The Red Randonneuse and the Yellow Roadie have Campagnolo down tube shifters on them.  What’s up with that old school stuff?

    In college, I took a philosophy course.  It was pretty interesting at times and I actually remember a lot of it, but the part I remember most is that when one of us asked a real tough question, the professor would pack more tobacco into his pipe, re-light it, and then tamp it tight with the index finger of his pipe hand while he drew on the stem.  It was a good stalling tactic because instead of noticing that one of us had stumped him, we all wondered why his fingertip didn’t burn off as the tobacco glowed a rich orange color and the air around his head became dense with smoke.  I’ve always envied that stalling tactic and I wish I had it for questions like this.

    Since I don’t, I’ll try an answer.  Compared to, say, buckets, bicycles are a young technology and down tube shifters, in the bigger picture, are pretty cutting edge themselves.  They are, however, somewhat behind bluetooth electronic shifting.  Heck, even earbuds still connect to iPods with old fashioned wires.

    Speaking of iPods and such (notice the stalling and no burned fingers), some of you may remember the first time you tried a Walkman.  I do.  I remember exactly where I was and who was there with me.  It was the summer of 1980 and we were in the yard of a small house on a hill above Half Moon Bay, California.  A fellow named Mike produced a Walkman and suggested we check it out.  It didn’t look like a big deal moment to the rest of us until we saw the expressions on each other’s faces as the headset made its way around our circle.  We saw amazement on each face as each voice exclaimed, “Wow!  It’s like the music is in my head!”

    A couple or three anniversaries ago, I bought Nina and myself an iPod.  I don’t know where it is and I’m not sure Nina could put her hand on it quickly.  I know I haven’t listened to it this year and I doubt I listened to it last.  

    The music in the head thing was cool for a moment, but I think I like the participatory nature of making our own music.  When we play an instrument and sing, all of a sudden the music is there.  The music never existed before and it will never exist again, but for an instant it’s there and we’ve had a part in making it.  With all its warts and hairs, the music is there and we’re part of its thereness.  It is that essential nowness of live music that just about always trumps a recording.

    Maybe that’s what I like about down tube friction shifters.  Maybe it’s that connection to doing it; to making the shift happen and being part of the gear change.  With index shifting, an engineer determined the shift before the shifter was ever even fabricated.  There is something cool about that -- about the idea that someone can plan my shifts even before my legs tell me I need them, but it’s kind of the engineer’s shift and not mine.  It’s kind of like the shift was recorded, but in some engineer’s head and not in mine.  

    I did give index shifting a try for a few months in the first full winter of this new century and it didn’t impress me.  It didn’t impress me mostly because it didn’t work very well (it was Campagnolo Mirage and I think the bean counter probably got between the engineer and his shift), but also because I’m used to shifting with friction shifters and I didn’t feel that index shifting was doing much for me that I can’t do for myself.  Maybe that’s the part of me that wants to build bicycles showing from behind the curtain -- the “I’d rather do it myself” mentality.  I do like the engineering part of index shifting though.  I like the idea that someone could think it and make it and that it actually works.  I get a little bit of that “music in my head” feeling when I have a bike in the Park stand and I turn the pedals round and click the shifters and watch it shift.  It is cool and I see two real advantages to index shifting.

    One of those is the ability to shift without easing off on your pedal stroke.  If I’m out of the saddle on a climb with my down tube friction shifters, I have to sit, ease off for an instant, and make my shift.  I do lose momentum, it’s not much and I can pick it right back up in the new, easier gear, but I do lose it for a moment.  

    The other advantage I see is that a good steel frame works with the rider.  On the power part of the pedal stroke, the frame flexes and stores a little bit of that power to be returned as the frame relaxes on the non-power part of the pedal stroke.  That frame flex smoothes out my pedal stroke and increases my comfort and efficiency, but if I forget to nudge the shifter nut a little tighter before a climb, that good frame flex can work the shifter cable and pull the shifter enough to allow the derailleur to begin an auto shift.  That auto shifting is annoying because, if I’m still out of the saddle, I have to sit again, tighten the shifter nut, and trim the derailleur.  Again, it’s only a moment, but this time it’s because I did not prepare for the hill.  

    I’ll probably give index shifting another try sometime because it is so cool -- what those engineers have done -- and because of the two advantages I mentioned above.  Next time, if there is a next time, I’ll use better components -- where the bean counters have less input.  I’m sure not going to suggest anyone else give index shifting up because it clearly works well now and I think it is a great choice for the people who can fully appreciate coolness of it.  When I think about the little mechanism inside those brake/shifters and the ramps on the cogs and chain rings, it impresses me and I bet it impresses others in the same way.  And the new blue tooth Shimano stuff is as modern as your next gear change.  That is, as long as they can figure out how to power it on a long ride which is something Mavic couldn’t do the last time someone tried electronic shifting.  

    Besides, there are only so many sets of those old Campy shifters out there.  I have a couple of sets put away, but I wouldn’t want to see the rest of them dry up just before I realize I need one more set.

    Oh, on the cutting edge idea, there is engineering in friction shifters, too.  The Campagnolo down tube shifters are the best I have tried.  All down tube shifters look kind of similar, but Campagnolo figured out something about them that others never did.  Sometimes someone will ride my bike, someone who’s ridden with friction shifting in the past, and they’ll say, with that note of pleasant surprise in their voice, “This is nice!  It’s almost like index shifting.”  Sometimes we forget that the old school stuff actually works pretty well.