On Wed, 14 Jan 2009 08:42:23 +0000, in alt.war.vietnam Peter Clinch
wrote:

The bar end shifters on my touring bike, and my wife's, can have the
indexing turned off just with a twist of a D-ring on the side. That
turns them into a pure friction shifter. I'm fairly sure these are
still available.

We have a set of what are sometimes called "rapid fire" shifters on
one of our tandems... their name escapes me and I'm at the office, so
I can't go look; however, they're Shimano mid - to - good "mountain
bike" shifters where you have two levers... one for up and another for
down. I'd dearly love to turn that indexing stuff off on the front
shifter. It doesn't help any and prevents me from fine tuning the
cage when it rubs on slight cross chaining.

I'm looking for a decent set of friction shifters on eBay. The rear
is getting slightly worn and the damn things look as complicated as an
analog watch.

Jones