Additional to Friday’s publish, I’ve now were given my fashionable slotted cleat scenario in combination:
The important thing (along with a pair of brogues with laces) is this cleat from Yellow Jersey:
Additionally, a reader informs me that you’ll be able to additionally get slotted cleats with drift:
It’s a artful thought, despite the fact that I do object to it at the foundation that all the level of the usage of clips and straps an slotted cleats is to inconvenience your self up to imaginable and this turns out like a contravention of that ethos.
If you happen to’ve by no means used slotted cleats sooner than, getting out and in of them takes a bit being used to, and naturally you’ve were given to bear in mind you’re strapped in sooner than you attempt to put a foot down otherwise you’re going over like a felled tree:
Oh, and to the reader who left this remark, I’ve mounted the strap.
Anyway, I’ll repeat as soon as once more that I’m now not whatsoever advocating for a go back to this setup, and I’m simply the usage of it within the spirit of taking part in the motorbike in its right kind historic context–and it’s extra a laugh to journey the motorbike with “right kind” footwear than it’s with shoes and even antique bowling footwear, simply so long as you be mindful to not fall over:
Through the way in which, I’m assuming the motorbike as soon as belonged to anyone named Alfredo Binda, as a result of he put his identify at the straps:
Anyway, now that I’ve were given now not just one however two pairs of brogues for this factor, I will actually get right down to the industry of taking part in it–and I’m very much taking part in it, even if the shifters are shut sufficient in combination that I shifted the improper one the opposite day:
It’s nearly like they’re flipping me off:
Talking of moving particularly and obsolescence usually, I’m now deep into the Vintage Cycle twenty first Century Friction Shifter Shootout…which must extra correctly be known as a derailleur shootout, however we’re particularly comparing how they every paintings with friction shifters on a contemporary motorbike, so I’m sticking with it:
After being pleasantly shocked with the efficiency of the Altus LT, the oldest derailleur of the bunch, I moved onto the following derailleur within the examine:
The Shimano 600 is in fact the predecessor to Ultegra, and it’s impressively graceful and stylish, particularly compared to the very mechanical-looking Altus LT. Notice the cable anchor bolt:
The top of which is hidden within the parallelogram:
I consider Shimano offered this derailleur in 1982, and it wasn’t even their the most effective style. (That difference in fact went to Dura Ace.) In the meantime, right here’s what Campagnolo was once doing in ’82:
You’ll be able to see that they had been in hassle.
It’s impressively mild, too, at simply an eyelash over 200 grams:
After all it doesn’t have a barrel adjuster, however on a friction drivetrain you don’t actually want that anyway.
I used to be very excited to check this derailleur, and was once rooting for it at the foundation that it’s concurrently antique and ultra-light, which makes for a top “cool” issue. Alas, once I attempted to put in it, I discovered that the little retainer thingy that holds the derailleur in position at the dropout tab and maintains spring rigidity is out of place:
So far as I will inform, the spring itself works simply positive, so I’m now not positive what’s occurring right here. Possibly anyone overhauled it in the future and put it again in combination improper, I dunno. Regardless of the explanation why, the upshot is that I couldn’t set up it correctly, and so I used to be pressured to sideline it till I determine it out. So in the event you’ve were given any perception be happy to let me know.
Within the interim, I moved proper onto the following deralleur, the so-called “Deerhead” Shimano M700, which was once the primary iteration of XT:
As Disraeli Gears notes, it’s very similar to the 600 in design, and it additionally has that Centeron arm that can or is probably not necessary:
Even with the longer cage, the barrel adjuster, and the Centeron thingy, it’s nonetheless lighter than you’d suppose.
As soon as put in, shifter place within the lowest equipment is more or less 90 levels in terms of the downtube:
Right here it’s within the biggest cog and within the small chainring:
And right here it’s within the biggest cog and the huge chainring:
The have compatibility was once excellent, the cable pull was once excellent, and it had retro-cred nearly dripping from its antlers. Sadly, as I shifted via all of the gears, I came upon an issue: even with the top prohibit screw all of the approach out, I couldn’t shift into my best possible equipment.
All of us have our hang-ups, and given the sorry state of my motorcycles its might marvel you to be informed there are particular issues I merely can’t tolerate. I don’t thoughts grimy bar tape, or scratches, or dings, or mismatched elements. (My Rock Combo has two other shifters and it doesn’t hassle me in the slightest degree.) Alternatively, I will’t take care of unusable gears. It’s unhealthy sufficient I’ve to journey round with out and finish cap at the derailleur cable whilst I’m doing this examine–one thing else that drives me loopy, even if it’s meaningless. But when I’m using a motorcycle it had higher be in a position shift into all of the gears, although I don’t in reality use all of them. I wouldn’t even be capable to journey a motorcycle with 10-speed shifters moving best 8 cogs, as a result of even if it’s a wonderfully affordable factor to do if that’s what you’ve were given, the information of the ones unused clicks would prey upon my tiny mind. So clearly in follow now not having the ability to use your best possible equipment on a 10-speed drivetrain is sort of a non-issue, however nonetheless, I don’t love it, and undoubtedly if a derailleur goes to win a Friction Shifter Shootout it had higher display most compatibility and whole usability at the test-cycle.
So I disqualified it:
Although it’s a DOHS (derailler of historic importance) and so I do plan to check out it on every other motorbike within the not-too-distant long run.
I did to find it unexpected that the Altus LT labored on each and every cog however the M700 didn’t. So I took a better take a look at the Altus LT and located that it was once at its absolute most top prohibit. The variation between making that remaining shift and now not making it’s almost definitely a question of not up to a millimeter, so it’s mainly success that one vintage derailleer may just do it and the opposite one couldn’t.
Subsequent up chronologically would were the Suntour XC Comp, with which I’ve revel in as it’s the similar derailleur that was once on my Rock Combo once I were given it:
Through this level alternatively I used to be desperate to journey the motorbike and I couldn’t take care of the chance of but every other ’80s derailleur now not running, and so I determined to reserve it for later:
As an alternative, I went to the Campagnolo Veloce:
I had top hopes for this one. Specifically, it’s the nearest fit to the 10-speed Campagnolo cassette at the test-cycle, and I questioned if that will nonetheless subject with out listed moving. After all, an exact 10-speed Campagnolo derailleur has a the most important mechanical distinction, which is that it says “10 pace” on it:
[Thanks, eBay.]
As opposed to that I feel they’re just about equivalent, and I didn’t also have to regulate the prohibit screws after putting in it.
At 255 grams, it was once the second-heaviest derailleur I’d examined up to now, which clearly way not anything, however continues to be price noting:
And lever throw was once about the similar because the 5700:
The medium cage was once very best for the test-cycle. Right here it’s within the small ring:
And right here it’s within the large ring:
Then I went for a journey:
My first impact of the Altus LT was once that it shifted a minimum of in addition to the 5700. From this I concluded that perhaps stuff like a slant parallelogram doesn’t subject all that a lot if you upload fashionable teeth profiles and all of the remainder of it. However my first impact of the Veloce was once that it shifted higher than either one of them and that this was once the most efficient the motorbike had ever felt:
Possibly it’s the slant parallelogram, perhaps it’s that the cable pull ratio is a greater fit for the Campy cassette (despite the fact that with friction shifters I nonetheless can’t see why that will subject), or perhaps it’s simply the mental impact of placing a pleasant glossy silver Campy derailleur on a shiny pink bicycle. Regardless of the case, it felt very best and I slightly overlooked a shift:
Turns out like issues can best cross downhill from right here.
