Ive ridden my loaded tour bike through a dozen or more countries up mountains and such.

on old fashioned friction shifters, I like the ones in the end of the handlebar ,
6 or 7 speed freewheels and a triple crank without ramps and shift pins.

Seems newer freewheels will shift too willingly when you wish they don't
due to tooth profile changes..



I worked in Bikeshops for years on the index stuff ,
the New gets replaced every year by the Newer.

But not necessarily better, just the industry has decided to run a gee whiz race with each other . I don't have to sell it any more.
(would love to see the fully automated machines in the factorys that put this stuff out by the millions)

I wish I had copied down an Old Italian's saying that like technologically driven indexing,
(or engineers get their mortgage paid and a new Boat, laying on more complexity) ,

on what was a fine, simple purely functional machine,..

is like sex with rubber boots on .. or some kind of analogy like that .


I'm back to Internal gear hubs these days, the derailleur sport bike goes out occasionally.
wears Laundry, often, in the house..