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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The Giant is an older Cadex CFR1. Looking closely, I realized that the bike runs a mix of Ultegra (derailleurs), 105 (crank), and Dura-Ace (shifters). I had only remembered the model of the shifters. Sorry for the mixup, as the bike (and the VMH) are currently living across the country while she finishes up her degree.
I know the Giant has flat pedals, but she's only just now transitioning to clipless. That said, she's been happily stomping around on flat roads at 29+ kph with sneakers. I may have to up my game here once she gets used to pedaling clipped in.
The Bro-Nago is different from the first picture to the second (different bar/stem, seatpost, and wheels), and the Lemond is in the third picture with the red white and blue (using the former bar/stem from the Bro-Nago).
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@mouse
What, someone say extension ? Oh, the bike, thats right!
I had downtube shifters on my second racing bike, an overly grumpy shimano set up that never quite felt in gear and had a nasty habit of depositing me on the top tube if i got off the saddle too quickly without its approval, still got the old Dodson frame, now a "shop runner"
@ToeOverlap I've only heard of shifter failures on Rival. I'm thinking (hoping) that the Red shifters are stronger. I'm starting to get better at feeling if I'm on the top cog when I touch the lever, and follow-up with a quick upshift (downshift? Crap, we need to get an official ruling on this @frank) when I stuff up.
@piwakawaka Yeah, I'd like to shun the last biscuit in the tin, but when I'm climbing with a HR cresting 185 and cadence slower than an old timey LP, I'm onto it like Oprah on a pork steak.
Only ever had Sram on MTBs, I had old X4 which was dog-shite and X9 which was brilliant.
It has to be Gruppo for me every time. I have 10 spd Veloce on #2 and it works all the time, every time. I have 11 spd Chorus on #1 and that works awesome but does need a regular tweak as @frank says.
My next experiment is a steel crosser with 10 spd Veloce and flat bar shifters. It will be my commuter come tourer come trail bike come everything. Will be interesting to see how they shift, anyone ever used Campa flat bar shifters?
@frank
I've taken my brave pills this morning so I'll take the risk of correcting @Frank...
The Tioga disk drives weren't just covers, they took an XT hub and a Mavic (IIRC) rim, bolted on some adapters to the spoke holes and then laced them and the disks together with a giant Kevlar shoelace. You couldn't true them, they cost a fortune (back in the day) but were clearly cool as fuck 'cos Johnny T rode them. The cheaper ones used black discs, the 'Pro' model was see-through. The accompanying rumbling noise was awesome too, loved hearing him come down the pipeline descent at Newmham Park XC in the mid nineties. Best example ever though was the Spain XC round a year or two before when he launched down a drop-in fully crossed up;
rumblerumblerumble*silence, whistling of air past the bike*rumblerumblerumble*fucking huge cheers*
Legend.
On the original subject, I can't get on with Bro-Set as my simian brain can't process the movement required for downshifts past my stubborn muscle memory; up shifts and swearing every time. I'll stick with Group-San until I can afford the change to Campagnolo.
Nice to see that this hasn't degraded into one of those holy war battles that component talk seems to lend itself to....I'm looking at you Tiagra shifters with the peepholes from a month or so ago.
I ride Shimano, but really think SRAM and Campagnolo seem so much cooler. No real reason, just my emotion attached to it. Problem is I'm waiting for some 105 bits to die before changing, thusly it may be awhile. There's the rub isn't it. My group-san stuff just works, really well.
But I really want some bro-set zero loss action or some grouppo sexiness. First world problems.
Jeepers, can you believe Chava has signed for a Pro Continental Team for 2014 (they must have had a secret handshake from Prudhomme, coz I can imagine a Tour without Chava attacking constantly)
Anyway, back on trail, how do you find our cross compatibilty with different shifter and brakes? I'm contemplating going Avid Ultimate Canti brakes on my cross bike, but it has 105 STIs
I cannot understand the science behind the double tap Force shifters, though I like the idea of not changing gear when I toss the anchors, but would financially be happy to not have to change my shifters in one move
Or should I just stay with my Cx50s, and stop looking at the bike to make up for my shortcomings....
Maybe you should start by ditching those black socks first.
@frank
Good stuff. Might have to get some new bar tape and try it. Although it is nice to have gloves in case of crashing and all the palm roadrash. That being said, I have not crashed in a long time (knock on wood, sacrifice chicken, etc).
As for the FMB: SHIT! Is it repairable???
@frank
Jesus! We even have Frank posting pics of gorgeous women! What is it? The VMH on a long trip overseas or something???
And how can we have a discussion of absolutely adolescent fantasy cycling women without Dede Demet??? How many dreams did I have of meeting her at a race and striking up a romance when I was a teeneager!