Oh Boy- I hate friction shifting with modern cogs, ie the ones designed for index shifting. I tried to use friction with these cogs and got nothing but ghost shifts when I stood up or pedaled hard. Friction is best with an old Suntour six speed freewheels.
I like vinyl and film. But I jammed my Nikon FE yesterday trying to load film in it. It's been a few years since I used film and I forgot how to load the damn thing. My Joe A. is an awesome bike. It has the nicest ride. But the chain stays are so long. When I wash it, I feel like I'm working in a shipyard. I've been tempted to shorten the stays (cut the back of the bike frame off and put it together better. A bike shouldn't have chain stays so long that you need to buy two chains to get enough length for it. Hydraulic disk brakes work great and cantilevers will always suck. I've also though how cool my Joe A would be with disk brakes. I run many bikes with a 1 x 11 drive train I don't miss the front derailleur. In fact I re-installed one on my Riv custom and it took three different ones and an hour of adjusting to get it to work (small chainrings and loads of BB drop on that frame) I've been a Rivendell fan & customer since day one. But sometimes I think they are too rigid in their bike philosophy. On Thursday, January 2, 2020 at 11:44:00 AM UTC-8, Patrick Moore wrote: > > As usual, fun, miscellaneous, non-organized content. Much on slant > parallels and indexing and the power of Shimano and the smallness of > SunTour. But, perhaps this is worth a breath: sure, everyone nowadays wants > 13 in back and trouble-free electric, indexed shifting. BUT! I would not be > surprised if there is a market "out there" for honorable consumers who > *like* to develop the skills required to do things for themselves. After > all, there was the fixie craze during the 10 speed indexing period, and -- > I am no expert on current culture, but is there not a trend toward > self-reliance, authenticity (not sure how to define this, but at least, > don't buy what you can't do), simplicity, and durability? The sorts of > people who use knives instead of processors, and knead bread dough instead > of using bread makers? (Both for me, tho' I'm no gourmet chef.) > > The same from another angle: every time you gain with a machine that makes > it easier for you to do something, and for neophytes to get into the > action, you also *pari passu* lose skill and expertise, which itself is > very often a large part of the pleasure and self-affirmation of practicing > some craft, be it only shifting a derailleur system. > > Now, if you perfect -- as Rivendell's Silvers do --"do-it-yourself manual > shifting, might there not be a small but sustainable market for > well-meaning, earnest, honest people who'd like to aquire these minimal > self-sufficient skills with tools perfected for the purpose? > > It seems to me that Rivendell ought to actively market to this audience; > not the theme, "We're diehard holdouts for old-fashioned skills," but "You > want the pleasure and self respect of learning how to do things for > yourself; we can equip you with tools perfected for this" -- whether > shifters, axes, bags, clothing, what have you. IOW, not "we're holdouts" > but "you don't want to be subordinate to the machine; we are on your side > with the right stuff." > > Those new Silver shifters might well be a design that entices me away from > beloved SunTour barcons.I didn't like the older, long-levered Silver bar > end shifters, but the new ones may make me change my mind. > > Casting back to the last blahg, with Archie Bunker: I never watched All in > the Family until just a week or so ago when I looked it up. I have to say > that, from the very few episodes I fast forwarded through, it was well > done, and I usually hate TV. That is, it portrayed a bigot well as a bigot > in a humorous way. > > What I have watched what may be BBC's antecedent to the show which, as an > Anglophile, I like quite a bit. As usual, as with anything literary or > dramatic, the Brits just do it better. > > Grant, this one's for you: > > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t0-leRNxhmg > > > *Today when you're picking out baby and toddler toys, the groovy thing to > look for is a toy that requires the human to do 90+ percent of the work. A > book versus an audio book or video game, Tinker Toys versus online building > things or whatever. Adult toys used to be that way, but bicycles, more than > most, have eliminated the need to make mechanisms perform. All riders have > to do it push to the click, or share the task with a motor. It's no skin > off anybody's nose, who even cares?, except that I think everybody should > have at least one bike that is more manual than automatic. It's not a > matter of trying to make simple things harder; it's more like not seeking > out the easiest, most brainless way to perform a function that formerly > required a little skill, and then feeling puffed up for your "smart > shopping."* > > *SILVER shifters and any modern slant parallelogram rear derailer (Shimano > makes good ones) is a good way to go. A little practice and you'll be fine > in a week!* > > -- > > ----------------------------------------------------------------------- > Patrick Moore > Alburquerque, Nuevo Mexico, Etats Unis d'Amerique, Orbis Terrarum > > > > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/rbw-owners-bunch/4b589385-857a-4e42-8080-e25362b06f70%40googlegroups.com.
