Given my erudition and sagacity it could shock you to be taught that even I’m not proof against the pernicious pull of the favored tradition, and so it was that I not too long ago discovered myself watching a salacious documentary sequence about disgraced hip hop impresario Sean “Puff Daniels” Combs on the “Web Flicks” streaming service, the primary episode of which begins with him driving a street bike and questioning how one can shift it:
Not solely that, however additional to yesterday’s put up, some dialogue ensued relating to the assorted deserves and de-merits of sundry bicycle shifter configurations, or one thing. And so, for the edification of Mr. Daniels (ought to he have entry to a pc wherever it’s that he’s at the moment incarcerated), in addition to to hopefully provoke additional arguments amongst my fellow cyclists, a lot of whom base their whole identities round which shifters they like to make use of and the place (on the bicycle) they put them, I shall now undertake a certainly not complete survey thereof. [Keep in mind the following is drop bar specific; I don’t care about your “alt” bars, and frankly I resent the term.] So let’s start.
Downtube Shifters
The downtube shifter is the basic street bike configuration, and might be had in each listed and friction varieties. Whereas not essentially the most handy (you need to attain down in an effort to use them) they’re by far the only shifters to put in and preserve, and you may even do a complete bicycle cockpit transplant with out having to a lot as contact your drivetrain, permitting you to rework a racing bike into an upright commuter in a matter of minutes (see slideshow beneath):
Few new cyclists will even think about downtube shifters, because the prevailing notion appears to be that in case you try and take away your hand from the bars in an effort to shift your bicycle you’ll die, and the bicycle trade has no incentive to disabuse shoppers of this. Nonetheless, the very fact is that you just take away your arms out of your bars to do all youngsters of stuff (drink, test your cellphone, attain down the entrance of your shorts and “rummage round within the basement” if you understand what I imply) so utilizing a downtube shifter isn’t actually a giant deal.
Plus, some configurations even let you simply shift each with one hand:
Although the cables do run by way of the bike’s body, which form of undermines the entire simplicity factor:
However regardless of how they’re configured, downtube shifters are an vital reminder that cyclists right this moment are coddled, spoiled, entitled “woosies” who shift their bikes method an excessive amount of, and if that you must push an even bigger gear for somewhat bit longer since you want each your arms on the bars for some cause then simply suck it up–or possibly simply keep house together with your whale sounds and your grownup coloring books as an alternative:
Bar Finish Shifters
Like downtube shifters they’re mechanically easy and might be both listed or friction, however not like downtube shifters you don’t must take your arms off the bars to make use of them. The cables do preclude immediate cockpit swaps just like the one depicted beneath, however regular folks hardly ever want to try this anyway, so who cares? The one actual downside to a bar finish shifter is that you just’re somewhat extra prone to bump it by chance whereas driving, particularly in case you’re a Sponeed mannequin with freakish proportions and a wayward knee:
Mixture Shifter/Brake Lever Thingies
Shimano calls them STI, Campagnolo calls them Ergo, SRAM calls them DoubleTap…I say name them something you need, aside from “brifters,” which I don’t like, however you’re going to name them that anyway, aren’t you?
No matter, I quit.
I like downtube shifters and I like bar finish shifters, but it surely was throughout for each of them when the built-in shifter got here out, and it’s straightforward to see why: they’re snug, and so they’re straightforward to make use of. Nonetheless, they’ve their drawbacks–the apparent one being they restrict your skill to combine and match elements, however the true one being that most individuals shift an excessive amount of and by no means take their arms off them, clutching them always just like the reins of a runaway horse. In a sane world the bar finish shifter would have as an alternative grow to be the usual, and other people would nonetheless arrange their bikes so they may really trip within the drops, however right here we’re.
Built-in shifters additionally made bicycles extra like vehicles, in that the shapes are at all times evolving so now you can date them immediately simply by taking a look at them:
See?
They actually have developed like some organism in nature, haven’t they? Observe how early Campagnolo Ergo levers nonetheless had the vestigial level left over from the place the brake cable used to come back out within the days of non-aero brake levers:
Why was that? In nature it takes era after era of breeding, and bodily options take hundreds and hundreds of years to vanish utterly, which is why we nonetheless have tailbones. However why the hell was Campagnolo nonetheless placing factors on prime of brake levers within the late ’90s? Did their engineers’ pencils not have erasers? There’s actually no rationalization for it, until they have been really rising the shifter in a lab. Presumably they mated shifter after shifter over the course of 20 yr till the purpose lastly turned a pommel:
Nonetheless, not everyone has the persistence to permit nature to take its course, and a few riders impose their will upon their built-in shifters, with disastrous outcomes:
And sure, there are built-in friction shifters…
…however I’m morally against them and refuse to formally acknowledge them. Actually I’ll even be extra against them than I’m to digital shifting–which I’ve used, by the way in which, because it got here with my erstwhile Renovo:
[Electronic shifting on a wooden bike. How’s that for irony?]
The primary fear with something digital is after all whether or not you’ll be capable of get components for it sooner or later. At this level the elements on the Renovo could be about eight or 9 years outdated, and so far as I can inform the battery no less than seems to be available:
And a really temporary session with a preferred search engine suggests costs are pretty affordable, no less than as higher-end street bike components go:
Nonetheless, I may by no means fairly perceive the purpose of a shifter that you just needed to cost often when as an alternative you may have a virtually similar shifter that labored brilliantly and by no means needed to be charged in any respect.
I give it a yr earlier than Growtac comes out with an eletronic built-in friction shifter.
Lastly, there’s yet another choice, which isn’t any shifters in any respect:
You actually can’t go mistaken with that.
