I have used both BE & DT silver shifters with 9 spd cassettes for very many years with very few problems. My Ram, set up with an HG 11-28 cassette and the new Ultegra RD is the best shifting bike I have ever owned, and that includes two bikes with Ultegra SIS. When I have had problems it has always come back to two issues. First, it does seem to require a good cassette and a good chain. I had a lot of problems with a low end SRAM set up. Now I use HG cassettes and Conex chains exclusively (LBS price for the latter is far below RBW). The second issue is cage length. A shorter cage works perfectly, mid range cages work well enough but very long cages like the XT and longest campys can cause some jumping. On my tandem I have gone from an 11-32 cassette, xt derailler and BE indexed to an 11-28, Ultegra derailler and BE friction. The shifting actually improved.
I don't like the hesitation between shifts that comes with indexing, and, because I live in a place with a lot of rolling countryside I like to be able to jump across many cogs at once. DT friction excels at that. When I do miss a shift I begin by assuming its me, not the set up, and I'm usually right about that. Michael On Wednesday, February 5, 2014 12:33:49 AM UTC-5, Reid wrote: > > I'm thinking of getting a Riv AHH (would be my second Riv). My long time > ride has simple down tube friction shifters with a 6-cog freewheel. Down > tube friction shifters just appeal to me, so I'm trying to figure out if > that is a reasonable thing to do with more cogs. > > Some people have posted that friction shifting with 9 cogs in the back is > too fiddly to be practical. I can understand that in general, but would > like some feedback from people who have a lot of experience with friction > shifting and have tried it with 9 cogs. Does anyone think that works if one > has enough experience with friction shifting? > > The other option is the IRD/Riv 8 cog, which seems to have a decent spread > of cog sizes. Would the 8 cog be noticeably easier/better than 9 cogs with > friction shifting? > > Any feedback is much appreciated. > > Reid > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
