Denial can also be believing that a 30/29 low gear is low enough for all purposes. I have a 46/30 x 11-32 drivetrain on one bike and like it fine, but it doesn't come close to the 24 x 32 low gear on another bike. When the grade tops 15%, you bet I use that low gear!
If you want fussy, turn the clock back 25 or 30 years. Back then I rode a 50/46/28 half step crank with a six speed cassette and friction bar end shifters. With that setup you were constantly shifting between the outer and middle rings to fine tune gears, and half of the time you needed both front and rear shifts for a small step change. Worse yet were 1-1/2 step "Alpine" geared drivetrains with shift patterns so complicated folks kept gear charts taped to their handlebars so they could figure out where to shift to next! Modern drivetrains with nine or ten cogs in back, infrequent front shifts and indexing are a piece of cake. Even triples. Bill Stockton, CA On Wednesday, April 18, 2012 11:43:13 AM UTC-7, MichaelH wrote: > > Right on happycamper! I couldn't agree more. I run both a double and > triples in 9 speed mode and am happy with both, but anyone who says a > triple is just as easy to use as a double is probably in denial. My > favorite setup is on my Ram, 44/30 rings on a White Ind Crank mated to an > 11/28 9 spd cassette. This gives me 108 gi at the high end, and 30 at the > low, a very simple shifting pattern, and reasonably closely spaced gears. > The only downside to this set up is the initial cost of the White Crank. > I know some will balk at the black rings but the are highly polished so I > got over it in a hurry. > > As for those limit screws.... yup, even after 35 years of riding I always > scratch my head and try to remember which is the inside and which the > outside. On some deraillers you can't see the mechanism. > > My only place of divergence is on "integration". I run Campy FD, the new > Ultegra 6700 RD, Conex Chain and Shimano HG cassettes, and ramped rings. > With Silver shifters the performance is way better than the Ultegra SIS I > have used. > > The sun is shining; I'm gonna hit the road. > Michael > > On Wednesday, April 18, 2012 12:46:01 PM UTC-4, HappyCamper wrote: >> >> I'm a friction noob too but some things that helped me: >> >> >> - Move to a compact double. Seriously. I have one less gear I didn't >> need anyway and I fiddle with my shifters 90% less. Anyone who says a >> triple in front is just as easy as a double hash been riding bikes for a >> very long time, or loves their set up so much they refuse to realize the >> added complexity. >> - Know that even with brifters triples are annoying >> - Friction shifting can be like driving a manual. You learn to shift >> at the right speed, at the right time. Faster is not best. >> - Shift less. >> - Good shifters are allot better than crappy ones. I have Shimanos >> which are OK. I want Silvers which I tried the other day and liked allot >> better. Old school Suntour Ratchets were good too. >> - A unified drivetrain helps. Some people can cobble together all >> softs of parts and friction shift just fine. In fact it's the reason some >> people prefer friction. I however found my all 8-speed set up to be >> nearly >> flawless. I had lots of mis shifting with a mixed up drivetrain. >> - Rapid rise derailler. In hilly Seattle this really helps me shift >> uphills. >> - Like everything: practice. >> - If you can over/under shift your chain off gears and you corrected >> your adjustment screws then either* something is broken* or not set >> up right. The older... *ahem* wiser folks can't remember how tricky >> adjustment >> screws can be when first learning how to set this stuff up. It takes >> practice or someone really showing you how to do it. >> >> I hope any of this helps. It may be stuff that only worked for me but now >> I could never go back to indexed shifting. >> >> - Ryan >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> On Tuesday, April 17, 2012 1:44:51 PM UTC-7, Zack wrote: >>> >>> I noticed a discussion cropping up in the "New Chain Skipping" thread >>> that I thought it would be worthwhile to dedicate a thread to this, as I >>> have been thinking about it a bit - >>> >>> I am a relatively new bike rider, and change gears as it makes sense to >>> me - when i feel like i need more speed, i shift, when i feel like i am not >>> going to be able to get up the hill, i shift. >>> >>> But I never really learned the "right" way to do this. I have learned a >>> little about friction shifting just from poking around (lightening up on >>> the cranks when I am about to shift, as an example) but haven't seen a >>> dedicated thread to this, nor have I found a good resource. I know for >>> many of you this is intuitive basic stuff, but I never learned how to ride >>> a bike from anyone that actually knew what they are doing. >>> >>> I generally stay in the middle ring on my front chainring (I have a >>> triple) and use all of the back gears until I need more, and then I shift >>> to either the big or small chainring. I am cognizant of cross gearing, but >>> am probably guilty of doing it once in a while. >>> >>> I have consistently had problems with chains slipping, throwing chains >>> (both off the big and granny rings) across multiple bikes, which leads me >>> to believe I am part of the problem. >>> >>> So how do you ride to ensure that you are treating the bike the way it >>> should be treated? >>> >>> >>> -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msg/rbw-owners-bunch/-/0EfO0iCeZI0J. 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