If you have ever done any racing you will understand how necessary it is to have STI these days, especially if everyone around you is using STI (or ERGO). Try riding in a pack when everyone is standing going up a hill. Then you sit down to make a shift because you are using down tube shifters. Not only is it likely you will take someone out, you will at least separate the pack and have guys pissed off big time at you. Being able to shift while standing, while keeping your hands on the levers, while in a pack, is a beautiful thing. It's not just a sprint thing.
Now, back to on topic, regarding the seat post fitment question originally posed by John Hurley,I have a question of my own. I have been building up a Medici Gran Turismo. I was under the impression that higher quality frames, like the Medici, used 27.2 posts. Well, a 27.2 post will not go unless I were to force it. A 27.0 post slides in nicely, just the right amount of resistance, and clamps down no problem. My question to you Medici gran turismo owners is: what size post do you use?
Thanks.
Jay Sexton Sebastopol, CA
You make my point perfectly for me. That each rider shifts as well as the other 200 in the pack is exactly why the levers have no effect. Everyone shifts more easily by the same amount, and the net change in the competition is zero. All that happens is that the level of skill required is decreased. The same is true in Formula 1, but the difference, in my opinion, is that Formula 1 is as much about technology as it is about driver skill, while cycling, IMHO is about rider strength and skill, or should be.
Regards,
Jerry Moos Big Spring, TX
Tom Dalton <tom_s_dalton@yahoo.com> wrote:
Jerome & Elizabeth Moos <jerrymoos@sbcglobal.net> wrote:
I mean are we supposed to believe that top pros are too uncoordinated to take their hands off the bars to shift gears? Particularly since DT indexed shifting was available some years before integrated levers, so one could still get a positive gear selection before the integrated levers. I doubt the integrated levers make much difference at all, except maybe in the sprint, where one might loose speed when shifting one's weight a bit to reach a DT lever. Even there, it's not clear that the modern levers actually changed the outcome, as they may just increase the sprint speeds of all the sprinters more or less equally.