But the best shifting bike I own is my Mercian which is equipped with mid-80s Shimano Deore (r) and Campy Record (F) changers, cheap shimano f/w, Sachs chain, and Suntour barcons. This setup for some reason shifts as smoothly as indexed, very positive and crisp, with a wide "sweet spot" in every gear.
In "The dancing chain" Berto does a litte discussion at the end about what makes a derailleur shift really well. It has to do with maintaining an optimum length between the freewheel cog and top pulley on the derailleur cage across the entire shifting range, on both the big and small rings. According to HIS analysis, the Campy by design could not shift as well as the slant parallelogram Suntour/Shimano products.
===================================================== Mark Petry 206.618.9642 Beautiful Bainbridge Island, WA mailto:mpetry@bainbridgeisland.net ===================================================== "Most of American life consists of driving somewhere and then returning home, wondering why the hell you went."
John Updike, "Rabbit at Rest" =====================================================