I like that spirit! Perhaps I'm just an innate hacker. Perhaps growing up with a grandfather who grew up in the Original Depression and who worked for years at Western Electric led me to see most non-living things as simply objects with engineering potential. The common, "If they don't sell it, it must not be worthwhile." sentiment is somewhat frustrating to me. As is the "If racers don't use it, it must be crap." sentiment.

I just ran into a great guy at the LBS -- I managed to use my last patch and my spare tube in the same ride and needed an emergency replacement -- who has just biked from Portland, OR to Yreka, CA on an awesome frankenbike. He happened to need an emergency spoke. It make me happy and inspired to see a truly serious cyclist who had built up his bike with components chosen individually for his riding style and his budget, not something thrown together by a marketing or inventory management team.

Regarding the meat of your post, I've read about that 1/2 step setup on sheldonbrown.com and elsewhere -- both in historical perspective and on classic bikes now. I can see how that would work really well for certain cyclists on certain terrain. For someone without sufficient leg strength or facing roads with many quick grade changes, it might be a bit limiting. But, somehow it seems that learning to double shift should be pretty easily mastered in a couple of hours of riding. I can't imagine it working for me at the moment, since I do not have the strength, experience or flat roads to really appreciate anything smaller than a 12% difference between gears on most of my rides.

But, thank you for the input!