Who gives a shift?



(Sorry. Couldn't resist.)



Anyway, I have Altus C10 (I think) on my MTB commuter with the thumb-shifters (Is that rapid-fire?) and I sympathize with the negative comments, here. I've never really ridden this bike much until this summer, and while I like the bike, I have had several times where I've had to fiddle with the levers to get it to work at all, or go the opposite direction of where I wanted to and then reverse it... stupid stuff. My favorite is the uncommanded shift where I hit a bump and the thing drops to a smaller cog, or where I start to downshift but the chain jumps to a higher gear. What the...?! I'm sure it needs adjustment, but I'm just having too much fun riding to give a darn.

My road bike has indexed DT shifters and I guess I'm just used to it. I trained myself years ago to a higher cadence and now it's comfortable for me, and I don't worry about the numbers. I don't get off the saddle much, preferring to stay "steady" and keep pumping. IOW, I'm a "shifter." I'll stand for steep hills if I'm in my lowest gear and can't maintain my spin speed, but not many steep hills around here.

Biggest improvement I made in terms of reducing on-bike hassles was when I got my first camelback. Much easier to deal with than the water bottles. I don't use it for commuting, though. Overkill.

My computer hasn't worked in a while. Finally took it off this last weekend before a group ride. I liked the clean look. More and more I'm adopting the Harley-Davidson tag line of "screw it, let's ride."