Originally Posted by
Kontact
A mechanical watch is hardly a luxury item. I wore a $30 Seiko 5 for years.
Mechanical shifting is an opportunity to interact directly with your bike, get feedback on how it is shifting and control the speed and force as appropriate. The amount of dexterity and force you have to pay is not significant. Certainly not enough to effect ride performance.
There is a joy in using well tuned mechanisms. I prefer making the effort to shift my sports car or bike mechanically, reset the date on my watch, use a chef's knife and keep it sharp, draw something with a pencil, polish a shoe.
The difference in feedback and control you get from mechanical shifting vs electronic is negligible Both shift quickly, both let you hear and feel how the shifting is working, maybe not through the hand, but by the way it actually shifts.
Considering that no one I'll ever meet will win a race or set a KOM because they didn't have electric shifting - it is purely a luxury.
Agree. But with the caveat, almost everything I have in my collection of bikes, guitars, skis, etc, even my cars and house (which aren't ostentatious at all) is a "luxury" compared to cheaper alternatives which would, for me, function just as well. So it being a luxury is meaningless to most people, because most people have lot of stuff for which there's cheaper perfectly functional alternatives. The value is that - for whatever reason - it's more fun or satisfying than the alternative.
I feel a bit sorry for all the people that apparently hate interacting with a modern mechanical bicycle. They work so well.
Hate? Aw come on. that's just silly to use the word hate. No one ever said they "hate" mechanical shifting. "Prefer" yes, "hate" no
Downtube shifters are the crank windows of bikes.
This is just silly too, although I suspect you're using hyperbole for effect.
Crank windows = significant PITA time of effort. Electronic windows = no PITA or time of effort;
DT shifting= slight PITA, momentary time of effort, electronic shifting = no PITA, no time of effort
I might suggest that comparing hand pump (on the side of the road) vs CO2 might be a better comparison to crank windows vs electric windows?