I didn't buy shifters for any of the bikes I did this on I had them sitting around or they were the thumbshifters on the bike before I put dropbars on it. On these 2 bikes the shifters are actually old shimano index thumbshifters. As for ergonomics its going to depend some on the shifters you have. For some of the shifts to particular gears I have its really nice and you can even shift a few gears from the drops. Some other gears you kinda have to reach back with your thumb for the shifter, but it beats reaching back to the stem to shift. The best was when I did this with my old Peugeot mountain bike. Those shifters were at a good angle and it worked pretty well ergonomically.