I'm so used to 7-speed friction shifting on my Rambouillet that I seek rear derailleurs with less lateral play of the upper pulley wheel, currently a Suntour XC-Pro mid cage for that drivetrain. Others include other ST road/MTB units and a gem of a Mavic 841. You can replace the top pulley wheel of a Shimano RD and pack the spacers to nix the play, if you wanted.
I switched to friction on my 9-spd commuter last winter during a ride home when indexing was faltering. I found that I could do multiple cog shifts resolving my need for a harder/easier gear, but sequential gear shifts were not pretty, even after cleaning things up and trying in more neutral circumstances for all the reasons contributed so far. Andy Cheatham Pittsburgh On Friday, June 16, 2017 at 1:41:41 AM UTC-4, Joe Bernard wrote: > > Here's a question I didn't think of: Were you friction-shifting 8-speed > before? I've been fine with 9-speed after getting used to it, but 8 is > definitely more forgiving of having the pulleys slightly off center without > catching an adjacent cog. These modern (by Rivvy standards) 9-speed > cassettes are built with all kinds of jagged shapes to facilitate an index > shifter popping that chain to the next cog for some masher who doesn't know > anything about lifting for shifts. 9-speed is certainly workable with > friction, but it takes practice and a deft hand to nail it. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
