Actually, that's not true. I believe new technology and progress in all things scientific and clever is necessary for the continued survival of the human race; cheap clean energy, clean drinking water, sustainable economies and the continued prosperity of nations all depend on it, and I enjoy having a gadget in my pocket that can translate words from one language into almost any lingo I want and access data on almost anything I would need to know, whenever I want to know it. But when it comes to my bike, I have one all-encompassing pet-hate that technology and innovation has burdened us with. Technology and the drive to do things a certain way 'because we can' has led the bicycle industry down a blind ally of frustrating foolishness, and there is a generation of cyclists who don't even know that it has happened.
What is this pet-hate of mine? Indexed gear shifting.
Over the last 25 years or so, every bike I have owned has had some form of index gear mechanism, from trigger shifters to combined brake / gear levers, all promising the nirvana of being able to change gear without taking one's hand from the handlebar. A simple 'click' and you have the desired ratio, often with a little numbered indicator to tell you what gear you have. Simple!
But, alas, there is a down side to this technological gadgetry that endows so many bikes these days, and that is good old wear and tear. Real life (mostly comprised of rain, dust, sweat and pollen) just buggers up such intricate mechanisms to the point where the thing that once gave you a sense of pleasurable perfection in motion becomes an anathema to a relaxing ride. As soon as the cable stretches a little, or the cable runs becomes slightly stiff, or the little ratchets and springs and things inside that Brifter gum up with emulsified oil, it stops working as it should and instead presents you with a chain that skips randomly from one gear to the next, refuses to go up (or down) the ratios, no longer goes into the lowest gear (just when you need it on that hill) or even stops working completely, leaving you stranded in top or bottom gear miles from home.
Of course these things can be solved with an adjustment of the derailleur by turning the little screw a quarter turn, but that assumes everything else is working fine and even then, it requires alignment of certain planets and things, and maybe the sacrifice of the family cat, to ensure the gods are favourably disposed to actually making it work for more than 5 minutes.
As someone who rides their bike all year round, in all weathers, I don't need that noise. 12 months was enough to tell me that unless something changed, my continued enjoyment of riding a bike was going to pale into insignificance underneath the wrath of having to adjust that *@#£$ derailleur again, or taking apart the shifter to unstick the ratchet, which effectively means rebuilding the whole front end of the bike.
Then I remembered my first proper bicycle (I am excluding the Raleigh Grifter, which was nothing more than 20kg of child torture): It had non-indexed shifters for both front and rear derailleurs, mounted on the handelbars.
I was stood under a feeble striplight at the railway station in the middle of winter, swearing, trying in vain once more to get the darn gears to work right before riding home ten miles in the dark, when I remembered how much I'd actually enjoyed the experience of non-indexed shifting. It was an eerily nostalgic moment, and I had an epiphany: I'd ditch the indexing, and go old-school! After all, my bike had the lugs for it.
It took 30 minutes and less than £30 to make the change from Brifters to downtube shifters, and the moment I went for a test ride I knew I'd made the right decision. Super smooth, light and quick changes, and no more chain rub - ever. Of course there is some skill involved - gear trimming for example. But it took no time to get used to them, learning how far to throw the lever to get the right ratio, and a couple of days to perfect single handed 'through frame' shifting with my right hand; Now I can change ratio's on both front and rear derailleurs at the same time and I don't have to look down anymore to do it.
Yes, you have to take one hand off the handlebar, and you quickly learn to change ratio ahead of need at times, and occasionally you get it wrong, but that is of little real consequence. It works, it's reliable, it feels right and I love it.
