Originally Posted by
Happy Feet
Which hand position? You have flats, hoods and upright cruiser. In that pic, if it were me, I might have routed the cable under the bar and put the shifter a bit more outboard to allow resting the palm in the space where the three bars meet but that's just me.
I can't speak for others but it's a factor of cost and reliability. Thumbies work, can easily be worked on and are cheap. Those are some pretty big plusses in touring.
I'm speaking specifically about the pic in my comment. Generally, Crazy Bars, Jones H, Surly Moloko, etc. Those bars are intended in part as "flat" bars that offer as many hand positions as drops, in some cases more. My bars below, with under the bar shifters, allow me to use the entire bar for hand positions, and I have found the most comfortable hand position for extended time in the saddle has the heel of my palm on the "near" cross bar, my thumbs in the angle and my fingers wrapped over the "far" cross bar. Moving the shifters outboard, even down all the way down to the grips, takes that position away.
For touring, I'm not sure that friction thumbies are more reliable than Deore 9 speed indexed, because one just doesn't shift like a monkey on crack while touring. As for price, a set of Deores run about $50, less on sale. Looks like in the photo the thumbies are IRD, $130 give or take, or Sun Race, probably $50 for a pair. And many people I run into are buying Paul adapters at $90 to pair with new or vintage shifters.