A Shift In Time
Returning to your roots can be both a rewarding and sobering experience. The nostalgia one feels for the halcyon days of youth, the memories of carefree times in the sun with the only concern to make it home in time for dinner, the hidden alleyways and secret spots where the bike would take you and not another soul in the world would know your whereabouts. To return to those very places only to find that they are gone, buried, replaced or neglected beyond redemption is a slap in the face, as if to say, times change, the past is gone, move on.
These past few weeks spent back in the stomping grounds of my childhood, youth and most of my adult life have reinforced a few things: some memories last forever, others are wiped fairly quickly, and sometimes the grass really is greener etc. Other times, the grass is burnt brown and crisp, but it’s still grass. Even with the ‘better’ choices we have in all aspects of our lives, there remains a certain romanticism and sense of ‘doing it right’ that comes with utilising the very things that were once themselves new and exciting. Like driving a Triumph Stag, or pedalling trails that you last rode under power of internal combustion in the 80s, or drinking a coffee in a building that was last used to vend goods in the 70s…
And shifting your Bicycle’s gears by taking your hand off the bars, reaching down and moving a lever.
Although it may be easier to push a button on an electronic device to play a song or shift gears, the ritualistic quality of placing a vinyl disc on a turntable or manipulating a lever and cable to achieve the same result still seems that much more… cool. We strive to Look Pro, but feeling Pro is so much harder to accomplish, even with the same equipment available to us. Jump on an 80s steel frame with 8 speeds controlled by down tube shifters, and immediately the Pro-ness quotient is doubled or tripled. Sure, you may need to employ a bit more coaxing to perfectly mesh chain and cog; granted you’ll be looking for an even lower gear that just doesn’t exist; fair enough you’ll struggle to keep up with the electronic carbon freaks as they beep and blip away up the road.
But they’ll never be cool. Not proper cool. Not Greg Lemond-playing-The Cure-on-a-Walkman-while-climbing-l’Alpe-in-the-19t cool. While those days may appear to be well behind us, we can still honour them and transport ourselves back in time by simply reaching down, not only into our memories but to a pair of small articulated levers, and shifting consciousness.
A true Velominati would shift the left (front derailleur) shifter with his right hand. Still comes naturally to me when I ride my 90s race bike Hollands that is set up with a rear STI shifter and front downtube shifter.
Wow! Talk about ending the year on a high note. Great article Brett, I’m taking the Peugeot to work tomorrow after reading this.
A couple other pics.
There’s nothing quite like trimming the front derailleur with a downtube shifter. So easy. And you always get it just right.
@chuckp
What bar tape is that? It is right out of all the PDM team pics from the early nineties and I’ve always wondered what it was.
And your finishing tape job fucking sucks. Other than that, it’s a class act of a bike!
@chuckp
Have you ever tried riding, shifting and taking a photo at the same time?!
@frank
It’s older semi-padded Shimano bar tape. Since these pics were taken (over a year ago), I replaced the stem and bars to get the brake hoods into the same exact position as on my Felt FC. So now a -6 degree Ritchey stem and Ritchey bars. Same tape but black.
@brett
HTFU! :-)
@chuckp
Hard to make that statement resonate with an emoticon in there.
Try something like this, instead:
Ahem! A true Velominati would shift both levers with his right hand simultaneously!
Anticipating the upcoming change in terrain and performing the double shift began with those two little things that reside on the downtube, not with the two freaky looking things on the handlebars!
Not being a true Velominati, I probably shouldn’t speak to the above, but hey, it’s the interwebs so WTF and emotEiFUCK. Or something.
Looks like the tape is good old Tressostar adhesive cotton.
I run it too, don’t dump on the horrendous tape job, I did that late at night after far too much wine and has now been done properly.
@Joe Cline, @chuckp
Excuse me both: a true “Velominati” would know “Velominati” is plural and that the singular form is “Velominatus”.
Fuck sake, sometimes I feel like I’m speaking into an empty drum.
@frank
Hey @Frank Try not to be such an old fuck!
Since I missed saying it in the discussion on Rule #30, the fade paint job on that bike is absolutely tits.
Can’t find a photo at the moment and the light here is shit so I can’t take a reasonable photo – but I recently upgraded my Campa Syncros shifters on my Bianchi TSX to Simplex and its amazing how much more smoothly they shift.
