my fixie doesn't need improvement

On Sunday, February 18, 2018 at 8:05:14 AM UTC-8, Joerg wrote:
On 2018-02-17 18:28, John B. wrote:
On Sat, 17 Feb 2018 20:19:24 -0500, Frank Krygowski
wrote:

On 2/17/2018 2:58 PM, Joerg wrote:

So give us some numbers here, in seconds. How long does it take to shift
from large-small to small large, in one swoop? Faster than this below?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3SHJ7KoJIys

I can shift a lot faster than that with friction shifters. Not with
indexed ones on the handlebar or brifters.

With friction, you may be able to slam a shift faster across the entire
cassette under the right circumstances. But that tiny time advantage
will be lost after just a few normal shifts.

It doesn't matter to me for my riding. I still use friction shifters on
several bikes. But I certainly don't do it because of faster shifts.

I even read a description of shifting both front and rear derailers at
the same time. Reach across the frame, thumb on one shifter, finger on
the other.


That's what I wrote elsewhere in this thread and it is what I do a lot.
With one hand while the other remains on the handlebar. A friend had a
bike with its the friction levers on the stem so you could operate them
with your thumbs while leaving both hands on the top bar.


Twist your hand and shift the rear derailer from the
smallest cog to the largest and with the same movement the front from
the largest to the smallest.

Think how many time you shift from the highest gear to the lowest in
one fell swoop on your usual Sunday ride :-?


Not on my Sunday rides but it does on my weekday ride. I regularly stall
the MTB because I can't slam it from high to very low fast enough,
unless I know the terrain, am willing to pre-shift before the creek bed
and travel accordingly slower. So I try to "beat it" by shifting at the
last seconds when I think I'll have just enough time to get through all
the gears, with the double-ratcheting that Deore M591 RapidFire allows.
It ain't as "rapid fire" as friction. Sometimes it works, sometimes it
doesn't. Never had that problem with friction when in the days when I
used my road bike of dirt paths (had to).

That's when I wish I had a Rohloff. OTOH 1500 bucks dampens that desire
and on a full suspension MTB it would get complicated anyhow. Plus it
won't get me the same gear range.

The good part is that you can probably find some friction shifters for your MTB in a junk bin at that olde-tyme bike shop in Folsom. You can become known on the trail as the friction shifter guy. With the cotton t-shirt and shorts thing, along with the five pound battery, panniers, heart-lung machine, rope, three gallons of water, nail and rock for chain repair, you'll be like the new Road Warrior, challenging the whimps with index shifting.

-- Jay Beattie.