I'm thinking of buying a long haul trucker but not sure how I would like them. i have STI. shifters on my current bike. What do you guys think of them?
Thanks Ricky
I just bought my LHT a little over a month ago. I thought about changing the shifters right away, but decided to stick with them, since my LBS gives my 90 days to make changes/exchanges.
They took some getting used to (I have SRAM GripShift on my Trek) but they've grown on me. Yes, you do have to move your hands to shift, but it's not that far. If you're balanced correctly on the bike you can shift front and rear simultaneously with no issues.
The shifters themselves are simple and durable. When the cables stretch (as they do on a new bike) you can switch from indexing to friction on the fly (by turning the bail on the side of the shifter) and trim the shift manually. When there's time, you can stop and trim the shifters with the barrel adjusters. I prefer the friction mode because it's quieter.
On the downside, it's easy to bump a shifter when you're mounting or dismounting. I've also hit a bump while shifting and had to re-trim the shift. I have to think ahead a little more when planning a shift because I have to move my hands, but that's more just getting used to it.
If you decide you really hate 'em, you can always use Paul Thumbies to mount them on the bars. Your LBS should be able to work with you and install STI on the bike if that's what you really want.
The LHT is an amazing machine - no buyer's remorse here! I would recommend upgrading to V-brakes front and rear. Makes a HUGE difference in stopping power. You'll want good brakes if you're touring with any kind of load on the bike or on a trailer.
The stock gearing is quite good. I'm on the fence about putting a 24T ring on the front to replace the stock 26 - I'll be touring through some mountainous terrain this fall, so it might be a good move.
Hope this helps - enjoy your new bike!
Originally posted by Elkhound
Respect goes both ways. If we want motorists to respect our right to use the road, then it behooves us to ride in a responsible, lawful manner.
I bought a LHT in '08 and ended up liking them more than the STI's. I actually like the feel of the Tektro brake levers more than the STI levers as well. I ended up putting both bar end shifters and the tektro brake levers on my road bike and gave my Ultegra STI's to my brother.
You can really hurt your thigh swinging into them. Happens to me about once a tour. Certainly avoidable. Other than that they are great.
My working assumption at this point is that good brake lever shifters are super durable but not really required for most touring (unless the terrain shifts are just constant like a single track off-road). Bar ends have a simplicity and repair advantages which you will appreciate on really long tours or if you can't fix them yourself.
Bar ends where the slick control in their day, or at least an option for those who wanted hand on the bars controls.
I really like mine,I wouldn't want any other kind of shifter any more.I've never in two years riding with them had a problem hitting my thighs or knee's on them.I suspect that that problem is a resault of a frame that is a size too small,I'm not sure but it seems that many people my size go with a frame that is one size smaller then mine.I kind of like a long top tube with a shorter stem on it though.
I just picked up a 1991 Miyata 1000 with bar end shifters. Having gone from downtube to the "nirvana" of sti, I thought I may not like the barcons. Well I was wrong. I've spent the last 100+ miles using the 1000 like a road bike and found the shifters very easy to get used to.
I have a LHT too and am in every way happy with the bar-end shifters. I like that I can 'tell' which gear I am in by feel of position of the lever. With click-boxes or grip-shifts or STIs this isn't the case. I also find that I can shift perfectly quickly with them, and not just one or two gears at once, but straight to whatever gear I want (particularly going from near top gear to first before a quick stop with one motion is handy), and cross-shifts are not a problem at all either. And I am almost always quicker across the intersections at a light-change than the lycra-clad roadies, not due to the shifters but due to the lower gearing of the LHT. A lot of this is not particularly important for touring, but this is also my commuter, and I like to ride ... energetically then.
Bar end shifters became nearly extinct in the 70's for a reason. Well beyond old school, STI is better in EVERY respect except retro-grouch style points. If you REALLY are going to tour in a 3rd world country, bring a clamp-on down tube shifter along in the EXTREMELY rare case of failure.
