by Talkie Toby • August 14, 2026
When you're in control of your shifting, you're in control of your breathing. The movement of your lever directly influences the speed of your bike. The more fluid this motion is, the smoother your bike runs and so do the remaining aspects of your life. When you friction shift, you learn how your bike moves and in essence, you become one with the bike. Let's even go further and say you become the bike like a centaur but with wheels. It's like when water enters a teapot it becomes the teapot. Be water my friend.
There's no practical argument for friction shifting. Indexed is easier and it just works. So if there were to be an argument for friction, it would be in the setup stage. It's just two screws that you need to adjust and you're good to go. Everything else that it's got going for it is purely subjective. It feels good to shift friction and that's all it is. That's all that should matter because when you're on your bike going where you're going, which may be nowhere at all, you want to leave it all behind and just pedal until you reach a mountain where all your worries get absorbed into the trees. But if the shifting is off, you're suddenly reminded that you're headed somewhere you don't even want to be and the whole world is ending. You can be pedaling along and as you come up to a hill, you shift with your indexed shifter, but now your drivetrain is making sounds and the chain is skipping. Your ride is halted and you have to do a thing that isn't riding your bike. So the world is ending and the bike is broken so the only thing you can do is hide in the brushes by the street and twiddle your thumbs until help arrives. When you're on the friction side of things, you already set up the screws and nothing can go out of true. If it did, you're oblivious because a quick push and pull will align things to the correct position and you're always pushing and pulling. No click when you're shifting reminds you of the serenity of an empty beach and the water is just the right temperature softly hitting your ankles, pushing and pulling as the current demands it. You don't think about it anymore. You just pull a lever and it takes you to the speed at which you want to be. You don't think anymore. You're inhaling and exhaling and the pedal goes around in circles as does the planet. You're one with the planet and now you're weightless in space where no one can see you smile or cry or laugh hysterically because you've become a centaur in space.
You like order. You like rules. You like predictability. So do I, but only when dealing with other people. I'd flee if a stranger asked me a personal question, but a bike asks nothing. It does naught until you tell it to do the one thing is does best. Commands come from pedaling, braking, and shifting. When a third of the commands come from shifting, it's best if it's reliable and it's satisfying as a complement to comfort. If I click into a gear, I'm telling the bike to shift but the bike does the rest and all of a sudden it's not just a tool that does nothing until I demand something of it. When there's no click, I put the derailleur there. The derailleur moved only the amount I told it to and stays there until I push or pull the lever again. But if you want to click and forget, indexed is the way to go. You've done your setup of the barrel adjuster and the derailleur moves the perfect amount every time you click a button. You want to forget about shifting and have it just work. You're happy because you 're able to ignore the bad. You deal with problems only when they happen and anticipation is for the anxious and weary. You have a wife and kids because nothing could go wrong and if it does, you'll figure it out like all the other times you did. You take action before thinking because there's no way it can turn out that bad. How I wish I were you. How I wish I could index shift like you.
Friction is the only option for me because I am not you. I think too much and fine adjustment alleviates my worries. Things will go bad and there's no way to evade it unless I can just pull a lever and then there's one less bad thing. So that's what it all comes down to. It wasn't the freedom that friction shifting affords you all along. It's the anticipation of the worst case scenario that makes me friction shift. I'm ready for my worst nightmares because I learned how to combat worry through friction shifting. It's a self defense mechanism that predicts an attack and keeps you ready to retaliate. It's a fighting method that takes a day to learn and once learned, sticks with you forever. It's martial arts and maybe you need some of that in your life. I know I do.
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