06-22-2019, 07:31 AM
(06-21-2019, 12:02 PM)Ed Hurst Wrote: The age of that bike almost guarantees it came with friction shifters. I got used to them and when indexing first came out, I kept unlocking the shifters to force them back to friction. Eventually I gave up and started making sure I bought good shifters and derailleurs. With friction, the difference was hard to notice, but with indexing, the difference is huge between cheap and expensive.
You got it. If you look closely at the down tube here, you can see the shift lever. There's only one because I never needed to use the front chainring shifter; I only use the back and I've never had a riding issue except on one very steep hill a while back.
A few years ago when I was getting new brake pads, the guy at the bike place said he could change the shifting system for pretty cheap if I wanted, but he said if I was used to the friction already, don't bother with the indexing. Friction is usually less maintenance because there's less "stuff" to go out of alignment, etc.