Kevin "viva le friction" MacAfee wrote:
>This past Sunday, I held my first annual Velo and Vino get together
>and had my less mechanically inclined cycling friends over for a
>little pre-season bike maintenance, food and fun. Everything they
>ride was built in the past 2-3 years and most of the maintenance
>they needed was cable replacement, handlebar rewraps and new chains.
>
>After spending what I consider a ridiculous amount of time replacing
>cables on a Shimano 9 speed STI lever, I am convinced now more than
>ever that bicycle components, like modern cars, are being designed
>so as to make on-road maintenance nearly impossible. They may shift
>more precisely but unless you have a shop and more tools than I
>would want to carry riding, basic maintenance is going to be
>challenging.
>
>They were all extremely impressed by how fast and easy gear and
>brake cable replacement was on the bikes we all favor. There might
>even be a convert in the bunch, who knows.
This is a rather peculiar example. Replacing the inner cable on any Shimano brifter is trivially easy, and the only tool required is a 5 mm Allen wrench.
It's true that if you want to replace the cable housings, you'll need a cable cutter as well, and to re-tape the bars. Some sort of grinder is also needed if you want to do a first-rate job of finishing off the housing cuts.
I really don't see your point here, unless you tried to remove the cable without first shifting into the slackest gear (good policy with all types of shifters.)
Indexed (rear) shifting is an unalloyed Good Thing. Sturmey-Archer had it 100 years ago.
Sheldon "It's Not That Hard" Brown
Newtonville, Massachusetts
+-----------------------------------------------------------+
| If you only know Mussorgski's Pictures at an Exhibition |
| from the Ravel or Stokowski "colorized" versions, (with |
| orchestra) seek out the original piano solo version. |
| I think it is much superior! |
+-----------------------------------------------------------+
--
Harris Cyclery, West Newton, Massachusetts
Phone 617-244-9772 FAX 617-244-1041
http://harriscyclery.com
Hard-to-find parts shipped Worldwide
http://captainbike.com
Useful articles about bicycles and cycling
http://sheldonbrown.com