Originally Posted by Blue Order
I've got a bike equipped with Biopace. My mechanic is strongly urging me to put a round chainring on (I'm converting the bike from mountain bike to commuter) so I was thinking of a touring crankset. Only there's that S.I.S. issue.
I do like the rapid fire shifters for commuting ease, but I've never liked the "system' approach that you get locked into with indexed shifting. So I suppose one objective would be to go to a round chainring but keep S.I.S., and the other would be to go to friction, so I can use whatever components I want.
If the objective is to eliminate biopace, then swap the chain rings as mentioned above...
If you like the rapid fire, then leave everything else alone.
As you indicate most indexed shifting is somewhat proprietary, even though some will cooperate.
Unless you have a burning desire to do friction, I see no reason to change systems to allow interoperability unless you have issues with what you have. To do otherwise is like trying to put a lawn mower engine on your motorcycle because you don't want to be locked into Honda... even though you would give up features.
