Originally Posted by
Jeff Wills
The difference between (Shimano) "road" and "mountain/flat-bar" shifters is that the "mountain" shifters pull more cable. This makes it tough for them to work properly with "road" derailleurs on triples. The OP may be able to get mountain shifters to work with his current front derailleur, but the best solution is to use a "flat-bar" front derailleur, like a Shimano FD-R440 or FD-R770. These are set up to work with the long cable pull but the cage is designed to work with larger "road" chainrings.
Uh, that's pretty much what I said. Shimano road and MTB (9-speed and earlier) REAR derailleurs use exactly the same cable pull and both road and MTB shifters work with either. It's the front derailleurs and shifters that differ and are incompatible with triple cranks but a double crank can probably be made to work with either. I'm not familiar with "flat bar" front derailleurs but I see how they would work with MTB front shifters.