I just received 2 new EA50 bars from Jenson.



One has the nice deep cable grooves front and back, just like it's supposed to.

The other one has just a line, not even 1/2mm deep, where the grooves are supposed to be.

It pisses me off to go through the hassle of communicating with them (the last time took 8 days to get an answer) packaging up and returning and waiting, not to mention what additional expense they might try to stick me with.

Sooooo . . . how useful (necessary) are the cable grooves? All my previous bars have had them, so I have no way of comparing.

I'll be using road brake levers and bar end shifters on these bars.

Any chance that with proper friction tape I don't even need the grooves? Will the cables stay put without them? Or should I bite the bullet and visit hassle city again.