. I adjusted the stop screw and I got perfect shifts. They still worked fine 22 years later when I sold the bike this year. My best bike now is a Specialized Roubaix which is all Shimano 105. This is an easy one, they are the best shifter/drivetrain that I have ever had.
Index shifting ruined cycling, it use to take skill and finesses to shift down tube frictions levers. Now any Fred wanker can shift. How can people marvel at what was clearly a step in the wrong direction.....
How depressing.
@roger
However, any decent tubular (and the good clincher tubes, as well) should have removable valve cores. Get home, remove core, inject a good 50-80cc of Cafelatex or whatever you have handy, and pump it slightly (low pressure helps sealing). Rethread the core, pump, go.
And do that to the yet-unpunctured tubulars and tubes for good measure. This saved my ass so many times in the past...
@mouse
Cyclocross Mag did a "study" about 18 months ago looking at stopping power. disc and road calipers were vastly superior of course.
among the canti's, mini-v were the most powerful. not a subtle finding. the regular canti's were limited by the physics of the setup. That all being said, I have been observing a big split on the mini-v's; Molly Cameron loves 'em for several years running, never has trouble. I hate em- everytime you fuss with something (like swapping brake pads to go from a carbon to non-carbon), they go out of adjustment and require a bunch of dinking around. I hate dinking, since I'm not a "natural" like @scaler or @frank might be.
I swear by the cx70/cx50 brakes over the other canti's by far. They can stop the rig on wet road at road descent speeds.
Those fancy, gorgeous trp mag euroX canti's are strictly for racing- look pretty, weigh nothing and pat you on the back for your sense of history and style. They will even support you when you start chanting "please help me slow down, please help me slow down." forget stopping, but then who intentionally comes to a stop at a cx race?
@FuriousFred
Preach brother! Been saying that for years! Also, I want to know what exactly was wrong with wooden rims and solid rubber tires? Nowadays every Fred wanker wants tires with air in them but this whole "pneumatic" thing is all full of hot air if you ask me.
How depressing.
@EricW +1
@gaswepass
I'm contemplating creating an abomination - the ultimate abomination - a road bike with discs...
Well, obviously this will be a Cx frame, but I'm going to set it up with 23s and ride it up and down mountains (tarmac'd ones)
After much deliberation, I can only conclude that discs are the way forward, sort of - though they do look terrible
I'll hang onto my Roubaix just in case I offend myself and repatriate it with its intended purpose, but it'll be interesting to see how the differing modulation feels on the big descents
I'll try the cabled BB7s first, as the hydraulic shifters just look horrible
All this only if my Cx50s aren't up to the job for descents on 23s
Mmmm...
@Dr C blasphemer
@Dr C As far as cross bikes go, I'd recommend trying them out first (if you haven't already). I was surprised by how differently my Lemond handles relative to my road bike. It's noticeably more sluggish to turn and less self centering once leaned over (a combination of slacker angles and less trail).
The cross bike feels kind of weird on the road but makes a lot of sense on dirt and gravel once I experienced it. I don't mind taking it on long road rides with 25mm tires, but I'm not sure the handling traits are everyone's cup of tea.