Originally Posted by
Briareos
1. Why the "taboo" of using indexed shifting? Is it generally just known to be worse than friction? I always thought index would be better because you could mentally known how many gears you've moved by the clicking sound or clicking "feeling" in your fingers.
You're missing the point. A 10S cassette fits in the same space as an 8S cassette. Therefore, to compensate, the 10S shifter pulls less cable per shift. If you tried using a 10S shifter with an 8S cassette more than half of your shifts would probably be off, or work very poorly.
Using an 8S index shifter with your 8S cassette should work perfectly. There's no "taboo" about using indexed shifting. That's why virtually all bikes today use it.
Ah, but I forgot. What rear derailer do you have? If you have an old Dura Ace RD, you MUST use Dura Ace shifters with the number of speeds to match your cassette. The old Dura Ace stuff used a different cable pull than everything else. If you don't have a Dura Ace rear derailer, then you CANNOT use Dura Ace 8 speed shifters. You need a lesser model like Ultegra, 105, RX-100, RSX, etc with the number of speeds to match your cassette.