Monday
Sep102007
Techno-geeks: Please leave my bike alone
Mon, September 10, 2007
Have you noticed how simplest things in life have become high tech when they don’t really need to? For example the paper towel dispensers in the restrooms at work, and in bars and restaurants.
What was wrong with just pulling on the paper, or operating a simple lever at the side? Every one of these new devices is different, so you stand there like an idiot with your hands dripping wet, trying to figure out where the “electronic eye” is.
Is it on the front, is it underneath; shouldn’t there be a little red light somewhere? You wave your hands all around this abominable black plastic box, which even looks like a piece of high tech equipment. Like a microwave oven or a CD player more than a simple towel dispenser.
Invariably someone will come to your rescue making you feel like a total retard. (That used to be a politically incorrect term, but no one ever uses it to refer to a mentally challenged person anymore, it is only used when referring the type of person who can’t operate a stupid paper towel dispenser.)
Why make the simple things in life high tech, when there is no good reason other than we can? Or because we have the technology. The makers of these “Black Box” towel dispensers will argue that by eliminating the handle, they eliminate a source of germs that could re-contaminate our clean hands.
Now wait a minute; every person using the towel dispenser has clean hands; they have just washed them. That’s why they need a paper towel. And, anyway after sterilizing our hands thoroughly, we grab the filthy door handle as we leave.
Why do we need electric can openers? One of the times we really need a can opener is during an emergency when the power is out.
Now the techno-geeks, always searching for more simple devices to make complicated are turning their attention to the bicycle, and toying with the idea of electronic gear shifting.
To be honest, I never got over index shifting in the late 1980s. At the time, the European cycling community scoffed at the idea, and so did Campagnolo. This was tantamount to a violinist needing marks on the neck of the fiddle to show where to place your fingers.
Of course, the engineers at Shimano knew better. They knew that in America there were people who actually did not know how to operate a friction shift lever. Maybe they had great foresight and could see this same nation of people, in the future, would not be able to operate a paper towel dispenser.
I always felt that index shifting was developed to cater to the “instant gratification” element. Nothing that requires a degree of skill, gives instant gratification. Muffing gear changes on a hill is no fun, but then neither is learning to play a musical instrument. However, the rewards are far greater once you master the skill. The satisfaction of doing something other people cannot, for a start.
In the case of indexed shifting, Shimano proved to be right, and Campagnolo spent years playing catch up. I will agree that indexed shifting has developed into something that is useful to all cyclists, including the pros. No one wants to go back to friction shifting, exceptold farts purists like me.
However, now there is talk about automatic shifting on a bicycle linked to a bicycle computer that will measure your heart rate and will automatically shift down when it senses you are trying too hard. Rather like the automatic transmission on a car.
Isn’t this taking the fun out of cycling? In the same way automatic transmissions took the fun out of driving. Cars used to be stick shift, with a clutch, and it took a certain amount of skill to drive one. Have you ever noticed that car adds on TV show people driving at speed, having fun, and shifting a stick shift? When in reality there are few such transmissions.
This is one of the main problems with car driving today; it has become so easy that people drive their car like they are sitting on their living room sofa. Eating, drinking, and talking on the phone. No one takes pride in being a good driver anymore. Would people be drinking coffee, and talking on the phone if they were driving a stick shift?
Will electronic shifting on a bike catch on? What about the weight-weenie? Batteries are heavy. How about this idea; an electronic eye on your handle bar stem. When your head is down and you are trying, it stays in a big gear, but when you sit up, it shifts down. I just hope it works better than the paper towel dispenser does.
What was wrong with just pulling on the paper, or operating a simple lever at the side? Every one of these new devices is different, so you stand there like an idiot with your hands dripping wet, trying to figure out where the “electronic eye” is.
Is it on the front, is it underneath; shouldn’t there be a little red light somewhere? You wave your hands all around this abominable black plastic box, which even looks like a piece of high tech equipment. Like a microwave oven or a CD player more than a simple towel dispenser.
Invariably someone will come to your rescue making you feel like a total retard. (That used to be a politically incorrect term, but no one ever uses it to refer to a mentally challenged person anymore, it is only used when referring the type of person who can’t operate a stupid paper towel dispenser.)
