Angus: Have no fear; rod operated FDs can be set up so it's the same motion as reaching for the water bottle on the seat tube. And it's a very simple twist motion, not a lot of travel required.
They faded out in the early 60s. At that time, 36 tooth chainrings were the small end, with 50-52 for the large, IIRC. So a derailer from that period won't have a cage that matches current touring / MTB triples, with 24-28 tooth grannys & 44-48 tooth large rings. Still, for those of us who don't shift the front a lot & aren't in a hurry when we do, those could be kinda cool, if a modern cage could be grafted onto the old actuator, with enough travel for a triple. Anyone got any ideas on that notion? dougP -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Angus Sent: Thursday, November 27, 2008 5:26 PM To: RBW Owners Bunch Subject: [RBW] Re: Shifter location Jim, The idea of a rod operated front derailleur appeals to me too. There was talk about Tony making a clamped on version that could be fitted to a frames other than his. I tried to contact Tony about purchasing one but never received a reply. I then purchased an OLD Huret rod operated front "touring" derailleur from ebay, it will shift a double but does not have enough travel for the tripple I currently run. The only thing that worried me is instead of sticking my fingers into the spokes of the front wheel trying to find a DT shifter I will now be able to stick my fingers into the spokes of the rear wheel while trying to find the rod. Angus On Nov 27, 2:09 pm, CycloFiend <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > on 11/27/08 4:44 AM, todd22123 at [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > > > Is there any disadvantage to using downtube for the front, and bar-end > > for the rear? I shift the front derailer only about once for every 20 > > or more for the rear. > > Nope. In fact, when I really get to bike-geeking, I keep thinking about > just using a direct lever for the FD. > > Like Tony built here:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_jEPV8r7q6k > > It sort of worries me that I really like this idea. > > Of course, the DT front chainring shifting option has been used by > weight-reduction/simplicity seeking Famous Riders, combined with an STI on > the rear. > > - Jim > > -- > Jim Edgar > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > Cyclofiend Bicycle Photo Galleries -http://www.cyclofiend.com > Current Classics - Cross Bikes > Singlespeed - Working Bikes > > "Whatever you do will be insignificant, but it is very important that you do > it." > Mahatma Gandhi --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
