I examined the friction levers on my bike and I strongly believe that I have to make another set of levers than adding an extra device before the rear derailler.What has to be done is to make the lever pull a greater length of cable in order to shift the derailleur in a broader movement.

But NOT so dramatically broader.


The lever works simply by moving the cylinder towards a direction opposite from where the cable comes and then winding the cable upon the cylinder. But it's a relatively short movement in order for a rider to handle the levers easily. In the diagram that follows you will see that the cylinder revolves around its center (A) pulling the cable and winding it from the point C to the point B.

Thats the interesting. It does not make even a half of circular movement. Less than a half. Moreover it does not lay the cable upon the cylinder from the start of the movement. The cylinder is used to carry the cable only from point C to B

And the thought is the following: Since we do not need a lot more cable to pull in order to broaden the gears used and since the movement is not around the perimeter of the cylinder but a small part of it, I imagine that if I turn the cylindrical barrel to elliptical I will achieve what I want to do. Pull more cable from point C1 to B1 in this small distance movement of the lever since the diameter at any given point where the cable lies will be greater.

And that's what I will try to make.

The Gap is what I already refer to under the tab named MY GAP (see menu above) and this is what I am interested to solve.
This interest comes from the fact that I like too much friction shifters because with these levers the classic bicycles remain as such. From my experience nowadays friction shifters have benefited from the evolution of bicycle cassetes (with capacity of 8-9-10 speeds) cause now there is limited probability of not selecting a gear with your lever. The gears cogs have less space between them. So you can use levers to select gear (you might not know exactly what gear you have selected but you should take advantage of all gear ratios available on the cassette)

This is the artifact that I love & use everyday.. not exactly this particular one, but another classic city bike. The reasons that I like citybikes are the following.

• Practical (with their racks & fenders where I can carry a lot of things
• Beautiful and can be tuned more on this aspect
• Relaxing posture of riding
• General attitude while riding (you dont go against the stopwatch or against all obstacles that might exist). You are just taking a ride.
• I dont have to put on the athlete's costume in order to ride it
  
• Its very efficient anti stress therapy (& the most economic too)