Why make the simple things in life high tech, when there is no good reason other than we can? Or because we have the technology. The makers of these “Black Box” towel dispensers will argue that by eliminating the handle, they eliminate a source of germs that could re-contaminate our clean hands.
Now wait a minute; every person using the towel dispenser has clean hands; they have just washed them. That’s why they need a paper towel. And, anyway after sterilizing our hands thoroughly, we grab the filthy door handle as we leave.
Why do we need electric can openers? One of the times we really need a can opener is during an emergency when the power is out.
Now the techno-geeks, always searching for more simple devices to make complicated are turning their attention to the bicycle, and toying with the idea of electronic gear shifting.
To be honest, I never got over index shifting in the late 1980s. At the time, the European cycling community scoffed at the idea, and so did Campagnolo. This was tantamount to a violinist needing marks on the neck of the fiddle to show where to place your fingers.
Of course, the engineers at Shimano knew better. They knew that in America there were people who actually did not know how to operate a friction shift lever. Maybe they had great foresight and could see this same nation of people, in the future, would not be able to operate a paper towel dispenser.
I always felt that index shifting was developed to cater to the “instant gratification” element. Nothing that requires a degree of skill, gives instant gratification. Muffing gear changes on a hill is no fun, but then neither is learning to play a musical instrument. However, the rewards are far greater once you master the skill. The satisfaction of doing something other people cannot, for a start.
In the case of indexed shifting, Shimano proved to be right, and Campagnolo spent years playing catch up. I will agree that indexed shifting has developed into something that is useful to all cyclists, including the pros. No one wants to go back to friction shifting, except
However, now there is talk about automatic shifting on a bicycle linked to a bicycle computer that will measure your heart rate and will automatically shift down when it senses you are trying too hard. Rather like the automatic transmission on a car.
Isn’t this taking the fun out of cycling? In the same way automatic transmissions took the fun out of driving. Cars used to be stick shift, with a clutch, and it took a certain amount of skill to drive one. Have you ever noticed that car adds on TV show people driving at speed, having fun, and shifting a stick shift? When in reality there are few such transmissions.
This is one of the main problems with car driving today; it has become so easy that people drive their car like they are sitting on their living room sofa. Eating, drinking, and talking on the phone. No one takes pride in being a good driver anymore. Would people be drinking coffee, and talking on the phone if they were driving a stick shift?
Will electronic shifting on a bike catch on? What about the weight-weenie? Batteries are heavy. How about this idea; an electronic eye on your handle bar stem. When your head is down and you are trying, it stays in a big gear, but when you sit up, it shifts down. I just hope it works better than the paper towel dispenser does.
Reader Comments (20)
OK it is pretty sweet not to have to reach down, the shifting is easy, and exact. It's not hard to understand why this has gotten so popular and will be hard to change. However, I haven't learned how to take it apart and fix it yet.
In getting more friends our age to take up cycling and appreciate some of the variables, no one seems interested in friction shifting. Oh well...
I do wish I could eliminate all those pesky and irritating "modern conveniences" out of my car.
Jack
This is the nice thing about innovation in cycling, especially as opposed to innovations in automobiles. If you're even slightly mechanical and patient (and have sufficient disposable income), you essentially have a buffet of the last forty years of technology spread out before you to mix and match. It doesn't get much better. Not so with cars, unfortunately (or my 1994 Camry wagon would be a five-speed manual with a hybrid motor and crank-operated windows).
INDEX SHIFTING BE DAMNED!
No electronics on mine. I tried a computer once, but that lasted about a week. I couldn't stand being fixated on numbers. I just want to ride, and if I need to know average speeds and distances, I just use a map and a watch.
As far as indexed shifting goes though, I don't mind it. I'm about as retro-grouch as one can get, and I started riding a "road bike" as a teen in the late 1960's. But I specified Ergo on my 1998 custom-built road bike. Now, I could live without it, no problem, but I like it. I would not put indexed shifting in the same frivolous category as electronically-operated derailleurs on bikes, and automatic transmissions on cars. Indexed shifting is just a very logical, relatively simple mechanical system. If we want to use automotive comparisons, I would say indexed shifting is more like the invention of manual transmissions that didn't require double-clutching. Nothing against clutches, but double-clutching was a pain I was happy to get rid of.
