On Apr 26, 2006, at 10:34 AM, Peter Brueggeman wrote:
> To expand on Mick Butler's comment "This would have been originally
> fitted with to
> use the American list terms a Simplex suicide front changer Urrgh!"
>
> Urrgh is right. There's nothing suicidal about lever front
> changers and yet one
> occasionally hears a CR listee use that confusing term. As you
> know the term
> suicider shifter comes from motorcycle's that shift by lever
> directly into the
> transmission, and in order to do so the hand is removed from the
> handlebars while
> travelling at motorcycle speeds. This simply doesn't apply to a
> bicycle's lever
> front changer; the only similarity is the direct transmission to
> the gears. A
> bicycle doesn't go very fast compared to a motorcycle at speed, so
> what is the
> suicide in taking your hand briefly off the bicycle's handlebar?
> And for those of
> you who take your hand off the handlebars to shift a downtube
> shifter, or shift a
> Cambio Corsa, or drink your water bottle, or blow some snot out of
> your nose. Do you
> call those "suicide downtube shifters" or "suicide Cambio Corsa
> shifter" or "suicide
> water bottles" or "suicide snot rockets" ...........
>
> Peter Brueggeman
> pbrueggeman@ucsd.edu
> San Diego California
I'm having a sudden urge to take my own life...
Chuck "intervention please" Schmidt South Pasadena, Southern California
.