my guess is it hat plenty of travel for 9spd. indexing could be an issue though.

dont give up of friction yet. my fiancee acclimated herself to friction very quickly. if you have not tried friction shifting with a modern cassette and chain you are really missing out. it works wonderfully. her bike has a modern 8spd cassette and a 9spd chain and it is one of the smoothest shifting bikes i have ridden.

and for the record, we are not "old" and obsessive. i am 25 and she is 22.