Smokin Joe
Legendary Member
- Location
- Bare headed cyclist, Smoker
Done that.
What's been a backwards step in technology for you?
- Thread starter Nigeyy
- Start date
-
- Tags
- technology
Page may contain affiliate links. Please see terms for details.
- Location
- Somewhere wet & hilly in NW England.
Ok thanks.
They are so bad that it was probably worth doing again.
Loathe the damned things.
Ming the Merciless
There is no mercy
- Location
- Inside my skull
Dual control brake / gear levers. They are shoot. Went back to down tube / bar end shifters and brakes that just do braking.
Smokin Joe
Legendary Member
- Location
- Bare headed cyclist, Smoker
One of the best advances ever on bikes.
Black Sheep
Guru
- Location
- Rammy
True, indexed gears on road bikes are over-rated, can't get on with them.
Fine on the mountain bike though!
Ming the Merciless
There is no mercy
- Location
- Inside my skull
Not just that the shifting is far quicker, slicker and precise on the bar ends .
ColinJ
Puzzle game procrastinator!
- Location
- Todmorden - Yorks/Lancs border
You must have had either very crappy, or badly adjusted kit...
My Ergopower controls are Click (lever)-clunk (chain)-click-clunk-click-clunk; no hesitation, no missing, straight in there!
slowmotion
Quite dreadful
- Location
- lost somewhere
They nearly always defeat me. When you call over a human to help you, they spend a minute writing a PhD on the keypad before looking at you with a sense of pity.
What's that all about?
Ming the Merciless
There is no mercy
- Location
- Inside my skull
You must have had either very crappy, or badly adjusted kit...
My Ergopower controls are Click (lever)-clunk (chain)-click-clunk-click-clunk; no hesitation, no missing, straight in there!
Even when working with DC you have to move the levers far further than bar end to initiate a change. Bar ends are simply faster, slicker, and spot on.
ColinJ
Puzzle game procrastinator!
- Location
- Todmorden - Yorks/Lancs border
I spend most of my time riding with my hands on the hoods, so a movement of one finger or thumb is all that is needed. To use bar-end shifters or (*shudder*) down-tube shifters would require arm, hand and finger movements every time!
Anyway, I'm glad that you are happy to be in a small minority of retro-shifting cyclists!
Ming the Merciless
There is no mercy
- Location
- Inside my skull
I spend most of my time riding with my hands on the hoods, so a movement of one finger or thumb is all that is needed. To use bar-end shifters or (*shudder*) down-tube shifters would require arm, hand and finger movements every time!
Anyway, I'm glad that you are happy to be in a small minority of retro-shifting cyclists!
If you can shift the lever through the required travel for a gear shift with just your thumb you clearly don’t have D.C. like the Shimano offering I had.
Profpointy
Legendary Member
The modern version "cross stops" (I think?) are very good indeed, so in this case the new tech is a vast improvement
ColinJ
Puzzle game procrastinator!
- Location
- Todmorden - Yorks/Lancs border
I use Campagnolo Ergopower on the bike in question. The change from bigger sprockets/rings to smaller uses a thumb movement on a small lever on the inner edge of the shifter. An inner lever shifts the other way and changing by one gear is a short click on the lever. Multiple single clicks or one longer movement can be used to shift multiple gears in either direction.
I have Shimano Tiagra on my CX bike and I don't like the STI action as much as Ergopower's method, but I still prefer it to the down-tube shifters that I used 30+ years ago!
