Feeling Shifty

Given my erudition and sagacity it might shock you to study 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 collection about disgraced hip hop impresario Sean “Puff Daniels” Combs on the “Web Flicks” streaming service, the primary episode of which begins with him using a street bike and questioning the best way to shift it:

Not solely that, however additional to yesterday’s put up, some dialogue ensued relating to the varied 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, lots 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 in no way 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 could be had in each listed and friction varieties. Whereas not essentially the most handy (it’s a must to attain down as a way to use them) they’re by far the only shifters to put in and keep, and you’ll even do a whole 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 under):

Few new cyclists will even think about downtube shifters, for the reason that prevailing notion appears to be that in case you try and take away your hand from the bars as a way to shift your bicycle you’ll die, and the bicycle business has no incentive to disabuse customers of this. Nevertheless, the very fact is that you simply 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 realize what I imply) so utilizing a downtube shifter isn’t actually an enormous deal.

Plus, some configurations even let you simply shift each with one hand:

Although the cables do run via 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 at the moment are coddled, spoiled, entitled “woosies” who shift their bikes manner an excessive amount of, and if you must push an even bigger gear for a bit of bit longer since you want each your arms on the bars for some purpose then simply suck it up–or possibly simply keep dwelling along with your whale sounds and your grownup coloring books as a substitute:

Bar Finish Shifters

Like downtube shifters they’re mechanically easy and could be both listed or friction, however not like downtube shifters you don’t should take your arms off the bars to make use of them. The cables do preclude prompt cockpit swaps just like the one depicted under, however regular folks not often want to do this anyway, so who cares? The one actual disadvantage to a bar finish shifter is that you simply’re a bit of extra prone to bump it by chance whereas using, 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 surrender.

I like downtube shifters and I like bar finish shifters, nevertheless it was throughout for each of them when the built-in shifter got here out, and it’s simple to see why: they’re snug, and so they’re simple to make use of. Nonetheless, they’ve their drawbacks–the plain one being they restrict your capacity to combine and match parts, 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 a substitute change into the usual, and other people would nonetheless arrange their bikes so they might really journey within the drops, however right here we’re.

Built-in shifters additionally made bicycles extra like vehicles, in that the shapes are all the time 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? Be aware how early Campagnolo Ergo levers nonetheless had the vestigial level left over from the place the brake cable used to return out within the days of non-aero brake levers:

Why was that? In nature it takes technology after technology of breeding, and bodily options take 1000’s and 1000’s of years to vanish fully, 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 grew to become a pommel:

Nevertheless, not all people has the endurance 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. In actual fact I’ll even be extra against them than I’m to digital shifting–which I’ve used, by the best way, because it got here with my erstwhile Renovo:

[Electronic shifting on a wooden bike. How’s that for irony?]

The principle fear with something digital is after all whether or not you’ll have the ability to get elements for it sooner or later. At this level the parts on the Renovo could be about eight or 9 years previous, and so far as I can inform the battery at the least seems to be available:

And a really transient session with a well-liked search engine suggests costs are pretty affordable, at the least as higher-end street bike elements go:

Nonetheless, I might by no means fairly perceive the purpose of a shifter that you simply needed to cost sometimes when as a substitute you would have an almost equivalent 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 one more possibility, which is not any shifters in any respect:

You actually can’t go incorrect with that.