Automatic shifting

[bazzawill]

So I was actually thinking about this as I make the move to electronic shifting and looking at power meter
http://www.cyclist.co.uk/in-depth/1816/electronic-shifting-where-we-are-where-were-going

 

[McWheels]

It's not new, there's this lot been offering it for a year or so now.

And although I've voted against auto-shifting, it was only on balance.

 

[ratz]

It's not new, there's this lot been offering it for a year or so now.

And although I've voted against auto-shifting, it was only on balance.

I did an fairly in-depth trial of the Nuvinci stuff when the N360 was released. A close friends wife has a cerebral palsy and we thought the harmony would be great for her. The Problem is Fallbrook is a small firm and until just recently Harmony was only available to large firms doing e-bikes and city bike share system. At the time they declined to sell us one for the project..

Now it looks like you can finally order them through a dealer. Currently aftermarket conversion kits are not available for Harmony amd H|Sync. Please contact your local dealer! who in Europe can order kits directly from Fallbrook or in North America can order kits from bicycle parts distributiors. But unfortunately they don't seem to list the dealers; just the bike manufacturers that ship bikes with them already outfitted. So looks like the first step is to find a bike shop that will do the leg work for you to track a disctrbutor in the US with inventory; Europe might actually be easier since it appears the shop would contact Fallbrook directly. The tech is heavy but effective and might in the future be an interesting niche between tradition and e-bikes.

 

[hoyden]

I don't have automatic shifting in my car either. I prefer to call the shots based on criteria not quantifiable by a computer. Every time I drive a rental car I get reminded why I don't like automatic transmissions.

I thought the poll question was flawed. I like indexing over nonindexing over automatic.

Although I don't see the value in automatic shifting I can believe there are some, perhaps many, who do.

 

[MrSteve]

My preference is for manual friction shifters.
The infinite fine tuning is useful.

But what I use in the real world is index shifting.
The very quick and sure shifts are perfect for speeding up hills.

Automatics have always appealed to me as much as they do to Hoyden (not much).

 

[bladderhead]

No use to me, I made myself a friction shifter and I have a single chainwheel. I can see the use for serious Larry type people, who want to maintain the exact optimum cadence all the time. Does it suddenly shift when you are pushing hard, and crash the gears? That could make you fall off.

very quick and sure shifts

Not as quick and sure as a IGH