Thing on brake cable of new bike

[Erik Freitag]

Spent lunch hour at a local-to-work bike shop (LTWBS?) recently, which had some fine-looking Trek
5200s and some equivalent Specialized road bikes on display. I didn't get the name of the
Specialized because I was busy harrassing a co-worker into buying some Look pedals for his Bike/E.
Anyway, both of these road bikes had a "thing" in-line with the right brake cable that looked like
the bubble-containing part of a carpenter's level. No liquid in it, but it was transparent and had
unlabelled hash marks across the width.

I asked a sales rep, but he did not know what this was. Looked on the Trek web site, and the Shimano
(brake) site, but this didn't help. Only got a quick look, so this may have been the shifter cable,
not the brake.

What is it?

 

[Sheldon Brown]

Erik Freitag wrote:

> ... these road bikes had a "thing" in-line with the right brake cable that looked like the
> bubble-containing part of a carpenter's level. No liquid in it, but it was transparent and had
> unlabelled hash marks across the width.
>
> I asked a sales rep, but he did not know what this was.

Really? !

> Looked on the Trek web site, and the Shimano (brake) site, but this didn't help. Only got a quick
> look, so this may have been the shifter cable, not the brake.
>
> What is it?

That was the gear cable (the brake cable hides under the handlebar tape.)

It's a shift indicator. There's a little red bead on the cable that moves back and forth in the
window to show you approximately which gear the rear derailer is in. Otherwise, you can't tell which
rear sprocket you'r on without looking down between your legs to the chain.

Sheldon "It's Good To Know" Brown +----------------------------------------------------------+
| Persecution is not an original feature in any religion; | but it is always the strongly marked
| feature of all | religions established by law. | Take away the law-establishment, and every
| religion | re-assumes its original benignity. | Thomas Paine -- The Rights of Man, 1791 |
+----------------------------------------------------------+ Harris Cyclery, West Newton,
Massachusetts Phone 617-244-9772 FAX 617-244-1041 http://harriscyclery.com Hard-to-find parts
shipped Worldwide http://captainbike.com http://sheldonbrown.com

 

[David Ornee]

"Erik Freitag" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> Spent lunch hour at a local-to-work bike shop (LTWBS?) recently, which had some fine-looking Trek
> 5200s and some equivalent Specialized road bikes on display. I didn't get the name of the
> Specialized because I was busy harrassing a co-worker into buying some Look pedals for his Bike/E.
> Anyway, both of these road bikes had a "thing" in-line with the right brake cable that looked like
> the bubble-containing part of a carpenter's level. No liquid in it, but it was transparent and had
> unlabelled hash marks across the width.
>
> I asked a sales rep, but he did not know what this was. Looked on the Trek web site, and the
> Shimano (brake) site, but this didn't help. Only got a quick look, so this may have been the
> shifter cable, not the brake.
>
> What is it?

Optical gear display for the rear. It should be in line with the rear shift cable.

You can look at it and determine what cog the chain is riding on. David Ornee, Western Springs, IL

 

[Erik Freitag]

In <7Oyba.[email protected]> David Ornee wrote:
>
> "Erik Freitag" <[email protected]> wrote in message
>> Only got a quick look, so this may have been the shifter cable, not the brake.
>>
>> What is it?
>
> Optical gear display for the rear. It should be in line with the rear shift cable.
>
> You can look at it and determine what cog the chain is riding on. David Ornee, Western Springs, IL

Thanks to you and to Gary, who also replied. Now I can sleep.

If I'm not out of line to say so, a gear indicator seems a bit effete for a 5200. If you can afford
this bike and have the ability to ride it, shouldn't you *know* what gear you're in?

 

[Jt]

"Erik Freitag" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...

> If I'm not out of line to say so, a gear indicator seems a bit effete for a 5200. If you can
> afford this bike and have the ability to ride it, shouldn't you *know* what gear you're in?

Yes and no.

What you need to know is "is this gear too high/low". If either, you shift.

So yes it's effete - a gadget to help sell fad-bikes to the ignorant with deep pockets. And no, you
don't need to know which gear you are in, other than the above.

In a sense it's a variation of the dictum: "Fashion is for those with no taste".

 

[Qui Si Parla Ca]

erik-<< Anyway, both of these road bikes had a "thing" in-line with the right brake cable that
looked like the bubble-

On the right exposed gear der hopusing -a mechanical gear indicator that shimano has for higher end
groups-just a little red round thing that grabs the cable and moves back and forth as you shift-not
really useful, IMO-

Peter Chisholm Vecchio's Bicicletteria 1833 Pearl St. Boulder, CO, 80302
(303)440-3535 http://www.vecchios.com "Ruote convenzionali costruite eccezionalmente bene"

 

[Gary Smiley]

A Shimano Flight-Deck computer does the same thing electronically for a lot more money. The gear
indicator is an inexpensive and elegant solution. If they had them a few years ago, I would have
bought it instead of my Flight Deck.

jt wrote:

> "Erik Freitag" <[email protected]> wrote in message
> news:[email protected]...
>
> > If I'm not out of line to say so, a gear indicator seems a bit effete for a 5200. If you can
> > afford this bike and have the ability to ride it, shouldn't you *know* what gear you're in?
>
> Yes and no.
>
> What you need to know is "is this gear too high/low". If either, you shift.
>
> So yes it's effete - a gadget to help sell fad-bikes to the ignorant with deep pockets. And no,
> you don't need to know which gear you are in, other than the above.
>
> In a sense it's a variation of the dictum: "Fashion is for those with no taste".

