ColonelSanders

To my sheer and utter amazement, I have noticed the odd person say that they prefer Gear Shifters without any Gear Indicators on them, and this is something that I am struggling mightily with to understand.

Apparently their main defense is that you can just look down between your legs to work out which gear you are in and go from there.

For the life of me I don't know why you would want to make your cycling life more difficult than it needs to be, yet some people do.

Interested to hear other people's thoughts on whether they like their to be a Gear Indicator on their shifter or not, and if not, why that is.

badger1

Good Lord ... mountain out of a molehill, ColonelS?

To answer your question from my perspective: couldn't care less whether my shifters have 'indicators' or not. They are useless. Never look at them, and don't need to 'look down' to know what gear I'm in.

Why not? Simple: I can tell by feel whether I need to shift down or up to sustain my preferred cadence. Legs pushing too hard/cadence slowing, obviously need a lighter gear; the reverse -- harder gear.

That's why road shifters rarely have indicators, except some at the entry-level.

JonathanGennick 

Style points, at least partly. One less thing to break if you are a mountain-biker.

I rarely know what gear I'm in. Friends riding w/me will ask and often seem consternated when I cannot answer. I don't dare look between my legs long enough to count.

Usually I know what front ring I'm in. On the back I just go higher or lower as needed. And I can tell from the feel of the shifter and the bike when I'm at either extreme end of the cassette.

Some of my bikes have the indicators, and some do not. I don't stress much either way, but I guess these days I have a mild preference for not having them.

ColonelSanders

No, just a question.

ColonelSanders

Well the lack of an gear indicator could easily be the difference between which of two bikes I might purchase and is definitely the reason why I have ruled out Sram for my shifters and also front & rear derailleurs.

One example comes to mind about why I like having them, the other week as I pushed off from the lights, I was surprised how hard it seemed and was initially thinking I must really be feeling fatigued, but when I looked at my gear indicator, I then realised I had forgotten to shift down as I was coming to a stop at the red light.

Now sure I would have worked this out without gear indicators, but having them there allowed me to work it out much quicker and that I appreciate.

Also as a noob cyclist, I like to know what gear I am in when I tackle hills and/or certain stretches of road, so that I can gauge my progress from my terribly low base.

Again the gear indicators makes this a bit easier for me,

mrv 

the little stupid indicator breaks and jams up the shifter. then you have to dissect the to play 'Operation' and remove the little broken bit and hope you can get it screwed back together right - if you don't loose the little micro-screw holding the cover on.

Good Night! you need an indicator to figure out if your bike is too hard/too easy to pedal?

ColonelSanders

It immediately tells me if I am in a gear I have used successfully before on hills or whatever, so if I feel it is a bit of a struggle, I know I can just grit my teeth and put in more effort.

2702

I like them, having 27 gears on my bike it helps to know where I am at.

travbikeman

I like having a gear indicator, but most of the time it really doesn't matter if I have it or not since I too go by feel.

My Acera shifters only show an actual numbers of 1 and 9, nothing between. So I'm still going by feel in reality. The only time I really would have liked to see the actual numbers on the gear selector, is when the chain skips a gear. I would have liked to know the specific gear it skipped over or from.

I don't like taking my eyes off the road and looking back at the gears while riding. Throws my balance off.

ColonelSanders

Hey what is the biggest sized tyre that could fit on your Coda Elite?

trainchaser

...after you've been riding for years, indicators are of no use whatsoever, none of my earlier bikes had indicators, you went by how things felt. My current bike has them and they are useless accouterments - they show roughly where you are between 1 and 10 on the rear cassette and the front indicator is a complete waste of plastic because you only have two chain rings. I think its pretty easy to know whether you're on the big or small ring...

giantcfr1

I'd have to go look on my Hybrid to see if I have one. I've got a feeling one is on there, but I've never taken any notice. It's all by feel for me.

EDIT...I just checked my photobucket pics and my gosh I do have one.
Again, I've got no use for it.

ColonelSanders

Yeah obviously the front rings on a double don't really need a gear indicator.

Now as for showing roughly where one is, I'm getting myself this beauty.

quicktrigger

I prefer to have the indicators, as it's allows a very quick glance to see where I'm at, so that I don't have to constantly track what gear I'm in. I can spend more time enjoying where I'm at than thinking about the bike. Also if I'm in traffic, or on a fast downhill then it is safer than looking at my gears.

