Mating friction shifters to hyperglide freewheels often makes me think I don't need indexing. For me, brifters are more a matter of convenience vs "better shifting". I always prefer friction on the FD (even if I don't always set things up that way). There's a good reason why you see so many DT friction FD's mated with brifter RD's. Were it not for the fact that the veloce brifters are so cheap and the shimano bar-ends so overpriced, I'd be running more friction setups.

Yep, the ka-chuk is a most satisfying sound.