Ok so shifter came today 15 quid posted,,, First impression is quiet good and build quality is high..
so yep they have a 5 click indexed pull and obviously wont work with a Shimano/any name rear mech...
I hunted around the workshop for my dura ace friction shifters to get the levers off and see what would happen, stupidly I could only find the LH one not that is really an issue but for better looks I would try very hard to find the RH one...
So did it fit????? Well yes it did 100% ok I also tried an old Sunrace downtube lever to see also... Whilst I was at it I thought heck why not just try and get the sturmey lever apart and see what I can do and if its covertable to friction only..
I took the lever apart from the bar mount and the mech inside is held togeather with what looks like a clip type fastener (hard to describe) I put dow rod just bigger than the hole and gave it a hit, sure enough it all fell apart but all parts where ok...
There is a ball bearing in there that supplies the indexing so I removed that and all your left with is a bunch of spacers, I put an extra spacer in there to compensate for the bearing put it all back togeather and it seems to work perfectly!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I wont be able to really test it out fitted and ridden on a bike untill Monday but defo looks like we have a non expensive option to the Paul's thumbies...