Aubergine 

I suspect all the pictures I have seen were much later models of Campy shifters. They looked exactly the same other than the logo. Did the Campy shifters ever get retrofriction?

Aubergine 

I knew about the Schwinn rebadge, at least, but I never knew about the earlier Campy ones. And thank you for the link! I really had no idea how similar those were to the Suntours.

jeirvine 

Nope. Different beasts. The Campagnolos were pure friction. Suntour Barcons had a ratcheted mechanism.

Scooper

Right; item No. 7 in this SunTour exploded view is the ratchet. The pawl for the ratchet is item No. 3, and the spring that tensions the pawl is item No. 2.

63rickert

My '67 Falcon M90 came stock with Campy bar ends. Going back to when these things existed "stock" did not mean much. Campy equipped bikes were sold in miniscule quantities and most customers were so happy to find and to have proper race iron they didn't much worry about these details. My Falcon was a special order, I'd not asked for bar ends, it was a complete surprise when the box was opened. I did have a frame with brazed cable guides intended for the shifters I received. The shop asked me if I would like to have them saw off the guides and use DT shifters. The clamp band would have covered the frame surgery. I kept the bar ends.

I've always been puzzled by those who denigrate the performance of Campy bar ends. If you fiddled with them needlessly there was a way to spill the small parts on the floor and it was possible to fit them all back in the housing in a sequence that would sorta shift but did not shift well. Most persons with any mechanical sense would not reassemble them that way. I have seen them on bikes apparently assembled by someone with no mechanical sense. Otherwise they worked as well as most things Campy do. The SunTour parts were available and cheap and good. More than good enough. SunTour derailleurs generally shift better than NR derailleurs and Campy riders just don't care. There were some few riders who liked to count the little clicks in their ratcheting SunTour shifters and felt lost without them. Otherwise, on the shifter end, Campy felt much better. They are as durable as anything Campy and as trouble free as anything Campy

JohnDThompson 

The Campagnolo bar-cons aren't all that similar to SunTour; they're just simple friction levers with no ratchet mechanism. IMHO, the SunTour ratchet makes their bar-cons far superior to Campagnolo's.

mparker326

I had an early 70's Mondia Special that came with the Campy bar-ends.

Bjbusa

Thanks Guys - I think for Erocia I can use the friction..but not the index shifting.....that's why I was thinking the Campy's because the SunTour I remember were index

zukahn1 

For Erocia I'm pretty sure the early Campy , Suntour powershifter bar-ends and the Simplex SLJ would all qualify since they came out before 1975 and are none indexed. The Suntours are micro ratcheting and the SLJ's are retro friction. For cost and availibilty I would go with the Suntours and for function astetics I like the SlJ's but there kinda prcey and hard to find.

VeloBase.com - Component: Simplex SLJ 2615 barcons

72ChromeP15

Interesting on the '72. Most of the Schwinn paperwork recommended against using the Campy fingertip controls. ("the frame construction and the use of broad range derailleurs also make the use of Campagnolo fingertip controls and Campagnolo brakes impractical on the P15 Deluxe Paramount") When I tried it on the '72, I discovered that the range of movement the front derailleur required wasn't easily accommodated by the amount that the Campy control could provide. I used the more generous range of the Nuovo Valentino ft derailleur and put an NR cage on it. Works like a charm.

rhm

As I mentioned before, my 1959 Allegro came with Campy bar end shifters; but they didn't come to me with the rest. I initially used another Campy bar end shifter, I'm not even sure what they are (chromed aluminum...wtf). They were terrible. Perhaps they would have been better with modern line lined housing, but I upgraded to downtube shifters and that fixed the problem.

MKahrl

I've owned two bikes that came with Campy bar ends - a Paramount P13 and a Mondia Special. And I tried very very hard to like them but was unsuccessful. Eventually put downtube shifters on them both.

JohnDThompson 

No, the SunTour bar-cons aren't "indexed;" they just use a ratchet mechanism to reduce the effort needed to shift to lower gears. And they're completely within the L'Eroica timeline requirements.

seypat

I have a pair of the non retro SLJ. If you use these for a long ride, take a short flat head screwdriver with you. They tend to loosen up during the ride, at least mine does. Personally, the best brand of friction barcons I have used are Shimano L-600. I like them so well I have 4 or 5 sets. They have a counter spring that makes them so smooth like Butta!