That title may surprise folks who know this rider at all well. It’s true that “trikes” sometimes vex me. The thing is, some (certainly not all) of them regard our sport differently. They tend not to share the passion for the bike, and they ride in ways that are by turns, amusing or infuriating. On the other hand, the overwhelming majority of tri-athletes are good and decent people, and they do ride. That makes them my people, my friends.
What is it that gets to me about tri-athletes? A couple of things come to mind.
There are times when, as I ride back into town after a good long trip of seven or eight hours, I see one behind me. I know what is going to happen next. That goof is going to hammer it and overtake me.
The fact of being overtaken by another rider really doesn’t bother me. Even “secret racers,” don’t really bother me. It’s not about speed, after all. But it’s the way that tri-athlete is going to go about it that does it.
They are all bent over in the aerobars. They’re flat pounding it out, on their 20 mile afternoon ride. And as they pass, without a word of courtesy, they will look over with that goofy grin. The body language says, “Look at me, roadie! I’m faster than you are. Nyah! Nyah!” I do find this annoying.
Having said all that, I basically like and admire tri-athletes. Consider, they swim, ride a bike, and run. And no one is making them do it. They volunteer. They train. Hard. It takes a lot of dedication (and insanity) to prepare in three disciplines.
But I owe the “trikes” a real debt of gratitude. If it weren’t for them, the bar-end shifter might have passed into extinction.
Here’s the item I’m referring to…
Tri-athlete Aerobar setup
Bar End Shifter: As used by a tri-athlete
See, tri-athletes like to ride bikes all bent over and using these funny handlebars. It’s difficult to reach a shifter from this setup, so they demand shifters in the ends of those long sticky out in front bars. Oddly, this is an adaptation of an older use of the same device. Bar-end shifters were first developed and used by roadies. This was done so that they would not have to take hands off of the bars and reach all the way down to the down tube to make a shift.
Bar End Shifter: As used by roadies.
You see, with the advent of “integrated” brake/shift levers
for road bikes, the wonderful bar-end was passing out of existence. But then the tri-athletes came along and revived it!
And just why does this make me happy? Because it makes it possible for me to run the setup you saw up above in the second photo. Why would I care? Well it’s like this, the integrated brake/shift levers have only a 1-to-1 pull. That’s fine if you are running dual pivot road type brakes. But a loaded tourist…
…is heavier, carries a heavier load, and needs stronger brakes. By splitting the shifting function off, and putting on the end of the bars, it is possible to use brake levers that have the required 2-to1 pull for mountain bike type “linear pull” brakes. And that makes me happy!
Bar-end shifters, or “barcons” have a couple of other stellar features. They are light, simple, and reliable. If the indexing messes up, it’s possible to switch them over and continue to use them as a friction shifter. Compared to integrated brake/shift levers…
…they are not nearly as likely to cause shift cables to break. And if a shift cable does happen to break, it doesn’t cause a lot of trouble inside a barcon. If the cable breaks inside an integrated control, it must be dealt with, and quickly, and the condition is likely to damage the control.
I’m not anti-intebrated shifters. I have them on a couple of my bikes. I like them. But they are more maintenance sensitive, and less reliable. For touring purposed I prefer the barcons. I’m really glad there are tri-athletes, and that they demand the bar end controls. They’ve kept them alive for me. So I send out a big “Thank you!” to all of the tri-athletes in the world. You’ve done something right!
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