shimano sora SL-R400 downtube shifters

[thomasl...@comcast.net]

Hi!

Does anyone here have experience with the Shimano Sora SL-R400 downtube shifters transplanted to thumb-mounts (e..g Paul, Rivendell Silver, Velo Orange) or transplanted to bar-end pods (e.g. Shimano, Rivendell Silver)? Is it good experience or bad experience?

It appears that they might mount properly if I provide appropriate spacers like the ones that would come with SL-BS64 bar-ends. I have those spacers to provide.

As far as I can tell the Sora SL-R400 shifters are the only lever shifter Shimano still sells that support 8-speed indexing. Anyone know different?

Alternatively, is anyone aware of a trove of new SL-BS64 shifters anywhere?

Yours,
Thomas Lynn Skean
who, because microshift makes decent shifters, is not desperate but does want choices

pun alert - pun alert - pun alert

I find 8-speeds comfortable. I'd probably be happy with 7. But more than 8 is simply too much (wait for it)... cognitive load.