In a message dated 11/30/00 3:24:44 PM Eastern Standard Time, sfredette@earthlink.net writes:
> when i got my first bike with downtube bosses this year, i was excited about
> finally using downtube shifters.
> unfortunately because of some perceptual problems from a stroke i had a
> couple of years ago, it became apparent that my left hand couldn't find the
> shifter (once the hand is out of my sight, it loses spacial orientation),
>
Having heard all this about stem-shifters being unfairly dissed, I am proud to report that I rode home from the shop today on a Schwinn Traveler with True Temper tubing and a pair of Shimano stem shifters ! I was going to toss the stem shifters, but I actually kind of liked them. They are very light action - "retrofriction" I think it is called - so they shift with just the fingertips of the right hand. I have been thinking of how they might be possible to refit onto the downtube...
By the way, I never shift downtube shifters with the left hand. I reach over with the right hand even for the front shifter changes and always have. Sometimes I use the right hand to shift the right shifter while at the same time and with the same hand trimming the front derailer with the left lever. Isn't this how it is supposed to work ?
Glenn Jordan - just another wrench at the Cycle Center in Durham, NC, USA