Senior Member
Join Date: Jan 2009
Location: Colorado Springs, CO
Posts: 5,971
Bikes: 2015 Charge Plug, 2007 Dahon Boardwalk, 1997 Nishiki Blazer, 1984 Nishiki International, 2006 Felt F65, 1989 Dahon Getaway V
Mentioned: 54 Post(s)
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My 1984 Nishiki International downtube shifting 2x6 is indexed in the rear and friction on the front, and now so is my 1997 Nishiki Blazer (3x8) after converting it to drop bars and bar-end adjacent thumbies. The friction shifting is fine for the front three which were always tough to shift smoothly with the original indexed cross-fire straight-bar shifters since I gave the bike a crazy wide ratio spread up front. The shimano indexed 7-speed thumb-shifter worked perfectly as soon as I connected the cable (lucky I guess).
My main commuter has 2x8 indexed brifters and also works fine.
I have turned off the indexing on both the 2x6 and 3x8 and I prefer the indexed shifting.