Originally Posted by
The Golden Boy
I'm one of the ones, (or maybe I'm the only one) that has this as a pet peeve... Because words mean things.
Just out of curiosity- can you point me to the use of the word "retrofriction" as an engineering term that would mean to "disengage the friction plate in the cable-pull direction"?
It's not an engineering term, but it's clearly what Simplex meant by the phrasing. "Retro" is an abbreviation of the French "retrograde." When you first cable up a friction shifter, it's in its fully-released position; cable-pulling is the first action you can do with it, and cable-releasing reverts it toward its initial state, hence cable-releasing is the "retrograde" direction of a shifter. Friction plate applied in the cable-release direction -> friction in the retrograde direction -> retrofriction.