Erickson Gizmo

In article <[email hidden]>,

velodancer said:

Anyone know of a shop that might have one or two of these available?
This is a widget to turn a double front STI shifter into a triple.
Mounts inline with the cable housing. It was distributed by Quality
and Sidetrak and designed by Glenn Erickson and is no longer made.

Thanks!

Picture available here:
http://home.comcast.net/~peloton/cycling/forsale/gizmo.htm

and here:
http://members.cox.net/orngcat/Bike1.htm

Wow. Obscure! And fairly nifty.

I'm sure you know, but just to reflexively fill in the blanks, the
obvious alternate solutions would be a DT/barcon shifter, a Shimano
triple STI shifter, a non-Quickshift Campy front shifter, or a compact
double drivetrain.

Any of those would be easier to source, and at least one would be far
cheaper. What's your particular goal for this project?

--
Ryan Cousineau [email hidden] http://www.wiredcola.com/
"I don't want kids who are thinking about going into mathematics
to think that they have to take drugs to succeed." -Paul Erdos

Quoted message said:

What's your particular goal for this project?

Actually I have a rather interesting project touring bike. Half step
gearing with a very wide range cassette (9-34t) and a relatively low
top gear. So I will seldom need my granny inner chainring (22 inch low
gear on my middle chainring), but it is still a valid bailout. As
such, I want a front shifter that acts as a double chainring shifter,
full lock one direction gets me the outer chainring, full lock the
other direction gets me the 10 percent lower middle chainring.

I have used such a setup on one bike for over 5 years (until it was
stolen) and it worked brilliantly. While I have never had a problem
with half step patterns, this makes it a no brainer and delightful to
use. I just want to add a granny for touring without giving up the
benefits of this design.

As an interesting side benefit to the Gizmo, it will effectively give
me a high and low range (similar to alpine gearing found on most
mountain bikes. Picture hours of a mountain grade with a loaded
touring bike. Half steps tend to be little used under such conditions
unless the grade is steady. I'll use the Gizmo to shift onto my granny
when it is steep enough, and I will then be able to use my regular
shifter for a no brainer shift between my granny and middle chainring.
Only when I then return to relatively flat terrain will I need to
shift into "high" range to return to the benefits of close ratio
shifting.

Thus the Gizmo will not be used very often. I'll probably mount it on
my downtube cable stop (since I am building the frame, I can sort out
the best position to make it work well. My suspicion is that the Gizmo
did not work brilliantly in the context of frequent STI shifts, but
will work well for my needs better than any of the alternatives (for
flat bars).

In article <[email hidden]>,

velodancer said:

Quoted message said:

What's your particular goal for this project?

Actually I have a rather interesting project touring bike. Half step
gearing with a very wide range cassette (9-34t) and a relatively low
top gear. So I will seldom need my granny inner chainring (22 inch low
gear on my middle chainring), but it is still a valid bailout. As
such, I want a front shifter that acts as a double chainring shifter,
full lock one direction gets me the outer chainring, full lock the
other direction gets me the 10 percent lower middle chainring.

I have used such a setup on one bike for over 5 years (until it was
stolen) and it worked brilliantly. While I have never had a problem
with half step patterns, this makes it a no brainer and delightful to
use. I just want to add a granny for touring without giving up the
benefits of this design.

As an interesting side benefit to the Gizmo, it will effectively give
me a high and low range (similar to alpine gearing found on most
mountain bikes. Picture hours of a mountain grade with a loaded
touring bike. Half steps tend to be little used under such conditions
unless the grade is steady. I'll use the Gizmo to shift onto my granny
when it is steep enough, and I will then be able to use my regular
shifter for a no brainer shift between my granny and middle chainring.
Only when I then return to relatively flat terrain will I need to
shift into "high" range to return to the benefits of close ratio
shifting.

Thus the Gizmo will not be used very often. I'll probably mount it on
my downtube cable stop (since I am building the frame, I can sort out
the best position to make it work well. My suspicion is that the Gizmo
did not work brilliantly in the context of frequent STI shifts, but
will work well for my needs better than any of the alternatives (for
flat bars).

If you can't find a Gizmo, try modifying a wing-type downtube cable
adjuster to have only two positions.

--
Ryan Cousineau [email hidden] http://www.wiredcola.com/
"I don't want kids who are thinking about going into mathematics
to think that they have to take drugs to succeed." -Paul Erdos

Quoted message said:

If you can't find a Gizmo, try modifying a wing-type downtube cable
adjuster to have only two positions.

I don't think that will work, not enough change in cable tension. Take
a look at the ramp in the linked picture to get an idea - about as
much as most cable adjusters have total. In any case, I believe a
reader has helped me out graciously with one he is no longer using.
But I'd be happy to purchase a second one as a backup if anyone knows
an additional source.