So to carry forward the logic of those that get pissy about indicators, having the indicators is no different than having a cyclcomputer/GPS telling you your speed, or how far you have gone. Your still going as fast as you are going, and where you are in your route. Why do you need to know cadence, either speed up, stay the same, or slow down. After much riding, then why do you need those? Can't you tell your cadence from just looking down, or how it feels? Or power meters? You pedal as hard as you pedal... pedal harder and/or faster = faster hill climb/bike ride.

Point is, personal preferences and if someone else wants them or not, doesn't matter.

DorkDisk

1st gen rapidfire and rapidfire plus did not have indicators and nobody cared. Then they came out with windows under the bars. These are now hard to run on riser bars so they went over the bars.

Usually one knows which chainring they are in, even on a triple. Once you know that, its pretty easy to know where you are in the rear. Plus, I got used to looking down and back. Its not a big deal. I rarely do it but I do

The higher end gear allows you to remove the OGD, which makes space on the handlebar. For example, here I removed the OGD to allow the lock-out to be better placed. The OGD would have put it far away.


I dont like OGDs and remove them if I can. They serve me no purpose, are fragile, and look silly

They also lead to "bad gearing knowledge" as people start referring to their "1-6" gear; which means nothing to bike people, especially since even Shimano uses "1" for the low gear on some models and "3" on others for the same gear

badger1

?? I don't see anyone getting "pissy" about this trivial topic. The only hyperbole I can see is in the Colonel's original post: to his "amazement" some cyclists don't care about gear indicators, and he wonders what possible "defense" one could have for disregarding a device he apparently finds useful. I and others have answered that question.

Darth Lefty 

My MTB has them but I've been riding it for 13 years and thousands of miles, I'm so in tune with it, I probably don't need them.

I don't have them on my road bike and I'm still getting used to it.

I really want them on the tandem, because if you look between your feet all you see is the timing chain.

On my two C&V bikes the lever is a good enough indicator.

Doctor Morbius

I've never really paid too much attention to what gears I'm in other than trying to keep from cross chaining. My Giant Roam 2 has indicators, but I've always looked down to get a general idea. My street friendly MTB has them, but they don't work. My 2 road bikes don't have them.

I usually stay in the middle chain ring regardless of bike and use the rear to go up or down. It's pretty flat where I live so it's not been much of an inconvenience.

Occasionally I'll play around with different gear combinations in an attempt to ride faster, however, most of the time it seems like that tends to lower my cadence too much.

quicktrigger

I was not referring to anyone getting pissy in this thread, but I did not make that clear. My apology for not being complete. However I have seen some go way overboard on the subject as though those that prefer them were somehow degrading to those that don't want them.

Tundra_Man 

My SRAM shifters on my hybrid have indicators and my Shimano shifters on my mountain bike have them. None of my other bikes have them. I find it interesting that on my bikes with indicators I find myself at times wanting to mash a higher gear because the indicator says this is the gear I typically ride in, even though I'm not able to pull it on that day due to wind, tired, etc. Without indicators I just spin in the proper gear without giving it much thought. So in a way not having them probably is beneficial for me.

If you like 'em, great. If you don't like 'em, great.

AlmostTrick

I've been riding for many years, both with and without indicators. While not a deal breaker by any means, I like 'em.

I put tight, close ratio cassettes on my bikes. It's not possible to always know which gear I am in just by feel. Wind, road conditions, and physical fatigue varies way more than my ratio's do.

I like to know which gear I'm in so I know if I'm doggin' it.

EDIT: Yes, looking down works fine, but glancing at the indicator is even easier.

DBrown9383

God forbid you put a bell on your bike. It's so much extra weight and so uncool. It's almost as bad as having gear indicators

ColonelSanders

LOL. I have a bell too.

Dave Cutter

That's the way we did it back in the olden days. I wonder...since I don't have electronic shifters myself (so can't check).. do the new fangled electric shifters have an LED or LCD display or something?

ragnar.jensen 

I don't have any use for them, I always know which gear I'm in.

That freed up space on the handlebar is why I remove the indicators. They take up the space where I want to put the brake levers.

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Ragnar