Michaux. You need to be serious.
On to the next Rig-Job. Well, not really a “rig”, but more a “finding.” A thing I like to call “brake-shifting.” Or, I’ll do my best to explain this, shift into a lower gear to prepare for acceleration out of a corner while braking hard into the corner. Keep in mind this may not be useful to you depending on what part of the country you live in. PA, ohh yeah, it is useful. I came up with the thought of how useful this action would be while racing at Michaux, as well as some other ideas such as the 7″ front brake rotor. So, I brake with my index fingers and shift with my thumbs, either direction on the cassette. I also like to shift with my index fingers while not in a braking situation. With my previous set-up, Grip shift, I couldn’t shift fast enough at the end of a corner after braking to get it into a lower gear fast and clean enough. I had to “jam” it in. No problem, Sram can take it. With this new set up, Shimano Dual-Release shifters, I can flick the cable release paddle with my thumb while braking heavily in a corner or a rocky downhill. That will throw it into a easier gear right? Wrong. Sort of. With a standard Rear Der it would place the chain on a smaller, harder cog. Not what I’m looking to do. But, Shimano makes a selection of Rapid-Rise or Low-Normal rear deraileurs. This combo, Dual-Release/Rapid-Rise, accomplishes the ability to easily downshift slighty before the downshift is needed. More or less shifting when I WANT to, more often, rather than shift when I NEED to. It is convenient and I shift twice as much as I would have before. Not that that is important, but convenience is much appreciated. It would really suck to not be able to shift when I wanted to and only shift when i have to.
Back to Michaux.
I’ll give the brief recap on it. It is about 5000-6000 feet of climbing, per race. 45-49 Miles long per race. 6 miles or less of dirt road per race. All rocks.
