Originally Posted by koine2002

Thanks for your $.02. I raced with a DT bike in jr. high/high school in a small Texas border town. I "retired" when I went off to college and never really got back into it. I took up running. In 2002 I injured my knee and had to lay off the running. After gaining 50lbs, something had to happen. I took up cycling again. By this time I was in rural Oklahoma not having to deal with lots of traffic. I'm back in Dallas again (round two) and haven't been used to heavy traffic on a bicycle. I did fine with the DT shifters and was safe, however, the traffic lights issue just makes it safer and easier--at least as far as my sense of it. I know our feelings on safety don't make it safer, but in this case, it helps me at the stops ans starts.