Touring - Brake & handlebar End Shifting Lever. Which is better?

I have realised there are 2 types of common shifting lever available for tour bike. (The brake shifter and handlebar End shifter)
what are the differences between the two? can Anyone tell me which one is better for touring and the reasons for your recommendation. Thank you

There are actually more varieties of shifter, but the two you mention are common on drop bars. you could also have Grip shifters, and stem shifters and down tube shifters.

of the two you mention, the brake mounted ones (depending on who makes them) are good as your hands are often near the hoods anyway. Bar end ones less so, for the same reason.

Grip shifts can be good if you are using a straight bar bike, but I've only seen them mounted on drop bars at the bar end which leads to the same problem as with bar end lever shifters of having to move your hands to the end of the drops.

i use downtube shifters in both indexed and non indexed and find them to be precise and accurate.

The bar end levers I've used have always felt a bit vague.

If I had to choose, I'd go for ergopower (brake mounted) levers.

My wife has stem mounted shifters, which she likes, but in her accident found they made a wee hole in the skin over her stomach as she flew over the bars!

Welcome to the forums, by the way.

Frazer Huang, I have Shimano barend shifters, they work really well and I´m very happy with them. When riding on the hoods I only have to drop my han a little to shift, very neat. The right hand barend shifter for the rear mech works either with friction or index which is safer on tour if the indexing fail you can shift to friction and keep on riding. Also when using a bar bag the integrated brake-shift levers have the shifting cables going out in such a way not allowing the use of a bar bag. Barend shifters on the other hand allow a bar bag with no problems. And like I said the move of the hand when shiftinging soon becomes a natural thing, so no problem there.

Anders K
Sweden

Thank you for the valuable information from 2 helpful friends in the forum. these facts indeed, is good enough for me to select the right components for my customized tour bike.

Anyone who faced the same dilemma in choosing the right shifter, will find the information over here very useful.

Thank you to the contributor once again.

I have used both. To me, the bar-end shifters are a maintanance headache. They come loose and you have to unwrap all the bar tape to repair or maintain them.

The brake mounted shifters are, in my opinion, located more conveniently. Usually, when I shift, my hands are in the drops, so it is easy for me to touch the shifter on the brakes.

Cost-wise, though, bar end shifters are about 1/5 the cost of brake shifters because you can get 1980's vintage bar-end shifters on ebay for about $10 ~ $20 while brake shifters are mostly only available new at around $100 to $200 per pair.

You still get bar-end shifters on touring bikes because they offer a friction mode as backup for when your indexing breaks down.

Indexing may break down if the rear mech or the derailleur hanger gets bent or damaged, or if you have to replace a rear mech with an incompatable model.

With friction back-up mode you can fit any derailleur and get it working.

Bar-end shifters are still used by racers who attatch them to the ends of aerobars.

I use Campy ergolevers, and find that my bar bag fits fine. As backup I sometimes carry a lightweight plastic downtube shifter.

I am the proud owner of a TREK 520 Touring witth barcon shifters. I did some research on these vs the STI (brake lever)shifters. Certainly I would have preferred the STI hardware for sheer convenience. On another website, I read the following argument that made some sense to me.

IF you are buying a bike for touring, and IF you are indeed using the bike for touring, there is no real tactical need for the speed/convenience of STI. You can see the next gear change coming a long way back.

In my case, this agreed with my goals, and furthermore, TREK's hardware configuration on the 520 meant installing STI would be an expensive proposition. So much so that I would NOT have bought this bike.

I am told that STI is a good deal more complicated mechanically, having a lot more parts than barcons. I am assuming that is true, don't know what part that should play in ones decision.

For what it is worth, I have used my 520 w/barcons for all kinds of rides - touring, group, recreational, fitness training, and I have not a single complaint.

I chose bar-end shifters because dia-compe makes a v-type compatable brake lever, and dual control won't work without an adapter. I confess to being somewhat "fluffy" so I put on the best brakes I could find.

It's like asking "Which bike is better?"