Bar end shifters became nearly extinct in the 70's for a reason. Well beyond old school, STI is better in EVERY respect except retro-grouch style points. If you REALLY are going to tour in a 3rd world country, bring a clamp-on down tube shifter along in the EXTREMELY rare case of failure.
You really need to rethink that especially if you're using Shimano STI levers as they're good for what, 25K miles before you need to replace the whole brake and shifter assembly? Just this year I've had two group rides cut short because another rider's Shimano brifter suddenly stopped working. I have not read or heard of anyone who has worn out bar ends or experienced a sudden failure.
Brifters are a complicated, expensive solution to what should be a simple inexpensive problem. Brifters are really cool when you're on the hoods and want to change gears as everything is right there. But if you're mostly on the tops or on the corners, then moving to the bar end or the hoods is the same effort. If you're in the drops it may easier to get to bar ends then brifters
But, I do like cool and have Ergos on one bike and bar ends on the other
I started with friction shifters on the downtube, went to STI brifters, now have friction-only Silver brand bar ends on the go-to bike. I prefer the latter.
My experience with Ultegra sti brifters is that they had an annoying little rattle that was constant on anything but the smoothest of roads. They occasionally would jam. Trimming STI to fine-tune alignment is impossible on the fly. Bar ends, for me, offer instinctive shifting. With XT deraillers and a Sram chain, shifts are so quiet as to be inaudible most of the time. It's a breeze to use, but that's just me. You're really best trying each for a while if you can arrange it.
M
Yeah keeping up with that touring peloton can be tough at times
especially on criteriums with uphills after turns. Folks with front low riders have to take the turn wider and the brifters help them to stay with the pack. Watch out for extracyles with loose loads.
Aaah, the age old touring forum chestnut of bar ends or STIs for road style handlebars.
To be fair, I haven't got bar end shifters -but that's for a reason. I believe preferably your hands should be securely on your bars when shifting, in a position where you will do most of your riding. Bar ends don't qualify for this for me as I don't spend most of my time in lower bars (and even then, you'll be using your outside fingers or back part of your hand to shift unless you want to take your whole hand off the bars). Mmm, intuitive? For me, no thanks. I also appreciate that STIs are more complex, and that they can and will break eventually -though given the frequency they do, I consider them pretty "reliable". And wasn't there a thread on here recently by people who had their bar end shifters break anyway? Mind you, I should also add I don't use STI or Ergos for touring either.
What about trying to get the best of both worlds combining ease of use and reliability?
Two solutions: Pauls Thumbies or Kelly Take Offs. Well worth a try -granted you have to pay a little more since they are shifter mounts, but I think they are still worth it.
I believe preferably your hands should be securely on your bars when shifting, in a position where you will do most of your riding.
I figure if your hands have to be securely on the bars there's something more important going on than shifting or your rig is so unstable a momentary shift of grip is not safe. Somehow people survived reaching down to the top tube during races and using bar ends during cyclo-cross races.
Well note the word "preferably". C'mon, you've never been over a pot hole/hazard you didn't see or didn't anticipate? There have certainly been times for me (and I'll bet other cyclists) where because I did have both hands on the bars I avoided a spill. I'm sure it will occur again too.
However, if you want to implement a gear shifting system where you move your hand away from the bars or do not securely hold the bars to change gears (especially when there are solutions where you don't have to), well, that's your prerogative! (and choice).
But out of interest, what is the advantage to not having your hands securely on the bars while changing gear?
Originally Posted by LeeG
I figure if your hands have to be securely on the bars there's something more important going on than shifting or your rig is so unstable a momentary shift of grip is not safe. Somehow people survived reaching down to the top tube during races and using bar ends during cyclo-cross races.
FWIW, I don`t have to take my hands off the bars to shift my barends. Maybe it depends on how you`re set up. My bars are pretty high, so I stay in the drops at least half the time- just move back and forth between the hook part and the ends, with my palms cupping the shifter bodys.
I know the OP already bought his bike, but the only way for somebody to find out whether he likes or doesn`t like a certain type of shifter is the same way he has to figure out whether he likes or doesn`t like a certain model saddle.
