However, there are situations where you would want numbered gears. My road bike has Di2 electronic shifters and I set it to synchro shifting mode. This means th

However, there are situations where you would want numbered gears. My road bike has Di2 electronic shifters and I set it to synchro shifting mode. This means that it'll do a double shift - front chainring and rear cassette - when shifting down a gear at the selected cross-over point (can be changed according to preferences and gear setups). This means that I like to know when I'm in the lowest gear before a double-shift as I'd rather not be out of the saddle and putting down power during that shift. What I do is I use an MT800 gear display which shows the Di2 charge level and current gear (it also provides bluetooth connectivity). Incidentally, I'm surprised that you like unindexed shifters - they're a lot more clumsy than correctly adjusted indexed shifters.