FD shifters and why not friction

[George Schick]

I recently finished rehabbing a '95 Schwinn "Ridge Searcher" that was in very neglected condition.  It was given to a lady who has little or no money by someone who had "stored the bike away in the basement" for many years without any maintenance.  Bad a shape as it was in - and it was pretty darn bad - I only had to replace two major components, the BB and the chain.  Having cleaned everything up (which included two hours in an ultrasonic tank to get the cassette knocked loose of all the built up grime and lots and lots of elbow grease on other parts) I finally began to reassemble everything last week.  And although the cleaned and lubed RD worked just fine, I had a devil of a time getting the FD to work properly over the three chainrings.

And, of course, this was one of those bikes with upright bars and those  accursed "twist lock" shifters.  The RD shifter on the right side of the bar worked OK with little adjustment necessary of the RD.  But the FD was a nightmare which included multiple tightenings of the shift cable, penetrating lube on the FD pivoting points, etc. in order to get it dialed in properly.  And, also of course, it too was a three-position twist lock shifter on the left side of the bar.

The main reason I'm bringing this rant to this forum is to agree with Grant's recent Blahg about the over-the-top work that some bike manf's are doing with something along the lines of AI in order to insure that the FD gets positioned properly in relationship with the cassette cog in which the rear is positioned.  Grant's premise is that nothing could be simpler than shifting the FD back and forth and manually "trimming" it to accommodate whatever gear the rear happens to be in at the moment.  I couldn't agree more.  This "twist shift" business is bad enough in some respects for the RD, but couldn't be more of a of a disaster for the FD.  Why bring about yet another costly intervention that would be completely unnecessary if riders would just take the time to learn how to "feel an adjustment" into place instead of relying on some next generation gadget to do their work for them!  Could be DT shifters, barcons, stem shifters - doesn't matter as long as they require a bit of manual adjustment on the part of the rider.

[Patrick Moore]

Pics of the Ridge Searcher? (And who comes up with these names? It's as bad as pharmaceuticals.)

As to why bike mfrs complicate what is really a very simple and easily learned action -- shifting a chain to different cogs or rings -- I think it's largely marketing: #1: make it idiot-proof (*) so that you don't scare away neophytes and therefore can sell more bikes, and #2: make it more "techie" so that you attract more buyers interested in "latest and greatest" who after purchase will leave the bike in the garage for 15 years until a relative posts it on Craigslist.

I'm exaggerating, but I do think that these 2 motives drive much innovation -- some of which, I grant, ends up being very, very useful indeed -- clipless pedals, modern LED lighting, plastic-base saddles (sorry, tho' just bought B17N, love the original Flite), aero levers, close ratio fixed IGHs. (Wait ...)

Really, to fully inoculate yourself against all this sort of thing, reduce your entire bike stable to fixed gears.

Patrick Moore, who fondly remembers hot-rodding a 1992 XO-1 with purple anodized 370 gram Sun M14As, Specialized 26X1" Turbos, a 12-19 7-sp with Topline SL triple, and Twist Grip (tm) drop bar shifters (they worked -- not badly; you did have to very slightly overshift for best performance). 

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Patrick Moore

Alburquerque, Nuevo Mexico, Etats Unis d'Amerique, Orbis Terrarum

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[Will Boericke]

I always toss grip shifts and replace with microshift.  $20, best money you can spend on a rehab.  But I agree, friction would have been better.

Will, fan of indexed shifting near Boston

[Jeffrey Arita]

George,

I feel your pain and I agree 100%  that friction is the way to go.  Your post is timely: I finally finished a bike build today for charity and I purchased those Sunrace front and rear friction shifters for about $22 (my 5th set installed thus far).  I just got done with the shakedown ride this evening to make sure everything was dialed in and those shifters continue to amaze.  The shifters went on a Bridgestone Mile 112 which came with a damaged fork.  I replaced it with a Tange steel replacement fork (obtained via another kind iBob-er).  I had to buy a 1" threadless headset while I had just about every other component laying around.  Once everything was put back together the bike rides very, very nicely, albeit the steering is a bit twitchy. 

All the Best,

Jeff

Claremont, CA

[Patrick Moore]

I forgot to add that the one summer I worked in a bike shop, a great deal of my work was tuneups for low-end '90s mtbs that had been sitting in garages or sheds for years. Many came with Grip Shift. I don't recall ever one of these systems being unrepairable, tho' I did occasionally find unrepairable Shimano trigger shifters. Cheap plastic, not the most precise shifters, but apparently pretty indestructible. Still, I too prefer friction.

[Garth]

The quest for the "perfect shift", is in itself the very error it claims to be "correcting". It denies the perfect shift(action) as existent, rather claiming that it "depends" on certain "conditions" in order to exist/happen. In other words it claims "one needs what I'm selling you" in order to exist/happen, and there's no other way.  

So is it any wonder all manners of shifting aids and devices keep changing and getting more complex ? It's to keep the buyer like a donkey chasing the dangling carrot on a stick in front of them. "I'm getting there .... I'm getting there .... some day I'll get that darn carrot and be rewarded" !  Empty promises, hah !