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these fellas...
Anyone got any experience of them?
seem to remember back in the day I liked thumb shifters, but there must be a reason why they aren't used a lot these days. Expensive too.
Ooohhhh...10 speed. I still run Suntour XC Pro 8 speed ones!
I believe that Surly/Salsa use the Microshift ones on some of their fatbikes.
Do you know whether they are Shimano or SRAM compatible?
I use Pauls/Dura Ace thumbies on my cargo bike, and went through a phase of using them on my regular mountain bike.
They are fine. Unindexed shifting is surprisingy fine (and the ability trim the front mech is actually an advantages), the action of the thumbies is all fine, they're light and virtually indestructible.
BUT (and this is why they only now feature on my cargo bike) the hand movement required to change gear is much more significant than with a modern trigger shifter. Shifting gears while trying to travel rapidly over rough ground is waaaay trickier. You need a breathing space and the ability to move your hand significantly to get the shift. If you're relaxed about that limitation they're fine. If finding yourself in the wrong gear and losing valuable seconds because you can't shift as easily as you expect is going to annoy you then I'd not bother.
Basically like downtube shifters on a road bike - fine for a tourer, really not ideal on a racer.
Jon