Garthr

If you're going to ask what's the point of the OP's post, then what's the point of any post, on any subject ? What's the point of Bike Forums ? Then the real kicker, what's the point is asking what's the point ? In the ask. As here, in this posting on "friction shifters". Enough of that nonsense , haha !

Oh I can't remember the exact story of what happened after Suntour's closing, but it went something like this. Don't shoot me as it's a story as best I recall. At some point in the late 90's/early 2000's Rivendell inquired about acquiring the tooling from Sun Tour for their Power Ratchet friction shifters. For whatever reason , it was all scrapped(and melted, I think). So at this point, I think Grant @Riv contacted Dia Compe to see if they could help, along with the boss at Suntour who obviously had no tooling, but the know how to have them remade. So the collaboration sprung from that is how the original Riv Silver shifters came to be. The lever shape is modeled after the Sprint shifters. Soon followed by Dia Compe's own branded version, then a ratcheting Campy lever lookalike. So the shifters aren't anything new as they've been around for 20some years. Then Riv come up with a thumbshifter shaped version modeled after the ST Power Ratchet thumbsifters. While the lever shape is close, it still used the downtube sized ratchet, while the original ST version has a larger diameter ratchet inside. (I have 4 sets of the thumbs and 4 sets of the DT versions, 2 sets of Campy and 2 sets of Dia Compe.). Of late Dia Compe came up with new version to travel the distance of the largest 12 cog cassettes.

Friction shifting never went away and there's more people that friction shift than could possibly be comprehended. Just because there's various form of indexed shifting doesn't diminish the efficacy of friction shifting. It's not going anywhere. Shift with whatever you want, does anyone really care if it fit's into this or that social groups idea of what's en vogue ? And just because I ride this, and you ride that, doesn't mean or infer that I should, would, or even could be like you or you like me. That's just a basic mist-take of what Life actually is. Life is inherently diverse, Infinite, "never the same twice".

I friction shifted my whole life and have no need for anything else. I'm in no hurry... hah hah... as I'm always right where I'm supposed to be, here, and here is everywhere, the only where. My favorite are 6/7sp freewheels. Nine speed cassettes aren't that hard, the thing with them is the shape of the teeth are designed for really easy movement of the chain, so they don't have that same ker-plunk feel of non contoured cogs. It's so easy to overshoot at first, but you get the hang of it.

tomato coupe

No, there's not.

chaadster

Well talking about "tried and true," let's remember that index and integrated (aka brifters) are not only 39 and 36 years old respectively, but the tech is also been totally dominant virtually since introduced. It wasn't just the domain of racers, the high-end segment, or some specialty niche, index has been on department store bikes for decades. I think it's totally appropriate to talk about index and integrated as mature, tried-and-true techs which are themselves now on the precipice of obsolence now that electronic is getting more affordable.

ShannonM

I dunno...

While the statement is hyperbolic, I'd not be surprised if the number of people on Earth who friction-shifted a bicycle yesterday was larger than most people can really comprehend, other than as abstract figures that they can do arithmetic on.

--Shannon

tomato coupe

Really? The number can't possibly be comprehended?

ShannonM

The "possibly" part is that part of the statement to which you were responding that I consider hyperbolic.

Of course it's possible.

What I was saying is that, given both a) the number of people on the planet who friction-shifted a bicycle yesterday, which is likely in the many millions, and b) the inability of most people to comprehend numbers in the millions as anything other than abstract symbols on a page, (very few people are capable of accurately visualizing or estimating a million of anything,) the statement is, in fact, mostly correct.

--Shannon

tomato coupe

If you can't comprehend how many people use friction shifters because the numbers are too large, it means you can't comprehend how many people use any type of shifter, and the claim becomes a pointless statement.

But, many people can comprehend very large numbers, so the argument fails anyway.

Trakhak

Agreed. The staggering majority of the bikes at all price levels that have been sold in bike stores, big box stores, etc., have been equipped with index shifters since the early 1990s. It's possible that, worldwide, single-speed bikes are the most numerous, but bikes with index shifting are likely close behind. Sure, there are plenty of friction-shifting bikes still around here and there, but they'll mostly be bikes that were originally sold over 30 years ago, before affordable indexed bikes became ubiquitous.

In any event, clinging to friction shifting when indexing is widely available is very much a first-world thing, I would guess. Like vinyl versus digital, film cameras versus digital, etc. (As I said in a post above, having started racing a 10-speed bike in 1962, 30 years with friction shifting was plenty for me.)

Rick

This assumption is also incorrect. I have bicycled off and on for past 5 decades. I was working in a bicycle shop in the eighties. and worked on and rode both friction and indexed bicycles. There are currently three indexed bicycles at my house that I maintain for family members. The Rohloff does everything in the hub. There is no adjustment necessary. Indexing is high maintenance compared to the Rohloff. Other internal geared hubs are inferior compared to it. It appears that you feel threatened by the fact that some of us have no interest in how you are pushing your point of view. I'm not against what you like. I just don't have a need for it. You should get out and have some fun. I am heading out to the dog park with two of my dogs.

Trakhak

My apologies. I see I misremembered your opening post. I'll delete the offending text now.

bboy314

It’s Merry Sales, fyi.

wheelreason

It's like the us, US thing, just nod and let it be....