Yes, and I have been rightly corrected that the Simplex Retrofriction are not Ratchet mechanism, but spring clutch.
Thanks and obviously Campagnolo C-Record Retrofriction.
Yes, I have an old pair of plastic Suntour Accushift, but the friction mode doesn't function, the later version SL-IP00-B, that were sold as Sprint / Superbe Pro / Cyclone 7000 are reviewed as being very good.
The also do a road version the BS-R10. I have one on my gravel bike, playing nicely with a shimano 105 RD. I have never run it in friction mode though, as it works so well indexed, nor have I tried to fix it onto a downtube boss.
How is the quality and functionality compared to a good quality shimano shifter?
It looks and feels really solid and changes perfectly / indexing is spot on. I haven't had a Shimano bar-con to compare with, but its strikes me that it would be difficult for it to be much better. I had it out for some reason or other, and it was dead easy to replace and set up again.
I have ridden and worked on several bikes with Microshift shifters. They always seem to work well with Shimano ime, just as well as the original Shimano.
get a pair and try them, I assure you they work in both directions
The Suntour Power shifter has a small cog, which a hardened piece of steel spring that fits into, that creates the ratchet, this allows the shifter to moves along each tooth of the cog in both directions, but only ratchets on the way down not on the way back up. I still have a few Suntour Power shifters in the garage.
