Originally Posted by Tourist in MSN

There is a plus side to using a friction front shifter with a triple crank, if you have an indexed front shifter and a mis-matched front derailleur, it can be difficult to get the shifter to work just right for shifting onto the middle chainring. But a friction (unindexed) shifter has no problem with that. Eventually you develop muscle memory to be able to shift smoothly to the middle chain ring.



For a year or maybe two Lance Armstrong used a friction front shifter on his racing bikes instead of a brifter.