Indexed shifting on a triple

[ChrisEyles]

I'm being inspired by the "no question too stupid" tagline on this forum, so treat me gently on this one!

I've just bought a new bike for commuting. It's both the first index shifting bike and the first triple crankset I've ridden since I was a kid, so there are a couple of points I'm unsure of about shifting between the gears.

1) On my old 10-speeds I've been perfectly used to avoiding low-low and high-high gear combinations. Question now is, with a triple, where the chain angle can be much steeper, how much of the (8-speed) cassette should I be using on each chain ring?

At the moment I've been going with:

Large ring (48t) - sprockets 4-8 (err 23t-11t I think)
Middle ring (38t) - sprockets 3-6 (26t-17t?)
Small ring (28t) - sprockets 1-5 (32t-20t?)

On a pleasure ride I'm mostly on the largest ring at the front, commuting it's more of a mix between large and middle. Small ring is of course for bailing out, but I have been glad of it already. If it makes a difference I tend towards a cadence of around 70-90 rpm (and am working on increasing this a little more).

This gives me the full range of gears with little to no overlap... but am I being too conservative here? Am I in danger of being so fixated on a nice straight chainline that I'll end up prematurely wearing the small sprockets on the cassette? Or does it not even matter? Would be great to have this cleared up!

2) I miss my friction shifters... while I'm sure I'll come to love the integrated shifter eventually, right now I'm missing any kind of tactile feedback when shifting gears. In particular, if the shift doesn't happen immediately it's annoying to have to slacken off the pressure on the pedals until the shift happens, whereas on my friction shifters I can simply tweak the lever to force the shift. I tend to end up shifting e.g. up two then down one to change up one gear.

Is this merely something to be endured on an indexed triple, or should it be possible to set up the derailleurs to give smooth and instant shifting (if so it is certainly beyond me at the moment, but it may warrant some further research or another trip to the LBS)?

Any pointers greatly appreciated - and if the best advice is "stop worrying about it and just ride" that'd be equally good to hear!

 

[slowmotion]

I have a triple with a ten speed cassette. I use all of the cassette when I'm on the middle ring. On the big ring I try and use the six or seven smallest cogs on the cassette, and when on the small chainring, I try and use the six or seven biggest cogs. If you keep the chainline reasonably straight the gears tend to shift a bit better and you get a bit less wear on the gears and chain. I wouldn't worry to much about it actually.
Here's a good clip about gear indexing...
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View: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SkzvfCaIbyQ
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[deptfordmarmoset]

I've got bar end shifters on my tourer. The front shifter is friction only, the rear can be set to indexed or friction. I run it on friction because it feels more positive and direct for me too. Though, oddly enough, I've never really missed friction shifters on the other indexed ones.

 

[ChrisEyles]

Thanks for the link - I shall have a look at the RD cable tension and see if this helps atall.

I was under the impression that it can be a bit tricky to get a triple to shift smoothly across the cassette on all the front chainrings, is there any knack to achieving this? At the moment shifting seems to be quite smooth while I'm in the middle ring, but slightly less so when I'm on the large ring up front... It's a relatively minor quibble, but it'd be nice to get sorted.

Glad to hear that others are still loving their friction shifters like me