On Apr 16, 4:03 pm, wrote:
bfd wrote:
Maybe they've been drinking (ok, reading) the kool-aid again:

http://www.rivbike.com/article/components/shifting

One thing I have noticed abt the Novara Randonee I
bought was that at times the shifting isn't quite in
alignment enough to be perfectly silent..... makes
"meshing" noise as pedaling. I know of no way to
quickly make that "micro" adjustment to eliminate
that.... and it does irritate me.

However.... back 15 years ago when I did have a bike
and lost of riding, I remember friction shifting.....
and when things were not quite aligned I could manually
make that small adjustment so that it was.

See my point?

Maybe everything is index now? Friction no longer
available or desirable? tell me ok?

I had some problems with Randonee shifting - turned out that
rear derailer was out of plane of the wheel (not sure how to
describe it better). REI mechanic fixed it. REI says that you
should bring bike back for adjustment after 100-200 miles when
cable will stretch. As far index/friction shifters - I think that
Surly LHT has an option to switch between the two - also it has
bar-end shifters (one of the reason I did not like it but it may
work for you). I still like my Randonee - but I think I should try
to learn how to adjust derailers myself - it seems that without that
knowledge I will be at REI quite often.