Originally Posted by
Wardrive
Honestly, I have never ridden a bike with DT shifters. It just seems like they would be a bit tricky to try shifting on downhills at speed, taking your hands off the bars and such? I may be totally wrong. The DT shifters that are on this bike are kind of neat since they index. The last lever shifters I ever used were 25 years ago on a Huffy and you had to always try and find that sweet spot when shifting so that you didn't skip a few gears in the process. I think that is what you guys refer to as "friction" style shifting?
Yes, that is likely the same friction shifting referred to, no clicks, just feel. Downhill is not particularly tough to change gears. Sprinting and uphills are worse. Indexing is great when it is dialed in. Friction needs far less fiddling to get it set up right and is much more forgiving to changes in the drivetrain. No friction shifting on the integrated brake shifter setups.