no modern "brifter" is designed to run friction. Only bar ends or some type of downtube/stem shifters give you the ability to use friction. If I went the microshift route, they are so cheap that I would either buy the 9 or 10 speed version and then buy a cheap new 9 or 10 speed casette. While many people feel that anything over 8 speeds in the back is really unnecessary, from a resale perspective, your going to be able to get more for the bike by saying it's a 27 or 30 speed than saying it's a 24 speed.

If you look at the reviews on nashbars website they are almost all positive. Nashbar is constantly changing the price on these. some days I have seen them there at $129 other days (like today) they are at $159. If you aren't on nashbars mailing list, you should do so, they are constantly having some type of sale, typically anywhere from 10-25% off sales, sometimes $20 off a single item and sometimes they have combo sales where you can use both. A couple of weeks ago they had 20% off any single item as well as 20% off all orders over $75 so those shifters could be had for about $100