{"id":237276,"date":"2026-04-07T11:45:33","date_gmt":"2026-04-07T11:45:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2026\/04\/07\/see-no-evo-hear-no-evo\/"},"modified":"2026-04-07T11:45:33","modified_gmt":"2026-04-07T11:45:33","slug":"see-no-evo-hear-no-evo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2026\/04\/07\/see-no-evo-hear-no-evo\/","title":{"rendered":"See No Evo, Hear No Evo"},"content":{"rendered":"

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You know, the other day I said<\/a> Campagnolo Super Record shifty parts were the most lavish gift I\u2019ve ever received from a reader:<\/p>\n

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And while that\u2019s probably still true I totally forgot about the time someone sent me a whole entire Marinoni<\/em>. Granted, it was in pretty rough shape:<\/p>\n

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And I had to push myself to the very limit of my meager mechanical skills to rehabilitate it:<\/p>\n

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But still, at the very least it\u2019s a close second, and hopefully its new owner<\/a> is still enjoying it.<\/p>\n

Speaking of shifty parts, what is it about them we find so compelling?<\/p>\n

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[Like a couple of freshly-caught fish.]<\/p>\n

From the blockheadedly simple pushy-pully sticks of yesteryear\u2026<\/p>\n

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To the clockwork complexity of the integrated hand-controllers of\u2026also yesteryear, but not as long ago\u2026<\/p>\n

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What cyclist does not revel in the sound of their operation, and the feeling of them in the hand, or other prehensile body parts? They also give a bike its personality, for if the eyes are the window to the soul, then shifters are the googly eyes on the cartoon character that is your bike:<\/p>\n

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Or, the antennae, as the case may be:<\/p>\n

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But what of today\u2019s battery-powered, push-button electrical gear changers? Do they engender the same fascination? Or are they just another appliance, about as exciting as a blood pressure monitor or a Roku Streaming Stick? To me it\u2019s decidedly the latter, though I fully recognize this is the Prejudice of the Retrogrouch, and no doubt digital devotees find their e-shifters just as captivating. All of this is to say that shifty parts are constantly evolving, and we may be on the cusp of an era in which they become\u2026<dripping blood font>Chinese<\/a><\/em><\/dripping blood font>:<\/p>\n

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Goodbye Campagnolo, hello L-Twoo:<\/p>\n

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Wheeltop,\u00a0L-Twoo, TRP and the partnerships between\u00a0Rotor and Wheeltop, and\u00a0TRP and Classified\u00a0have all arrived on the scene in recent years. All have come on in leaps and bounds since we started to see Chinese groupsets emerge.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

The next step for wider acceptance and adpotion of these brands will be representation in pro racing. The inevitable goal will be taking a stage win in a major tour or top-level race.<\/em><\/p>\n

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But this is surprising why, exactly? Really, the only thing remarkable about any of this is that it hasn\u2019t happened already. People who romanticize the sport of cycling think that God has to anoint a drivetrain manufacturer, and that He spake unto Tullio when He gave unto him the Quick Release on Mount Sinai, when in fact all a company really has to do is make something that works okay at moving a chain and then give a pro cycling team lots of parts and money:<\/p>\n

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\u201cGood enough to win the Tour de France\u201d isn\u2019t that<\/em> high a bar, really. Have you seen Tadej Poga\u010dar? He could win the Tour on this<\/a>:<\/p>\n

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That would be one way to un-boring the sport in the Poga\u010dar era.<\/p>\n

By the way, I checked out the Wheeltop website<\/a>, and their rim brake electronic shifty parts work with anything from 3-14 speeds:<\/p>\n

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All that for only $599\u2026plus 599 points, though they don\u2019t say whether or not you can convert those to your frequent flyer program of choice:<\/p>\n

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I mean the video on the site looks like it could possibly be AI, and I don\u2019t want this or any other type of electrical shifting gewgaw on by bike, but even so I\u2019d certainly be lying if I said this didn\u2019t pose quite an ethical dilemma for me:<\/p>\n

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Really, all I\u2019d need would be that Wheeltop group, a 5-speed freewheel, and the Roaduno:<\/p>\n

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But whatever you think of electronic shifting, it\u2019s clear that older bikes are better than newer bikes in almost every way. For example, you could easily take your 40-year old road bike and slap a Wheeltop group on it, but it would be nearly impossible to take any of your old parts and and put them on an Elves Falath<\/a>:<\/p>\n

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[Elves Falath sounds like something you\u2019d order from Doordash.]<\/p>\n

Sorry, make that an Elves Falath Evo<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Rivendell really needs to start making \u201cEvo\u201d versions of all its bikes\u2026like a sub-35lb Platypus, or a Roaduno with a Wheeltop group on it.<\/p>\n

But yes, since I\u2019ve now answered the \u201cmodern vs. retro\u201d question once and for all, could someone please tell GCN they can stop making videos about it already?<\/p>\n

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If you\u2019ve seen one you\u2019ve seen them all:<\/p>\n

[Crotchal POV camera shot, Englishman screaming into wind] \u201cThe gears are so high! The bars are so wide! The tires are so skinny!\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Etc.<\/p>\n

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Like this:<\/h3>\n

Like<\/span><\/span> Loading…<\/span><\/p>\n

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Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

You know, the other day I said Campagnolo Super Record shifty parts were the most lavish gift I\u2019ve ever received from a reader: And while that\u2019s probably still true I totally forgot about the time someone sent me a whole entire Marinoni. Granted, it was in pretty rough shape: And I had to push myself […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":237277,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6804],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-237276","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cycling"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237276","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=237276"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237276\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/237277"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=237276"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=237276"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=237276"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}