Not so much contradicting as expressing another experience, but I found friction shifting 10 cogs with dt friction shifters (albeit Retrofrictions, the best of the best) was absolutely delightful; easier in fact by quite a bit than shifting the 5 and 6 speed freewheels on the trike using the same shifter; but a long cage, pre-indexed Shimano 600 rd instead of a 8-sp era Dura Ace as with the 10, so that may have made the difference; or the difference may have been that the HG ramps just made shifting easier. Dunno.
My current Fargo shifts 7 cogs spaced like 9 sp cogs with Silver bar end shifters; and it too is fine despite the non-sequential cogs (since the cassettes are home made). No problems when wearing hats or balaclavas, either. Horses for courses. That said, the absolutely most foolproof and thought-free shifting I ever used was a 7 speed, Sante group indexed Uniglide cassette with dt indexing. Click, click, click and it went perfectly every time. On Sat, Aug 11, 2012 at 7:17 AM, NickBull <[email protected]> wrote: > I tried friction but went back to SIS downtube shifters. (I used to ride > all-friction, of course, for many years before indexing was invented). But > with 7 or more cogs using modern chains, it's almost impossible to feel that > it is just slightly out of alignment, the newer chains are too flexible and > you have to hear the little bit of clink-clinking. And for winter riding > when you have on a headband plus a balaclava, you just can't hear the > clinking. So I would find that all was fine until I stood up on a hill, and > then it would clunk to the next gear. Not fun. To really be able to _feel_ > when things are just a hair out of alignment, you need old 5-speed > freewheels and an old chain designed to run with those freewheels. > > FWIW, with downtube (or barend) shifters, you can shift through a bunch of > cogs all at once, whether indexed or friction. > > Nick > > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch?hl=en.
