Originally Posted by
spectastic
it's for a touring bike. I value simplicity when it comes to situations like that, because friction shifers work with anything. It's probably not the most orthodox approach, but I don't think I'll mind it too much.
I did not have index shifting until 2005, and have done 10's of thousands of miles on friction shifting, but friction or index is irrelevant to my comments. I would strongly suggest you continue to consider other options besides stem shifters, especially for a touring bike.