Well note the word "preferably". C'mon, you've never been over a pot hole/hazard you didn't see or didn't anticipate? There have certainly been times for me (and I'll bet other cyclists) where because I did have both hands on the bars I avoided a spill. I'm sure it will occur again too.
However, if you want to implement a gear shifting system where you move your hand away from the bars or do not securely hold the bars to change gears (especially when there are solutions where you don't have to), well, that's your prerogative! (and choice).
But out of interest, what is the advantage to not having your hands securely on the bars while changing gear?
If you need a vice type grip on the bars every second while riding, I suggest your not doing it right, or have a handling issue with your bike. Frankly a lot of riders don't and some like the guy I saw on a Cervalo last weekend, will have no grip at all, he was sitting up, opening a Gatorade Bottle, holding it in one hand, unscrewing the lid with the other I had a Sekine when I was in my late teens and early 20's and it was so stable you could ride that thing for miles without touching the bars. It had 10 speeds and downtube shifters, man I wish I still had that bike
Unless you spend a lot of time shifting, the few seconds that you spend with only one hand on the bars is pretty minimal. Bar ends do have some advantages, which I think is why they are popular with tourers. An STI shifter may be very reliable, but there is a certain fragility in the whole shifting system, and remember your RD is in a very vulnerable position, if you whack it, and bend the hanger even a couple of millimetres, you will see how fragile that system really is, there is no way to trim the rear shifting, and sometimes trimming the front isn't as easy as it could be. Bar ends can be placed in friction mode, so you can still shift, as long as the RD isn't pushed into the spokes. Since bar ends are not connected to the brake levers, if you do manage to break one, your not spending as much on parts and labour to fix it, even if you do the labour yourself, having to monkey with the brakes to replace the shifter seems kinda silly to me. A bar end shifter is a very simple mechanism, you can rebuild one quite easily, with a little degreaser (may need to be plastic friendly) and some oil. An STI shifter is quite complex, if you could get the parts, it requires a lot of knowledge and time to rebuild one, so you end up simply replacing the whole mechanism. A mechanism that isn't exactly cheap.
Like flats, a shifting failure isn't going happen while the bike is sitting in the garage at home, it's going to pick that time when it's cold, dark, rainy, you have 25km more to go and your reservation at the only camp ground within 150km expires in 45 minutes, so your going like a bat out of H**l already, start heading up heart attack ridge and crinkle crangle scrawk, you just blew your tranny..... Actually you blew the tranny when you just missed hitting that rock on the road, actually you didn't miss it, you whacked it with the RD. Bar ends mean that you twist the bail, drop into friction mode, trim it out, and keep going. STI means that you better be ready to stealth camp, because your going nowhere fast.
You really need to rethink that especially if you're using Shimano STI levers as they're good for what, 25K miles before you need to replace the whole brake and shifter assembly? Just this year I've had two group rides cut short because another rider's Shimano brifter suddenly stopped working. I have not read or heard of anyone who has worn out bar ends or experienced a sudden failure.
Brifters are a complicated, expensive solution to what should be a simple inexpensive problem. Brifters are really cool when you're on the hoods and want to change gears as everything is right there. But if you're mostly on the tops or on the corners, then moving to the bar end or the hoods is the same effort. If you're in the drops it may easier to get to bar ends then brifters
But, I do like cool and have Ergos on one bike and bar ends on the other
I re-read my opinionated post about BE shifters and have determined I was absolutely correct. Now after reading the follow-up posts of folks trying desperately to justify their retro-grouch style points, I'm convinced further.
A set of Ultegra shifters goes for about $375, on sale today in performance for $280, but you can't count on a sale while on tour, so lets call it an even $400, second day air to basically anywhere. Now if they last just 25k miles (mine are well above that number) that's at least a quarter million shifts. A bargain in my mind, in fact cheap as chit.
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Originally Posted by LeeG
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I had a Sekine when I was in my late teens and early 20's and it was so stable you could ride that thing for miles without touching the bars. It had 10 speeds and downtube shifters, man I wish I still had that bike 
