tomato coupe

Any shifting with down tube shifters effectively requires two hands, since your other hand must remain on the bars while you shift. In contrast, you can make a true one-handed single shift with modern shifters, since your other hand doesn't need to remain on the bars. For example, you could shift with your right hand while reaching for a gel with your left hand. You can't really do that with down tube shifters. And, as pointed out below, double shifts with modern shifters can be done easily while keeping both hands on the bars.

Eric F 

Okay. I’m still a little puzzled why letting go of the bars to shift DT levers is preferable to moving to a hood to shift an STI. I get why you would learn to do simultaneous shifts with one hand. I do simultaneous shifts pretty regularly. I just use two hands, and they stay in contact with my bars. I’m not telling you how you should do things. I’m just trying to understand why someone prefers to do things differently.

base2 

It is actually quite easy to do double shifts with down tube shifters.

I simply keep my dominant (left) hand on the handlebar and configure my hand through the top tube to touch each lever appropriately then move the fingers accordingly. Really, it's not a big deal. The front is essentially binary for all it matters in this context and the rear only needs to move 2-3 cogs in the opposite direction. If you have ever rode your bike one handed, you can do it. It's not quite as easy as eating gummy-bears from a top tube gastank bag but is easier than reaching for a water bottle

I use the Ene Ciclo 2x11 and TRP Hy/RD hydraulic disc, fwiw.

tomato coupe

With enough practice, almost anything is easy. But, double shifts using down tube shifters is definitely more difficult and takes a lot more practice than using modern shifters.

Camilo

Just for fun and a change of pace on a classic/vintage bike? It is fun - for me anyway.

Same reason some people like manual shifting in a classic - outdated, obsolete, weird - car. And those people can still enjoy and appreciate a modern automatic transmission, on a modern comfortable car as well as whatever modern bike technology brings our way.

As a marginally related example -ratcheting up the discussion from friction/indexed to mechanical/electronic: my wife and I have - and really enjoy - electronic shifting bikes with hydraulic disc brakes. But when it comes to extensive travel away from home with our RV, often in rural areas (read sparse and basic bike shops), cable shifting and brakes is better because of the more likely ability to find and replace every single part at least with something that will work. I doubt if I could even get an AXS battery locally in most of the places we travel.

So simplicity has a place sometimes. I said it was a marginally related example.

tomato coupe

FedEx will deliver a battery to you almost anywhere.

Camilo

I guess you've never traveled extensively for several months at a time, in very rural areas with little pre-planning.

tomato coupe

FedEx delivers to rural areas.

Maelochs

Anyone who has electronic shifters and wants to tour, and isn't equipped with the foresight to bring many spare batteries .... probably will end up calling a cab anyway. If one cannot plan for something like obviously important spares, then flat tires or broken spokes or whatever, would likely end the trip ... or maybe lack of water and food?

Trying to "prove" that friction shifting is "better" than STIs and better than electronic STIs ... is simple to solve. Define "better" however suits you.

People tour and have been touring--and every other kind of riding---for a long time. The idea that the bicycling world is about to grind to a halt because not enough people respect friction shifters is garbage. I am sure there are people who grew up riding lever-shifters who claim that friction shifters won't last because no one can find cables.

base2 

"Enough practice?" Like taking a minute to think through and understand the shifting process, straddling a bicycle and giving it a try. Yeah. Super complicated.

Totally the realm of savants and masters.

RH Clark

Learning to friction shift well is sort of like learning to drive a stick shift car. When you explain how to do it to someone used to an automatic, it sounds incredible complicated. When you learn how, you don't even think about it anymore.

tomato coupe

No, it’s not complicated. But it does take some practice to reliably hit both intended gears without undershoot or overshoot.

delbiker1 

IME, absolutely true. Being uncomplicated does not mean immediate precision. Shifting my 12 speed cassette with the bar end in friction took a bit of operational experience to get the lever travel correct. Now, I rarely miss a shift totally, occasionally have to tweak it it just a touch. I like it better than shifting fewer gears, it’s less travel.

tomato coupe

In other words, you don’t even think about it … once you’ve had some practice.

Kapusta

Nope. I've got zero interest in that.

I don't think a auto-vs-manual is a good analogy for indexed-vs-friction. Manuals are actually fun, IMO. A better analogy would be a manual with synchronized vs unsynchronized gears. I've got no reason whatsoever to chose the latter. Sure, I'd deal with it to drive around some cool old car, but driving old cars is way more interesting to me than riding old bikes.

And if I did have some cool vintage bike I really liked, I would swap the drivetrain to an indexed one.

2old

Late to the game here, but IMO (for me, MTB rider) indexed shifting is one of the two best developments (with suspension), since I started riding about 40 years ago. I'd need to think for a while which is more important.

PeteHski

Is this thread a time warp to the early 80s when new-fangled indexed shifting became a thing? It must be over 40 years since I owned a bike with friction shifters and I'm not missing them even a little bit.

big john

I've frayed and broken shift cables on DT shifters but I did find DA cables were more durable, back then, anyway. I broke a rear shift cable on a bar end friction shifter while on tour in Kentucky.
Fortunately I had the foresight to pack an extra cable with me but it was a universal type which had different size ferrules on the ends so I had to cut one off. The only tool I had for cutting was a fingernail clipper and I managed to hack through the cable and got shifting again.

big john

Maybe because it's winter?

tomato coupe

It’s always winter on this forum.

smd4

That's "making do" for sure!

seypat

In before the lock. The letters don't work with the censors. That's all I got.

big john

MacGyver strikes again.

Trakhak

Among the things I don't miss about my 20 years using downtube friction shifters - no more wearing a bare patch through the paint with my thumbnail. You see that same bare spot on many C&V bikes that got a lot of use.

tomato coupe

I like how that nicely arose from the nail clipper anecdote.