I took the gravel bike out today for the first time in a while. To be truthful, my new Sram drivetrain wasn't really meshing with me too well, so the bike was gathering dust. I was finding the shifting to be far inferior to the way Shimano does it. The one lever thing . . . I don't know. I was always finding myself between gears. The most maddening thing is when you shift a little too far when wanting a harder gear, and you actually get an easier one. Hilarity ensues!
The other thing I found was that the adjustment is far more finicky than I am used to. With Shimano you only need to get in the general ballpark and it shifts fine. Not so with Sram.
So the other day I spent some time lubing the hell out of the cables and really dialing in the pulley position and cable tension. It's now shifting much better.
Today I tried to really slow down the shifting motion—much slower than I would with STI—so I could feel and hear when the shift actually takes place. This helped tremendously. Once I made this small change the user experience improved. I rode for a couple hours today and very much enjoyed riding the gravel bike again.
In the end, it's not like I am racing, so shifting more deliberately isn't a big deal. I assume eventually I will adapt and not have to think about it anymore. Old habits die hard.
Later.
