Originally Posted by
Atlas Shrugged
No we can not! The fact we are still discussing friction shifting is ridiculous. This is like defending the use of hand cranking starting cars after the implementation of the electric starter.
By the way triples have ended up in the dustbin of history as well.
Triples have ended up in the dustbin of marketing and manufacturing, not the dustbin of history.
They still exist, you can still buy them, and they still make just as much sense as they ever did, for the use cases for which they've always made sense.
Namely, those use cases for which overall gearing range needs to be maximized, and gaps between gears need to be minimized. Given the limitations of bicycle drivetrains, the only way to optimize both of those constraints is to add gears at both ends of the drivetrain. You pay a cost in mechanical complexity and ease of use, but.... TANSTAAFL.
And, to return to the argument I was actually making, what is the advantage of front indexed shifting on a 2 speed crankset? Or even a triple? I've had it on many bikes over the years, and it always worked reasonably well, (except for Shimano's why-in-the-hell-did-they-do-that road/ mtb front shifting incompatibility,) and I've never once thought that it was of any use whatsoever. There has literally never been a single front shift that I have ever made, or failed to make, in almost 40 years of riding multi-speed bicycles, where the presence or absence of an indexed front shifter would have made any difference.
At the rear end, there's an argument to be had.
But up front?
Nope.
--Shannon