I don’t miss my DT shifters – a fact that is pronounced every time I ride the TSX, having to sit down in the steepest bit of the climb so I can shift – but it does exemplify the beauty of being connected to your machine. A DT shifter reminds you how much work it takes to shift gear; you have to sit, ease off the gear so you can shift the chain over across presumably straight-edged cogs. Then ease it back into the next gear, subtly finding the perfect position for the lever where the gear is noiseless.
I don’t miss having a DT shifter when I’m riding day to day, but I appreciate being reminded of what it means to shift in the same way I appreciate gluing tubs on to remind you of what it means to ride along on a curtain of air.
These beautiful things in life shouldn’t be easy to come by; they should be a struggle.
@Chuckp
You’re going to have to try harder than that.
https://youtu.be/J2qHbEriQ6A?t=1m41s
@frank
I don’t miss my rear DT shifter in the least bit. But I can get on just fine with my DT front shifter and rear STI when I ride my Hollands. Yes, it takes a fraction more time to shift the front. But I love being able to trim the front derailleur just right. Admittedly, a DT front shifter is a PITA when you have to double shift both the front and rear, but that’s really rare for me.
@frank
I could never resist finishing a clean shift with a little twist on the fixing bolt too just to tighten up a bit on the committed gear.
@wilburrox
Kind of like under-tensioning a guitar string and bringing it back up to tune, knowing the extra tension will help keep it in tune when you’re fucking bringing the vibe later.
@brett
Why are you holding the frame pump (ZEFAL?!!?!!?) with your hand while shifting? You are a mere child.
Been running a DT shifter on the right hand side of the winter bike for the last few years in able to use an assortment of old shit wheels
@chuckp
This. Give that man a +1!
I’m not sure why I hold the pump when I’m taking a photo of a fake shift, maybe to balance a bit better? Even on the Reach Through Shift as suggested by @chuckp I gave it a caress, but don’t think I was when actually shifting.
Damn that bike is nice to ride though, especially now that it has a 39t (courtesy of my friend Belinda who seems to be a great source of old Campa bits) and I don’t have to avoid anything resembling a proper climb (not many of those over here either).
@frank
Like many others here, I had my fill of DT shifters in the 80’s. Today DT shifters are only pro, if you actually used them when they were the only option. Otherwise you become a retro hipster which is very much the opposite of pro. To be truly old school pro, you never stopped using them.
@brett
And we didn’t all do that. It was important to be able to shift either lever with either hand, so using one to shift both all the time was less pro.
@chuckp
That’s the nice thing when riding the TT bike – endless trim variability. Works better than “scrape, scrape” Red22 on my BMC Team Machine.
My VMH was wondering what the bar end shifters were on a nice looking steel tourer another VMH was riding we saw recently. She didn’t realise they’re where TT shifters came from.
@EBruner
That’s me then, but I’m old enough to be a retrogrouch rather than a retrohipster. Sometimes, when riding a “modern” bike I reach down for the shift levers. Sometimes I struggle to find the shift paddles on the vintage bikes. What time is Matlock?
@brett: If you can live with 7 cogs (8 with the legendary insert), Synchro shifting is pretty damn good once dialled in.
@frank
That sounds like a giraffe sticking it’s head into a jam jar
@frank
I’ve mixed and matched 8 speed cassette, chain with 10 speed rings, (shimano!) and shifts perfectly. Bangs into gear really well (as you’d expect) on the rear, and the front benefits from running slightly narrower rings (less chain rattle) and shifts on the front better than any mash up I’ve used, and most proper set ups.
Fuck you, Sram, I’m looking you right in the face with that comment.
Anyways, get some chainrings with ramps you cheap bastard the bike’ll work better.
Declension of Velominatus (nominativus); Velominati (genetivus); Velominato (dativus); Velominatum (accusativus); Velominato (ablativus).
Male plural: Velominati, Velominatorum, Velominatis, Velominatos, Velominatis
Female singular: Velominata, Velominatae, Velominatae, Velominatam, Velominata
Female plural: Velominatae, Velominatarum, Velominatis, Velominatas, Velominatis
And on DT-shifters:
@chuckp “A true Velominatus would shift the left (front derailleur) shifter with his right hand” .I shift both with my right hand, so I am a VV (Velominatus Veritus* ;-) and can do both at the same time, if needed.
“There’s nothing quite like trimming the front derailleur with a downtube shifter.” Totally agree, my Ultegra Groupsan brifters on #1 cannot match the finesse of Groupsan 600EX on #9.
