Originally Posted by
cudak888
Far as I am concerned, a "suicide" component is one with a definite structural flaw that will cause it to catastrophically fail, without warning, at an unspecified time in the future; not a component that requires any additional skill past normal bike handling as we know it to operate.
Granted though, Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain) did write a very entertaining piece about the inability for someone to pilot a penny farthing without crashing to the ground...
-Kurt
I agree with all you say, but some people apply the 'suicide' tag to the double brake levers, for example, that lots of people find convenient and OK for a leisurely rider.
The denigrating epithets applied to these ( 'turkey levers' comes to mind) are slightly, really, even totally ridiculous IMHO.
Similarly with the levered front mechs that required taking the hand off of the bars to change.
You do have to take one hand off of the bars to change ordinary down-tube levers, after all.