Originally Posted by
Salamandrine
Last weekend I was on my bike and passed a group ride of some local club. As the usual pleasantries were exchanged, I heard numerous whispers in the background, "suicide levers, suicide levers!" Looking around for somebody riding what are now called "turkey levers", I didn't see any. At that point I realized they were referring to my DT shifters. Hilarious. When did this start? I am clearly behind the times. I fail to see why they are so dangerous. I only need to move my hand a few inches to shift gears.
Having such poor bike handling skills that you are afraid to take one hand off the bars is IMO much more dangerous. Do people stop to take a drink of water now?
Brifters schmifters. They encourage poor bike handling skills.
Yes, they do stop to take a drink of water.
Remember when handlebars broke with some frequency? Usually just the right side broke. The left end of handlebar was still in business and they never broke inside the clamp. I broke two I can remember and sure saw plenty of others break. This happened most often en peloton at 50kph or so. And nothing bad ever happened. We could ride our bikes. Ride home 50 miles holding a broken handlebar, operating the right brake lever even though it is unattached and even occasionally reaching down to shift - do that a couple times and it gets hard to worry about your bike being unstable while reaching to shift.