Gone the way of the frame pump
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.
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View Comments
@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.