Sorry for flooding all of your inboxes, but I'm new to the list, and have lots of questions. (Since only the first two years of my life were "on-topic," I have much to learn about things pre-1981).
I have a feeling that this have been covered greatly elsewhere, but I can't seem to find an exact answer to my question. I'm in the process of putting together a randonneuring bike, and will be running a friction-shifting setup. Two of my bikes -- one with a Nuovo record drivetrain and one with a Shimano 600 -- shift with friction, and both have thread-on freewheels, and I like them very much. Since I will be using my randonneur for very long distances, I understandably want it to be extremely reliable. And since I'm building it from the ground up, I have a tremendous amount of choice in components. For aesthetic and practical reasons, I've assembled a largely Mavic SSC-based group of components (with Simplex-made retrofriction shifters), though I'm a bit reluctant to get the matching hubs. From reading things Sheldon Brown, for instance, has had to say, it seems that cassette hubs are simply a better design, and when buying something new, it would only make sense to go with a cassette hub. (The only cassette hub I think will look very good with the setup is the Phil hub -- which are not inexpensive.)
However, friction shifting and ramped cassettes (from what I read) don't appear to go well together. It seems that "ghost shifting" is a problem. I'm only planning on running 8 gears in the back, so things aren't as narrow as a 9 or 10 speed setup would be. But it seems like it would still be a problem.
Are there any Shimano-compatible non-ramped cassettes out there (is Uniglide sufficient)? Or does friction shifting work just fine with hyperglide cassettes? Or should I just get an "on-topic" hub with a thread-on freewheel?
Thanks for your help. Please reply on-list if you think this might be of interest to others, and off- if you don't.
Adam Hammond
Toronto, Ontario, Canada