Originally Posted by
cale
It would equally easy to theorize that Shimano designates the Road specific shifters because they are color matched to the derailleurs. Companies frequently compose groupset where color is the only differentiation.
As far as my use of the my front derailleur, I have a double, of course I use it frequently. :-)
Not in this case as Shimano road and MTB front derailleurs aren't identical. However, getting a double crank to work with the "wrong" fd and shifters isn't that hard as the cage travel is set by the limit screws and the shifter only has to move it, not position it in any intermediate place like a triple.