I miss downtube shifters. I miss them in the same way I miss the days before the widespread use of race radios, when races were less choreographed and more unpredictable. Racing on downtube shifters, a rider had to be seated and take one hand off the bars to shift. Shifting had to be planned into race tactics. These days, we can enter a hairpin bend in one gear and exit out of the saddle in another all while never moving our fingers off the brakes. We can shift into any gear we want while mashing the pedals up a steep incline. With downtube shifters, a rider had to plan for corners and enter the turns in the gear they planned to exit it in; they had to commit to the gear they were going to sprint in. If they were in the wrong gear when an attack went, they had to stay (or get) seated, reach down and feather the derailleur into the proper gear – overshifting slightly and easing the chain back into the cog. Similarly, a rider planning to attack had to choose a gear before launching themselves up the road. A far cry from today’s bar mounted shifters. Besides, downtube shifters were beautiful: simple, elegant, and light.
Flipping through my old cycling books, it feels like the late eighties and early nineties were the golden age of component design. Even up to the early eighties, components were rife with nuts and bolts and square edges. But in the late eighties, it seems manufacturers spontaneously mastered aluminum forgery; Mavic, Shimano, and Campagnolo suddenly poured out elegant parts with sexy curves and polished finishes. In my opinion, the best and most beautiful groupo ever made was the 1989 and 1990 editions of Campagnolo C-Record.
Those were the years just before Campy put out the first version of the Ergo-Power lever which, to my taste, was always too bulbous and large; I much preferred their distinctive standard brake levers and their loose-fitting white hoods. The Campy crankset and derailleurs were stunning, complete with that unmistakable aluminum finish, polished to produce a luster that looked like it was something from a dream. The rear hub, with its sweeping curve from the freehub body to the axle, was mesmerizing to watch as it gleamed in the sunlight. But the piéce de résistance of the groupset was the delta brake, in its full triangular glory. In today’s weight-obsessed cycling culture, there is no possibility of such a brakeset ever being built again.
I already have plenty of bikes, but I think we all know that the correct number of bikes to own is n+1. It is a dream of mine to hunt around and collect an entire ’89-’90 C-Record groupo and build up a bike around it, right down to a set of hand-built (by me) three-cross wheels, downtube shifters, and delta brakes.
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I'd agree, that era of Campagnolo C-Record was one of the best looking groups ever manufactured. From what I've read, the Delta brakes didn't work all that well and were also hard to adjust. Even so, they look fantastic and I always take time to gawk at a set when I run across them.
Mavic had some awesome looking stuff in the '90s. I remember the crankset - the best looking crank by far. In the '80s I ran a almost complete SunTour Cyclone group - nice also.
The simplicity of downtube shifters have much to offer, however there's no going back. After using downtube, bar end and STI shifters - I'll take STI hands down.
@Dan O
Dude, I hear you loud and clear. The advances in materials, technology, and shifting are undeniable. I could also never give up my tenth cog or deep-section wheels. But, wow, was that ever beautiful stuff!
It won't be long until we're all reminiscing about cable actuated shifters either.
@Marko
Indeed. Di2 is amazing, from what I hear. Talk about taking the art out of shifting - it's self-feathering!
For a few seasons it was fun following the prototype development of both the Shimano and Campy foray into electronic shifting. Seems the buzz around Campy's kind of died out, for the time being. But one thing that came out of it was all those sweet carbon components: derailleur cages, cranks, all that crap they had to make lightweight so they could add a battery to the whole package.
I used to ride Mavic's Mektronic, and it was a nightmare for me. The most promising thing that both the Campy and Shimano groupsets have is the motor in the derailleurs that allow under-pressure shifting. Mektronic seemed to collapse whenever you shifted under pressure. I don't know about you, but when I need to shift, I am usually pedaling.
@Dan O
Oh, and by the way, YES. That Mavic crankset was one in a million. There is an Eddy Merckx hanging in Recycled Cycles built up with that complete group. It's a museum piece and hanging over by the workshop, in case you get over there to take a look.
Mmm....Eddy Merckx frame with Mavic group. I gotta swing by Recycles Cycles and check that out - just a few minutes off my commute route.
Okay, STI for me - without a doubt. Electronic shifting, I don't know - it all seems so very wrong. Then again, I've never tried it. Curious to see it in real life, instead magazine articles.
@Dan O
First off, I want to say that I feel there is something seriously wrong with a Mavic groupo on a Merckx. That said, the frame and the group are a sight to behold.
As far as being an STI/Ergo fan who has suffered the misery of Mektronic goes, I have to say: Give me a cable and I will get my chain on the cog I want it on. When I'm suffering like a pig and need that gear, I need that gear (also why I don't ride a fixie, incidentally, although if the right fixie came along, I would probably buy it).
That said, I've been watching with great interest as the Pros are adopting the Di2 group. For me, though, the litmus test is Paris-Roubaix 2010. If the favorites riding Shimano choose it, it is real. This year, though, I noticed a lot of guys riding 10 speed Campy (not 11 speed - with a lot of exceptions, including my boy, Tom) and felt that supported my concerns that adding more and more gears makes a cable less reliable for guiding a derailleur to a gear (of course, that problem evaporates when you move to a computerized system).
As a case in point, I have hardly turned a barrel adjuster on your old Zip. That's 7 absolutely straight cogs with flawless shifting and absolutely no "hypercrunch", which is I refer to as that sickening grind of the chain moving to the next gear under pressure in the early days of Hyperglide. Granted, I have to plan my shifts (as with downtube shifters), but when I do, those gears do not hesitate one bit.
Oh, and I fucking love thumbshifters.
I've just built a 1980s Colnago steel master frame with campy record and delta brakes, they dont work too well and with narrow rims, work even less well but hey they look great.
My problem is fitting my Syncro 2 downtube shifters, I cant screw in the screw bit that bolts the shifter to the frame. Also the instructions are crap so any ideas or sites I could look at?
At $3200 I know I won't be getting a Di2 groupo any time soon. But then again iPhones were upwards of $300 when they came out and now I picked one up for under a-hundo. I've talked to a couple people who've ridden it though (thrifty Steve for one) and it sure sounds amazing. I'm still getting used to shifting under power, I mean heavy/mashing climbing or sprinting sort of power. Intellectually I know it works but I have a hard time with trusting it and the hypercrunch scares me a little.
@Camion
Wow, sounds like a dream project, right down to the Syncro 2! Everyone seems to agree that the delta brakes didn't work too well, I guess I always thought they were anti-lock.
As far as the technical issue you're having goes, what is the nature of the problem; are the threads bad on the braze-on, is the braze-on damaged, or is the thread on the Syncro's shifter bad or is the bolt too short? Or is it something else altogether?
If it's a problem with the braze-on, I would seek the assistance of a high-end bike shop, preferably a frame builder. In the Seattle area, it would be Speedy Reedy who has top-notch mechanics, or R&E Cycles who build frames.
@Marko
I'm hoping they get cheaper in the future; right now it's just insanely expensive. And, the $3k is only for the shifters and mechs; you still need the rest of the group, which also isn't cheap. Yikes.
Accepting donations now.