'Rusty' does not imply SENILE! :)
Oddity:
Ever realize that typical indexed dérailleur shifting controls (Left = front, Right = rear) operate in a REVERSE manner (mirror image) to one another.
Obviously, Ergonomic qualities are damned for mass production economics within GLOBAL bicycling.
(Hint: Solution's afoot!)
That said I keep my bike in the 70-gear-inch ratio about 95 percent of the time anyway.
Friction shifting is superior in so many ways. True, it takes a small amount more skill and effort, but not so much anyone would notice. They're cheaper, lighter, more reliable, easier to maintain and mechanically much more simple.
It also means I can run just about any rear derailleur with any cluster - and swap nine-speed clinchers for six speed-tubulars should the urge strike me, with the need only to adjust the limit screw on the derailleur. And provided those limit screws are properly adjusted, it also means that regardless of things like cable stretch, the gears always work just fine. And the handlebars look so much cleaner and uncluttered without great arcs of cable looping hither and yon. I suspect I'm a bit of a retrogrouch at just 39, but so be it.
I've been meaning to write for a while to say how much I enjoy reading your blog, and how useful I find the articles, particularly the instructional ones. The series on tubulars was fantastic and has seen me dust off an old set of wheels which rides like a dream but wasn't getting much use.
Like training programs: who writes them based on whose data?
You want to ride well, ride. You want to race well, race. If that doesn’t work, nothing will, because you aren’t doing the work; you are counting on someone else to come along and tell you how to train, when to shift, when to stand on the pedals.
The only reason we have index shifting is because somebody kept adding more gears; we now have 10 in back! You need index shifting because the chain and sprocket spacing is so narrow, compared to the five and six speeds we had for decades, that friction would probably skip gears.
Sounds like someone (making money off us) now wants to make decisions that should be ours, with auto-shifting: They already have our money, why not our minds? Designer workouts (by subscription), clothing ($400 bib shorts), bikes ($10,000+) and now they’ll take the last visage of riding away, shifting.
They say you can’t go back once technology is here; well I do every time I hop on my ’84 Moulton time machine.
The bike hasn’t changed, and neither has the feeling I get from riding it.
To reject newer componentry is to reject tradition!
If violins had marks, would you call them frets?
On index shifting, I think the biggest advantage is safety: not having to remove a hand and reach for the downtube shifters when you're bombing down a mountain road at 45 MPH or when you're riding 3" behind another guy's wheel banking into a tight turn of a criterium is a good thing. Keeping both hands on the bars during sketchy periods of a ride works for me.
Having said all that, all of my vintage bikes are equipped with good old Campy friction shifters that I dearly love (reminds me of when I first got into high-end lightweight roadbikes in the early 70's). I'm still working on building up my '84 Fuso frame with Super Record bits, tubular tires etc, and you can bet I wouldn't dream of using anything other than friction shifters.
To the guy who mentioned he hasn't gotten around to figuring out how to fix Shimano STI ergo shifters: you can't, it's all sealed. It breaks, you throw it away and get some new ones. Not so the Campy ergo shifters. I've had success rebuilding both 8-speed and 10-speed Campy ergo shifters. It's amazing how many teeny parts they cram into those things. Really a mechanical engineering marvel. However, it does make a case for the elegant simplicity of friction shifters. Nuff said!
Being 3" behind someone in front of me and reaching down to shift is no more dangerous than grabbing my water bottle.
At least with friction I have continuous practice riding one-handed.
I really do like the Odyssey, but automatics are just not fun to drive. I occasionally catch myself going down the road, leaning against an armrest, two fingers at the bottom of the steering wheel, eyes squinty, starting to drool... That doesn't happen with a manual shift. You are just too connected to the world around you.
Sure if you're motivated to learn the art of friction shifting you can find that it just works for you and you rarely make a mistake but if you're looking for riding a bike to be comfortable, easy, and safe, something like index shifting or 'automatic shifting' is likely a draw for you - same as an automatic transmission that takes the fear of stalling on that big hill away.
Thanks for tying it all into cycling.
John
SOOO looking forward to the manufacturers getting this product completed.........
go to www.freedomryder.com ... take a look at their new LC1....
This kicks ass.....