Hullo,
I have bikes set up with the modern cogs (ie Hyperglide) and friction shifting. It work very nicely. In fact it shifts nicer than the old cogs, because no over-shift is required. The chain just goes to the next cog.
New chains work much better than the old ones. I've had bikes with Nouvo or Super Record and their shifting improved when I replaced the Regina chain with a Scram, especially in the front.
I've read Jan Hein's article about this and he's happier with the old cogs and old stiff chains. It works for him, but not for me.
Cheers!
James Valiensi
Northridge, Italy
On Tuesday, December 04, 2007, at 12:34PM, "Adam Hammond" <anhammond@gmail.com> wrote:
>Sorry for flooding all of your inboxes, but I'm new to the list, and
>have lots of questions. (Since only the first two years of my life
>were "on-topic," I have much to learn about things pre-1981).
>
>I have a feeling that this have been covered greatly elsewhere, but I
>can't seem to find an exact answer to my question. I'm in the process
>of putting together a randonneuring bike, and will be running a
>friction-shifting setup. Two of my bikes -- one with a Nuovo record
>drivetrain and one with a Shimano 600 -- shift with friction, and both
>have thread-on freewheels, and I like them very much. Since I will be
>using my randonneur for very long distances, I understandably want it
>to be extremely reliable. And since I'm building it from the ground
>up, I have a tremendous amount of choice in components. For aesthetic
>and practical reasons, I've assembled a largely Mavic SSC-based group
>of components (with Simplex-made retrofriction shifters), though I'm a
>bit reluctant to get the matching hubs. From reading things Sheldon
>Brown, for instance, has had to say, it seems that cassette hubs are
>simply a better design, and when buying something new, it would only
>make sense to go with a cassette hub. (The only cassette hub I think
>will look very good with the setup is the Phil hub -- which are not
>inexpensive.)
>
>However, friction shifting and ramped cassettes (from what I read)
>don't appear to go well together. It seems that "ghost shifting" is a
>problem. I'm only planning on running 8 gears in the back, so things
>aren't as narrow as a 9 or 10 speed setup would be. But it seems like
>it would still be a problem.
>
>Are there any Shimano-compatible non-ramped cassettes out there (is
>Uniglide sufficient)? Or does friction shifting work just fine with
>hyperglide cassettes? Or should I just get an "on-topic" hub with a
>thread-on freewheel?
>
>Thanks for your help. Please reply on-list if you think this might be
>of interest to others, and off- if you don't.
>
>Adam Hammond
>Toronto, Ontario, Canada