*veritus m (feminine verita, neuter veritum); first/second declension
Slamming the chain into the 13 with your knee during a sprint was a good trick too, but not as good as shifting someone else’s gears into the 13 on a climb.
I broke out the steel bike for some gravel riding last week. Nailing a silent front shift up to the big dog remains my favorite feeling in cycling. Nothing makes the hair on my neck stand up like that perfect execution of the shift at the peak of a climb before bombing down the other side. I upgraded the old 6 speed freewheel to a 7 speed unit with modern machining. Rear shifts are a joy on that cluster. Always silent, always smooth. I only get some complaining from the back when I sweep from one extreme to the other in a single swipe of the lever.
@chuckp
Umm, is that a carbon seatpost on a steel bike? To my eyes that is……wrong. As is mismatched gear change systems.
Then again, I’m the wrong side of 50 so ignore me.
DAvid
@davidlhill
The wrong side of 50? You mean younger than 50, right?
@Pete
Nice.
@Oli
50 is the new 30 !!!!
@wilburrox
well of course it is in all matters of V.
But whilst the yoof may appreciate carbon seatposts that shave grams off a steel steed, I’d prefer not to see that combination.
Has there been a reverence article on beautiful lugwork? Proof positive that in some respects I’m the wrong side of 50 came when I was Boris Biking recently. A rider stopped beside me at some lights on an Olmo which had beautiful lugwork, which I just had to stare at and admire.
Only when the lights changed did I realise properly that the rider was female and gorgeous.
Sigh.
@frank
And I know it’s plural. I actually took Latin in high school. It’s just more fun to push your buttons and get your panties in a twist.
@brett
Caressing your frame pump? Borderline porno.
@EBruner
I guess that makes me semi-pro/old school. My Hollands when it was originally built (1990) was full Dura Ace with 7-speed downtube shifters. I later swapped the rear shifter for 8-speed STI but was able to make it work with the original 7-speed rear derailleur. But I wouldn’t think of swapping out the front DT shifter. My set-up is homage to Andy Hampsten’s win on Alpe d’Huez.
Did someone mention DT shifters and vinyl in the same article?
These are both about the same age too.
@davidlhill
Don’t know what the wrong side of 50 is, but I’m the wrong side of 55.
Yes, that’s a carbon seat post (replaced the original DA seat post, which I still think is one of the coolest/best designed alloy posts for setting up your saddle). You could argue that there’s a lot “wrong” with my bike. The original Reynolds fork was replaced with a Kinesis carbon fork (actually suggested by the frame builder himself, John Hollands). Quill stem replaced by a threadless adapter and modern stem (first a -10 degree Shimano PRO and now a -6 degree Ritchey). The ITM bars (25.4mm clamp diameter) in the pic have been replaced with Ritchey bars (31.8mm). The Ritchey stem/bars were to get my brake hoods into the same exact place as on my Felt FC without having to cock the handlebars into some ungodly ugly position (the bottom of my bars are level/parallel with the top tube, as it should be on a proper steel race bike). Oh, and the headset is a MTB headset … Shimano Deore LX.
But it’s my ride, so my choices. Call it neo-vintage (although it’s not really that vintage a frame) or retro-mod. The carbon seat post was originally just an experiment to see if it made any difference in ride quality. It did. Along with the carbon fork, helps take the edge off of all the little jolts and irregularities in the road. Much more comfortable. So a keeper. And this was my primary (only) bike last year that I put ~4,000 miles on until I built up by Felt FC at the end of the year.
@davidlhill
Now that’s just wrong.
@Rom
Which Denon turntable is that? I still have my Phillips 777 from college days. My (older) brother has one too, but he’s geeked it out with a custom carbon wrapped tonearm (he did himself) and other stuff to make it even better.
@chuckp
DP-30L II
@Rom
I was wondering how long it would take to bring turntables into this.
@chuckp
It is. It so is. Inside I cried all the way home. I’d like to think I drank an Old Fashioned that evening in a fog of depression, but it was several months ago so can’t be sure. However, beautiful lugwork (like your bike for example) lifts my spirits immeasurably!
My turntable still sees action on a regular basis – also a Phillips. Can’t remember the model, and can’t check as I’m at work.
David
@Oli
Ah, many has been the day when I’m struggling up a long climb and pull my bidon from its cage, only to knock my right shifter forward and drop down two or three cogs.
@frank
Holy fuck that was cool.
@Matt
D’accord