I agree with what has been said previously. On top of that, as a still current user of a 1980 touring bike, I found out I do NOT like indexed shifting. Even when well adjusted, it is not exactly as smooth, as noiseless, than friction shifting (I have very good hearing -- a problem sometimes). Barend shifters allow me to ride in friction mode, which means I never have to adjust cable barrel adjusters. In fact, I have been using my shifters in friction mode for more than a year.

Another consideration:
If you ride from the curved section of the drops, your hands are always close to the brakes, hence to STI shifters. But my traditional riding position is from the tip of the drops (close to me), so barend shifting is actually easier to do than STI.

Regards,

Bar end versus brake shifters sure is a matter of preference. My preference is bar end. I have had no experience with brake shifters, myself but heard a story from an experienced bike tourist who had to repair his brake lever shifters with dental floss. He preferred the bar end shifters after that -- I don't know if he bothered to switch. Based on this story, brake lever shifters seem a bit fragile.

Since I have had years of experience with bar end shifters doing fully loaded touring both on a single bike and a tandem, I ended up buying a Trek 520, recently, BECAUSE it had bar end shifters.

I have been using a 1972 vintage Peugeot U0-8 as a commuting bike and touring bike since I bought it, new. After a few years, I replaced the down tube shifters with bar end and have been quite content. I move my hands around the drop bars frequently changing position, so my hands are not necessarily usually on the brake hoods while I ride, though they do spend a lot of time there.

Because I have been riding old equipment for so long, index shifting seemed like a solution to a problem I didn't have -- "new fangled." I know how to shift. That the bar end shifters on the 520 allow me to go to friction if/when I want was another reason I decided on buying the Trek. (The Old bar end shifters on the UO-8 predate index shifting by a couple decades so are friction only.) I am using the index feature on the Trek, so far, but like the option to defeat it if necessary.

I really fell in love with bar end shifters with the tandem. Being a heavier bike, I frequently found that I enjoyed the stronger grip I could get on the handlebars when in the drops (better control) -- right next to the bar end shifters. We had set up the tandem for a child stoker. Our daughter was 4 years old when we got the tandem. We had several long, really fun family tours with that and my wife (who also has bar end shifters) on her single bike.

Mike Sakarias
Juneau Alaska

I have never had barend shifters give me any trouble. I have many thousand miles on barend and also on Sti shifters for a road bike I like Sti. For a touring where I like to use a 26t chainring and a 52t chainring barend work much better. Karl

Its truley a personel preferance. My road bikes are sti and my touring bike is bar end. I like them both
The sti on the road bikes are fast and smothe and came instalked on the bikes i bought.

my touring bike came with bar end shifters installed . I thought "THIS SUCKS!" but after a few days i got used to them and really like them. As someone else mentioned you can see your shifts comming ahead of time cruising along at 11-12 mph fully loaded day after day for months. Ive gotten to a point that it takes little movement of the hand to make the shift.

Ive never had a problem with the shifters breaking down and never had a problem with them becomiong looseened up If they ever did break down on a tour they are quite simple to repair and most of the parts are found in a hardware store.

When i return from my present tour and get back on my road bike i will apprecieate the fast shifts of the sti again but out here i just like the bar ends. personel opinion though yours may differ
catfish

Bar-cons are cheaper, easier to fix, and more reliable (friction option) than STI. This is a no brainer for those who plan on ever doing any unsupported touring.

I love them and find them easy and intuitive to use. I use them in friction mode to shift a 24spd set-up, and I have found them to be very sensitive and accurate. I don't like how bar-cons are out there flapping in breeze, however. STI levers are no better protected.

One tip for installing bar-cons: don't over-tighten the expansion bolt that fastens the bar-con in to place...the bolts are aluminum and one good *whack* on the bars can collapse a bolt in high tension. This happened to me, but the shifter was still totally functional.

For unsupported touring in the middle of nowhere, old fashioned stem shifters (for drops) or thumbshifters (for flat bars) are the systems to beat.