Well I spoke to my LBS about them, and the guy disappeared out back. When he came back he had a pair of straight silver bar ends that looked pretty awful. Turned out they were second hand and he said I could have them to try them out for a while, if I liked them I could buy a nicer pair and if not I could just give them back.

After half an hour I was sold... so put in an order for some nicer ones I'd looked at a while back.

Thanks everyone for your thoughts... the new ones will look SOOOOO much nicer (for starters they are black and so match the rest of the bike...)