Re: [CR]down tube shifters (slipping)

(Example: Production Builders:LeJeune)

Date: Fri, 28 Feb 2003 20:27:19 -0500
From: "HM & SS Sachs" <sachs@erols.com>
To: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org, Vincent Connelly <connell1@jhunix.hcf.jhu.edu>
Subject: Re: [CR]down tube shifters (slipping)


Vincent Connelly wrote:

"Do clamp-on down tube shifters require that little brazed-on "catch" on the underside of the down tube, that is, can they be clamped on without the bottom of the clamp riding on that little catch of metal? Or, can they be simply bolted on to a smooth down tube without the risk of slipping down on the down tube?"

Well, Vincent, one day they asked the elderly celebrity, "boxers or briefs?" and he responded, "Depends." :-)

You don't "need" a stop. but, in my experience, the easiest way to check a run-of-the-mill older bike for a brazed-on stop is to look for the skid marks (frame scrapes) that show its absence. The Campy DT clamp-ons seem to have been particularly effective as paint gouges. I also came to hate the sight of thick paint mounded by the clamp-on where it had dug in. Soooo, I prefer stops enough that i've brazed one on each time I've brought a bike down to bare metal for repaint. Probably wouldn't for a one-of-a-kind (or would make it really discrete, so it could hide under the clamp).

But, I'm sure you're much better about checking things regularly than some owners, and realizing immediately that the lever wants to come further toward you for the shift because Something Changed, so you can undoubtedly get away w/o the stop.

harvey "senior moments are more frequent now" sachs mcLean va

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