this post was submitted on 16 Oct 2024
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Friction shifters work better with more gears, or rather, they're more useful with more gears.
It's comparatively easy to make a derailleur and shifter that can reliable hit seven rear gears, but making a mechanical device that can hit the index on 11 or 12 speeds is not a trivial challenge; to get that to work reliably, in every gear, with a cable that stretches and sticks, is hard to do.
A friction shifter gets rid of the indices and the requirement to adjust stops.
This is also why electronic shifters are a thing: getting the cable and shifter adjusted is finicky with 11 or 12 gears, but the little motor can do it every time, and adjusting the indexes is easy. Now, if it breaks...
I have the same GX groupset on two bikes - both 12 speed. One is AXS, the other is cable. The AXS shifter never misses. Ever. Can't say that about the cable, which I've adjusted many times. I think it's a great upgrade.
It's also something I can work on, repair, etc. I don't think that's going to be the case with the upcoming setup where the gearing is colocated with the motor, and there's no derailleur. That's going to be a shop (or probably even manufacturer) repair.
This makes a lot of sense!