Originally Posted by
phughes
It depends on your use. If I were racing, or simply wanted a racing type road bike, sure, for touring, I much prefer friction, on this particular bike. It is smoother than indexing, and I can make a jump from the small cog to the largest in one fell swoop if so desired, you can do that with indexed bar ends too. I never have to worry about indexing failing, I trim naturally, and easily, without even thinking. It just works well. As for accuracy in shifting, yeah, no problem with that. As for speed, see once again the fact you can move from the smallest to the largest cog with a quick flip of the lever, faster than the, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, of an indexed system, with the exception of bar ends, or the same shifter mounted as thumbies, or on the downtube. Had my indexing not broken, I would probably still be using it. Once it did break, I realized how much nicer friction shifting was, on this bike, for this purpose.
As for motorcycles, I have a Kawasaki Concours 14, and a Ural, so... the Ural is a 2014 with fuel injection though, but still, it's basically old school in every other measure, and it works, for its purpose.
hey, if you're cool with using it, that's all that matters. As for multi gear sweeps, I have to say that I do occasionally appreciate this with my Gevenalle shifters on my touring bike.
remember I said I was an old motorcycle guy? So an Ural... very cool. I've only seen one in the flesh here in Montreal. Wow, fuel injection, but as you say, rest appears very old school. I started riding in the 70s so rode a bunch of that era bikes, which we look back on as with iffy brakes, suspension, chassis that did the hula dance in corners....
Those Urals really have a unique, 60s 70s aesthetic, not to mention the whole eastern bloc soviet thing gong on. Must be a hoot to ride. I've never ridden a sidecar bike, but have watched some sidecar racing trackside back when I did some production circuit racing in the 80s... now those guys are nuts!