It wasn't until 2019 that I switched over to biking after running for a number of years due to issues with my knees creeping up. Anyway, I hadn't been on a bike really since I was a kid, so I grabbed a complete Surly Cross-Check, which came with bar-end shifters. After about a year of riding, I got caught up in the brifter movement and switched everything over to a 1X setup with Rival 1 shifters. While I enjoyed it for a bit, I'm glad to say that I switched back over to using a friction thumb shifter this year. There *really* is something about friction shifting that just feels good in the hands once you get the hang of it.
On Sunday, November 27, 2022 at 6:13:59 PM UTC-5 eric...@gmail.com wrote: > My vote would be for friction bar-ends because it's groovy, fun, looks > cool, feels great. Anyone can learn it, nothing to it. > > You learn friction trimming and shifting quickly. Just a few anecdotal > case studies: I did, my partner did (she is not an avid or frequent rider), > my pal Glenn (who I just built a bike for) did, too. Way back when Grant > wrote that his nine-year-old daughter learned it no problem without any > input from him (look for it in one of the many friction celebration > articles in earlier Riv catalogs). > > I rode Albatross bars with Shimano bar-ends and Silver 1 levers for about > a year. Very good setup! > > > On Sunday, November 27, 2022 at 5:44:56 PM UTC-5 Joe Bernard wrote: > >> I don't want to learn how to shoot a rifle and don't use friction >> shifting for the rear even though I know how to do it. I think hunting >> around for the next cog just because you can is silly, the clicks work. >> >> On Sunday, November 27, 2022 at 2:35:18 PM UTC-8 Tom Palmer wrote: >> >>> I am with Garth on this. Albatross and bar end shifters in friction mode >>> are easy peasy as long as the parts match or pretty close. My new Platypus >>> has 10 speed microshift bar ends, basic Deore deraiiler, mid range 10 speed >>> cassette, and basic Sram 10 speed chain o Albatross bars. >>> Shifting smooth and easy and if is chain chattering, move the shifter a >>> little. The new rider will learn to understand the way of shifting. They >>> also learn the value of not shifting on a small rise and hammering a bit to >>> keep momentum. >>> Similar (in my mind) to teaching someone to shoot a rifle. You do not >>> start with a magazine fed semi-automatic like a Ruger 10/22. They quickly >>> find firing rapidly, emptying the rifle id fun. They miss the basics of >>> lining up the sight, breath out and hold, relax, aim, shoot. The process of >>> racking a bolt for the next shot, or reloading a single shot, resets the >>> process of accurate shooting. Sorry for the long explanation, but rings >>> true to me. >>> Tom Palmer >>> Twin Lake, MI >>> >>> On Sunday, November 27, 2022 at 5:07:57 PM UTC-5 Garth wrote: >>> >>>> Give your friend friction shifters first for goodness sake. Don't sell >>>> them short in their abilities, people don't need or want to be treated as >>>> incapable. You don't have to buy expensive thumbshifters, Sunrace SLM10 >>>> and >>>> Falcon are ratcheting ones for $10-15 and include cables. The ratcheting >>>> mechanism is plastic, but for casual use they work just fine. I have bot. >>>> They feel quite nice in the hand and can be used on both road and mtb >>>> bars. >>>> >>>> I liken this to learning to drive. I learned with a manual transmission >>>> in high school drivers ed via a simulator trailer we had. When I actually >>>> got into a car with a manual tranny it was easy as pie. Should I have been >>>> "spared" the chance I'd be incapable of driving a car and shifting a >>>> manual >>>> transmission at the same time ? Let them shift, let them mis-take a few. >>>> With manual shifting these are easily corrected. When indexed shifting >>>> goes >>>> wonky and you have no idea how shifting works in the first place, you're >>>> helpless as you have idea why the thingy on the handlebar doesn't work or >>>> even what it does. >>>> >>> -- 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 rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/rbw-owners-bunch/6f9343fb-304f-41d6-b5bc-88695c889afbn%40googlegroups.com.
