Downtubes are the Shift
"They're like grandpa's shifters!"
Downtube shifters are still popular with cyclotourists because of their simplicity and compatibility. Break a cable on tour? Throw out the old one, put a new one in. Break a cable in an integrated shifter/brake lever (brifter) on tour? Break out the pliers and magnet because you're going steel head fishing. Not #bikefishing, but #aaahhhhhhhF***thisbikefishing.
Friction shifters work all of the time and are compatible with pretty much every derailleur and cassette available. Want to mix Suntour and Campagnolo? Awesome. Shimano and Simplex? Done. Shimano, Campagnolo, Simplex, Suntour, and Microshift are pretty much all cross compatible with friction shifters.
In addition, downtube shifters are excellent for travel. Packing up your bike for a tour is significantly easier than brifters and bar-ends since there are fewer cables and housing lengths to worry about while positioning the handlebars.
More recently, mid-80s on, indexed downtube shifters have made sprints and climbs significantly easier. Indexed shifting means that there is a *click* in the shifter for each gear selected. You can throw the shifter around and you'll hit a gear without worrying about being stuck between them. Most Shimano shifters and Microshift bar-ends even have a friction mode in cases where the derailleur hanger is bent or indexing isn't functioning properly. Keep in mind, you need to stay within component families (Shimano with Shimano/Microshift, Campagnolo with Campagnolo, etc...) for proper indexed shifting.
Plus, downtube shifters just look damn good.
Do you still use downtube shifters or am I just stuck in the Paleozoic era?
Do you still use downtube shifters or am I just stuck in the Paleozoic era?
Been using down tube shifters pretty much daily since my service days in Asia in the late sixties. Friction on my sixties Japanese Bridgestone and seventies Fuji rain bike (fendered The Racer), ratcheting friction on my other fendered winter snow bike (Fuji S10S), and indexed/friction on my daily exercise bike (eighties Fuji Club). I put usually six or so thousand a year on the Club, less on the others. One frayed cable in all that time. Found it when the breaking ends started poking through my finger tips while shifting. Simple fix.
I often find myself trying to downtube shift our tandem and other brifter equipped road and cross bikes, especially at the end of a day long organized event. So natural to drop the arm and grab another gear. Like in my cars, which tend to be manuals.
I am pushing 80 now but still enjoy Simple and engaging machines. I do see the value of brifters on our road tandem, given the need to control/muscle a seriously big fast machine full time with two lives at stake, and road bikes when climbing and enjoying rolling terrain at speed during organized events. But when I return to my daily rides on the Fuji Club, start hearing the comforting clicking of those shifters and feel the grace of the bike under me, I feel at home again, totally connected and relaxed, and focused on the National park road ahead. Two very old friends getting up the road together.Leave a comment