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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@frank
And this is why I'm damn lucky to have @scaler as my Sensei, even when I'm too busy being a big fucking bitch at work to ride much.
@TommyTubolare
Doesn't bother me in the slightest, because you're still wrong!
I didn't have a spare - shame on me. Also, this being my first time using pitstop, I fucked it up. I meant to ask you to re-post your instructions for how to use that crap.
All my spare tubs are full size; I'm on the lookout for a light, 19mm tub to fold up small and tie under the saddle. I get flats so infrequently that I have been taking just the pitstop on my local rides. That a better strategy only if you understand how to use the stuff.
@Buck Rogers
Rule #9 gravelling. What a babe.
On the other hand, the VMH can give her a run for the money.
@jimmy
During the same period described above, I also mounted some MTB bar-ends on the drops of my bike; a few years later, I got drop-ins but actually the MTB bar-ends were better; they actually pointed forward, so the position was much more comfortable, not to mention that the Cinelli bars I had them mounted on were stiffer, so they were less flexy.
Those were fun days, all that experimentation. In many ways, I miss the early 90's. Seems like it was such a golden era of innovation.
Great shot. Suntour was such a great company; their stuff was totally bomber and the top end stuff shifted really well. Their cheap stuff was 100% reliable and also bomber - just heavy as fuck.
I always find it strange that such great companies go out of bidniz.
@frank Tufo Elite jet something-or-other. Folds up to close to the same size as a standard inner tube, weighs about 160gms, I think, is a tt tyre but has a puncture proof bel in it.
@frank
Man, some pretty classic (awesome) jerseys there: Z-Peugeot, PDM, Carrera, RMO and, I think, two of the worst: Toshiba and the denim shorts mob.
@jimmy
Nice. Digging the Time Equipe shoes (still my favorite of all time).
@frank
I have the Avid Shory Ultimates. They are awesome. That is all.
@frank
After further consideration, up and down the cassette works for me. Just like a bigger gear is on a smaller cog. You've lost a bit of cred anyway, @frank, what with being on the small ring in the article photo and all.
@ten B
There is the back of the cassette -- inner near the spokes. And front of the cassette -- outer near the dropout. Shifting goes front to back or back to front.