Bah! Hrmm...I wonder if there's a bar-end or some similar thing to accommodate a larger gauge tube. I'm sure your (what sounds like ingenious) friend could figure out something, ya. I did not like the barcon Rohloff thing at all. It not only looks odd, but seeing the two cables coming out of it seems to me potentially awkward. There was a German company called Norwid (?) that made a steerer with a welded-on piece of tube jutting out of the side, and I think that was threadless, but if I remember correctly it was pricy.

That camera is wild!

Edit: Found it. At the bottom. http://www.norwid.de/komponenten.html