Friction shifter on a triple MTB?

[Time Waster]

We've had an old MTB worked on by a local mechanic. It's a pricey fix replacing everything except frame, fork and front brake. Certainly more than the bike is worth but it's a comfortable ride for my partner and there's simply no suitable, new bike anywhere near where we live T68 try out.

Ignoring the value of doing this repair I'm curious about the front derailleur shifter being friction. Never heard of it on MTBs personally. He said it was to cut costs down to a certain total cost. Plus the index shifter was too noisy because of the components involved, the friction allows fine tuning the shift.

What's your take on this? Good idea or should we swap out later on? Does it really matter? Is basically used on the road on family rides so not exactly fast riding. A bit of touring too. Hardly needing anything expensive or higher performance I reckon.

 

[Low Gear Guy]

I changed my front changer to friction after struggling to get the indexed shifter to change correctly. I could adjust it to correctly shift any two of the three gears after replacing the middle chainring. I think the spacing had changed slightly with the new ring and upset the indexing.

Fitting a friction shifter solved this problem and I haven't regretted changing it. I am mostly riding roads and surfaced tracks.

 

[a.twiddler]

Unless you absolutely must have matching systems on your handlebars, it'll be fine.

 

[oldwheels]

My 1980's style MB which I adapted for touring had friction shifters. Less bother than indexed shifters.
My old road bikes all had friction shifters back and front before indexing was invented.

 

[fossyant]

They were the main shifters before STI came in in the early 90's . I adopted STI on my new MTB back in the early 90's but a broken shifter on a Snowdon trip, had me temporarily using a cheap thumb shifter until I could get the bike back for a new shifter.

They are fine and work well.

 

[Ming the Merciless]

They were the main shifters before STI came in in the early 90's . I adopted STI on my new MTB back in the early 90's but a broken shifter on a Snowdon trip, had me temporarily using a cheap thumb shifter until I could get the bike back for a new shifter.

They are fine and work well.

STI on mountain bikes? Aren’t most mountain bikes still trigger shifters?

 

[fossyant]

STI on mountain bikes? Aren’t most mountain bikes still trigger shifters?

It's called STI still. Big sticker on my trigger shifters and integrated brake levers - still called that for the brake and gear units on MTB's. Not called STI for the separates systems now.