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Cool video - really clear on how to set it up correctly, might have to check out more of Park Tool’s videos.
Got me some friction shifters on an old Raleigh Record 12 I’ve set up as a road racer. Beautiful machine - pencil-thin steel frame tubing makes it look like a drawing of a bike, super elegant. Can’t argue with how easy it is to maintain those shifters, either - it is trivial, and you do the fine adjustments yourself while you’re riding. Was a bit terrifying on my first ride out, but it’s actually smoother than indexed shifters. Main drawback is that you have to plan ahead a bit for gear changes, so:
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having to brake if someone pulls out on you and then being in a bad combo for setting off again
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going out exploring, and then turning round a corner into a big bastard hill that you didn’t know about
… are far from ideal. But can’t argue with obvious, lightweight and simple on a bike.
That bike sounds so beautiful. My first commuter was a Peugeot with frame frictions that my father in law lent to me just straight out the garage no prep never gave me any issues until the crank axel snapped on me.i replaced it with a sealed cart. My current bike has a friction thumb shifter which is indexed sadly (inaccurate eBay) as I wanted to get back to that proper non-index design. But it’s solid and I’ve grown to love it.
The park tool videos are an amazing resource Calvin has a great way of demystifying things.
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