Why five speeds are still enough for most of your riding
A friction-shifting manifesto. Lightly heated, entirely serious.
Somewhere between 1985 and now, we all agreed that more gears means better, and nobody checked the math. Here is the math: on a five-speed block with sensible chainrings you have every gear you use on ninety percent of your rides, shifted by a lever that will outlive your grandchildren.
Friction shifting has no firmware, no cables under tension it can't handle, and no opinion about which chain you run. It asks one thing of you: that you learn it. Twenty minutes, roughly.
The counterargument
Hills exist; we concede this. If you live somewhere vertical, run more gears and enjoy them. But a five-speed that never needs adjustment beats an eleven-speed that always does, and the difference shows up exactly when you're furthest from a workstand.
Comments (3)
Reading this on the bus next to my 12-speed with a dead battery. Point taken.
Counterpoint: hills exist. But I'll admit my 5-speed has needed exactly zero adjustment in two years.
Hills concede nothing, but zero adjustment in two years is the argument in full.