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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@TBONE
Those disk wheels slay me. They were so cool. And, I think they were just spoked wheels with covers. Which basically amounted to just more weight.
My dad got that Campa Euclid group, it worked like shit on his prototype Cannondale suspension bike. (He was the first person to break a 'wale through regular riding and execute the lifetime warranty - they gave him one of the "Boingers" which was several iterations away from figuring out how to get rid of the biopacing effect.)
It worked like shit on that bike, but then he put it on his MB-0 and it works great to this day, although he used to tear the cassette hubs apart...he had a pile of bodies for it for when he destroyed them.
Julie Furtado was my second major crush - and one that happened as I was discovering my adolescence. Rebecca Twigg was the other. Good times.
@Ron
I had two pairs of those. One with cleats for riding, and one without cleats for going to school. They looked great with my rolled-up jeans and white socks.
It's been 1000's of kilometers since I changed from Sora with thumb shifters to Ultegra and yet I still all too often stop to think which lever I need to press to get the desired gear. Big = Big sprocket, Small = Small sprocket. I have to actually say this in my head at times. You'd think it would be second nature by now but nope. SRAM then, is going to be all too hard for me to get my head around. The same lever in the same direction? Are you kidding me!
I also like to climb... and not often but occasionally confirm I am on the largest sprocket by applying a little pressure to the lever. If there, it won't move a mm... Having just learned that action would result in an upshift on a SRAM lever is the final nail in the coffin. Then there is the recently aspoused Group-san = Honda, SRAM = Harley theory, which makes perfecrt sense to me and so I'll be sticking with my Bro-set. ;-)
The Sram red on #1 and a combination of red and force on # 2. I have had no problems either.
Will go red on the next bike. not sold on hydraulics.
@frank
In the words of Momma Fronk: "Leave it alone Fronkie, you are a disgusting little boy!".
@packfiller
I've got these six-speed shifters set to friction and use them on my 10 speed block.
I do truly love the DT shifter for the feel and how connected you are to the machine, but there is a reason we are all using brifters now, and that reason becomes instantly clear when you ride a bike with DT shifters - standing to climb *oh, need to shift* SIT DOWN, SHIFT, STAND UP *oh, two gears was too many* SIT DOWN, SHIFT, STAND UP. Or, cornering. Nothing like having to pick your gear going into the turn not knowing what the exit will be like.
Another revelation: Benotto bar tape was all sex, but it also sucks. I'm putting leather wraps on this mocheen.
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@Buck Rogers
Have been, ever since switching to the padded fizik tape. Don't stretch it when you wrap it, and it is some soft, comfy love right there. Also, the bare hands give better feel on rough roads - cue taken from my boy Tom.
Might switch back to gloves for urban riding, though, as all the partying around town has led to lots of glass on the streets. Flatted an FMB Paris Roubaix last week on a ride that didn't need them; I just felt like treating myself to a nice ride. Ouch.
@Dan_R
Funny thing - after riding DT for even one day, I'll spend the next few rides reaching down to a phantom shifter. Those movements are just burned into me somehow, from the days of yore.
That said, the VMH put her foot down when we got our first set of proper top-end bikes since being a couple. I got my EV2, she got an EV4. I got Shimano, she said that was like hanging a Rembrandt in your workshop. She got Record.
Even after just TUNING her bike, I would get on mine and ghost shift to the Go Button. That system is so incredibly intuitive - by far the best design out there, irrespective of function. I love SRAM for trying to make it simple, but one lever can't do two things in the same direction. Same goes for Shimano. Having two lever go in opposite directions is brilliant. Technically, that's what SunTour was doing with the Command Shifters, but the approach was wrong. They were close, though, and I think that inspired the STI lever - Shimano just took that design and turned it 90 degrees to the brake, integrated it, and let the levers both snap back to the central position.
There. I just decided that SunTour had the initial innovation that inspired the modern Brifter. Only fitting that they went out of business, as that is the fate of every innovative company.
@El Mateo
Are you sure you're not talking about index shifting? Unless you were a pro (which you might have been, just asking) '87 would have been a very insider Shimano prototype STI shifter.
I know for sure this sort of complaint was surrounding the index shifter, and that's partly why they had the dial to turn to friction - all the Pros wanted the stealth shift so no one knew they were planning an attack.
Either way, awesome story, and so cool to live through those evolutions. I hope you still have that bike/gruppo.
@VeloVita
That might be worthy of a Lexi entry; the perfect union of all designs. I love it. I'm also food and sleep deprived.
@ten B
Funny, I was thinking about that this morning - "what if my shifter brakes out in the boonies? I'm putting a lot of force into this puppy to coax it onto a bigger cog while I'm laying down these devastating helpings of The V."
I'm not humble when I'm riding. Its part of my process towards adhering to Rule 5.