What FB is tring to say is that shifting technique has a place here. How much is unknown but as a life long wrench i have test riden thousands of bikes. One of the constant aspects of test riding a bike when you're real experienced is that you can opperate a bike to make it work well, or not. As a mechanic who wants to get on to the next job, one tries to make the test ride go well. And a good rider can make that happen.

So a rider who is not paying attention or is less skilled can opperate a bike to not work so well, independent of the state of tuning. I see this all the time when the customer says something like "the shifting gets rough only after 30 miles". Meaning only after they get tired and don't pay attention to their technique as much as they should is the problem happening.

The bike does not care if you're in a race, just riding around the block or trying to keep up with your buddy. It does not care if it's in a well tuned state or worn out. It does work better, for what ever state it is in, when the rider ALWAYS cares. Andy.