 

[Matt Locker]

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Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

I disagree with the below. I have the indicator on my DA equipped bike but not on the Ultegra bike.
One of the disadvantages of STI is that there is no visible indication of gear. In the old days of
DT shifters a quick glance down would suffice to know where you were in your gear range. Without the
indicator & STI you need to look to the rear. Sure you can just push the lever to see if there is
another gear but I prefer not to run the cross-geared combinations.

MOO, Matt

jt wrote:

>"Erik Freitag" <[email protected]> wrote in message
>news:[email protected]...
>
>
>
>>If I'm not out of line to say so, a gear indicator seems a bit effete for a 5200. If you can
>>afford this bike and have the ability to ride it, shouldn't you *know* what gear you're in?
>>
>>
>
>Yes and no.
>
>What you need to know is "is this gear too high/low". If either, you shift.
>
>So yes it's effete - a gadget to help sell fad-bikes to the ignorant with deep pockets. And no, you
>don't need to know which gear you are in, other than the above.
>
>In a sense it's a variation of the dictum: "Fashion is for those with no taste".
>
>
>
>

--------------040905010109080701050908 Content-Type: text/html; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"> <html> <head> <meta
http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=ISO-8859-1"> <title></title> </head> <body> I
disagree with the below. I have the indicator on my DA equipped bike but not on the Ultegra
bike. One of the disadvantages of STI is that there is no visible indication of gear. In
the old days of DT shifters a quick glance down would suffice to know where you were in your gear
range. Without the indicator & STI you need to look to the rear. Sure you can just
push the lever to see if there is another gear but I prefer not to run the cross-geared
combinations.<br> <br> MOO,<br> Matt<br> <br> jt wrote:<br> <blockquote type="cite"
cite="[email protected]"> <pre wrap="">"Erik Freitag" <a
class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E"
href="mailto:[email protected]"><[email protected]></a> wrote in message <a
class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="news:[email protected]">news:20030311202-
[email protected]</a>...

</pre> <blockquote type="cite"> <pre wrap="">If I'm not out of line to say so, a gear indicator
seems a bit effete for a 5200. If you can afford this bike and have the ability to ride it,
shouldn't you *know* what gear you're in? </pre> </blockquote> <pre wrap=""><!----> Yes and no.

What you need to know is "is this gear too high/low". If either, you shift.

So yes it's effete - a gadget to help sell fad-bikes to the ignorant with deep pockets. And no, you
don't need to know which gear you are in, other than the above.

In a sense it's a variation of the dictum: "Fashion is for those with no taste".

</pre> </blockquote> <br> </body> </html>

--------------040905010109080701050908--

 

[David L. Johnso]

On Wed, 12 Mar 2003 09:48:48 -0500, Gary Smiley wrote:

> A Shimano Flight-Deck computer does the same thing electronically for a lot more money. The gear
> indicator is an inexpensive and elegant solution. If they had them a few years ago, I would have
> bought it instead of my Flight Deck.

After all these years looking down at my gears to see what gear I was in, if needed, I don't quite
see the need for an indicator like that. My mountain bike has them, but I tend to ignore those and
just look down. More reliable as well as cheaper.

--

David L. Johnson

__o | "It doesn't get any easier, you just go faster." --Greg LeMond _`\(,_ | (_)/ (_) |

 

[George Shaffer]

Agreed. That's what I love about my friction shifters*...no fancy gadgets.

*am I the only one left using these things?

 

[Sergio Servadio]

On Thu, 13 Mar 2003, George Shaffer wrote:
> Agreed. That's what I love about my friction shifters*...no fancy gadgets. *am I the only one left
> using these things?

No, you are not alone.

Sergio Pisa

 

[Jim Adney]

On Thu, 13 Mar 2003 03:48:17 GMT "George Shaffer" <[email protected]> wrote:

>*am I the only one left using these things?

No.

-
-----------------------------------------------
Jim Adney [email protected] Madison, WI 53711 USA
-----------------------------------------------

 

[A Muzi]

> On Thu, 13 Mar 2003, George Shaffer wrote:
> > Agreed. That's what I love about my friction shifters*...no fancy
gadgets.
> > *am I the only one left using these things?

"Sergio SERVADIO" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news[email protected]...
> No, you are not alone.

There are lots of us still kicking.

--
Andrew Muzi http://www.yellowjersey.org Open every day since 1 April 1971