Originally Posted by
dddd
It's hard for me to imagine where you are coming from with that statement.
Are you a CAT-# racer who needs the incremental cumulative benefit of every new "improvement" available?
Maybe you have a very good shop looking after your bike, visited regularly?
Again, I just don't know. Perhaps it's just that your riding position is off so that reaching down to shift greatly affects comfort or control, or that (for same reason) you find it difficult and uncomfortable to move quickly enough into and out of the seated position.
I do know that marketing plays huge, and that people tend to be creatures of habit.
I'm someone who rides roads, about 1000 miles a month in the spring summer and fall, has used DT shifters and prefers virtually any handlebar mounted placement. My placement preference says nothing about my level of enthusiasm, and I suggest you actually look up what the "No True Scotsman" fallacy is before you try to make this personal. Guess what? Enthusiast bicyclists have different things they're enthusiastic about. My riding position is fine, BTW. I also like to get out of the saddle a lot because I find it fun, and I don't particularly want to have to choose between that and shifting on any given stretch of ground. You may look at shifting as some sort of performance art, and being adept at multiple shifter positions as some kind of needed virtuosity to prove enthusiasm, I look at it as something I want to function well so I can ride fast.
Look, I'm not saying you're wrong for appreciating the aspects of biking that you do, but denigrating the enthusiasm of people who don't share that particular appreciation is the phoniest-looking kind of snobbishness.
I'll take my ability to shift gears in the middle of a steep grade and accelerate while climbing over a perfectly executed reach down and shift both derailleurs every time. I don't race, but I'm wayyyyyy more interested in the performance of my legs than the elegance of my shifting motions.