Can someone explain the magic of bar-end shifters on touring bikes?
01-16-08, 01:20 PM
#76
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I have bar-end shifters on my Surly Long Haul Trucker. I love 'em.
I have ratcheting shifters on my mountain bike (Trek 820), and they always seem to be out of adjustment. Every shift is an act of faith!
When I first had my LHT, I took it back for it's first tune-up at 200 miles. On my last couple of rides I had noticed a kind of grinding or scraping noise coming from the area of the bottom bracket, but it didn't seem to do it all the time. I obviously mentioned it to the LBS tech, as I thought something might be seriously wrong. The tech found that the clamp that held the front deraillieur to the seat tube had come loose, allowing the FD to slip around the tube, and in the lower two gears (smaller chainrings) the FD cage was contacting the next larger chainring. Funny thing, though, I had noticed no problems in the shifting of the FD! Bet that wouldn't happen with ratcheting shifters!
I have ratcheting shifters on my mountain bike (Trek 820), and they always seem to be out of adjustment. Every shift is an act of faith!
When I first had my LHT, I took it back for it's first tune-up at 200 miles. On my last couple of rides I had noticed a kind of grinding or scraping noise coming from the area of the bottom bracket, but it didn't seem to do it all the time. I obviously mentioned it to the LBS tech, as I thought something might be seriously wrong. The tech found that the clamp that held the front deraillieur to the seat tube had come loose, allowing the FD to slip around the tube, and in the lower two gears (smaller chainrings) the FD cage was contacting the next larger chainring. Funny thing, though, I had noticed no problems in the shifting of the FD! Bet that wouldn't happen with ratcheting shifters!
No system...friction, ratcheting or indexing...works well if they are out of adjustment. If your front derailer is loose enough slip on the tube and start grinding on the chainrings and you don't investigate to find out why, you have larger problems then whether indexing is better then friction or if bar-ends are better than STI.
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Stuart Black
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Stuart Black
Plan Epsilon Around Lake Michigan in the era of Covid
Old School…When It Wasn’t Ancient bikepacking
Gold Fever Three days of dirt in Colorado
Pokin' around the Poconos A cold ride around Lake Erie
Dinosaurs in Colorado A mountain bike guide to the Purgatory Canyon dinosaur trackway
Solo Without Pie. The search for pie in the Midwest.
Picking the Scablands. Washington and Oregon, 2005. Pie and spiders on the Columbia River!
01-18-08, 01:31 PM
#77
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I really did NOT like the bar-end shifters on my Trek 520 when I bought it in Oct. 2006. I considered them something to "endure" to enjoy the rest of the bike (and I really do enjoy riding this bike). The only advantage, I thought, was that I could trim the front derailleur rather easily.
However, I suffered a slight malfunction with the rear derailleur recently, and have been riding around the past two months using the friction shifting for the rear gears as well. Wouldn't you know, I'm shifting very easily that way and have developed the sort of "memory" that an earlier poster mentioned. I'm still going to go back to index shifting on the rear this spring, but it's a good reminder of the "emergency backup" feature.
Who knew?
Don't say it -- many of you on this forum knew :-)
However, I suffered a slight malfunction with the rear derailleur recently, and have been riding around the past two months using the friction shifting for the rear gears as well. Wouldn't you know, I'm shifting very easily that way and have developed the sort of "memory" that an earlier poster mentioned. I'm still going to go back to index shifting on the rear this spring, but it's a good reminder of the "emergency backup" feature.
Who knew?
Don't say it -- many of you on this forum knew :-)
01-18-08, 04:53 PM
#78
GATC
I have the tops of my dropbars level w/ the saddle, and I spend most of my time down on the drops (which is not tooooo far down) and it's pretty simple to move the levers up w/ my pinkies or down w/ the edge of my palms. I don't find them hard to use. I have had a horrible time w/ rapidfire trigger shifters so I am generally skeptical of front indexing, perhaps undeservedly but there it is... I do like 'ratcheting' twistgrip shifters.
