Its good to know that someone else likes this kind of settup. I also run half step on a couple of my bikes, and will keep this in mind. So far, I have it on my Centurion and my Team Fuji. Both bikes used for radicaly different things.

My go fast century bike, with the original Sprint front derailer. It is sort of a pain on the upshifts, but as I only use the inner ring on this bike for severe hills, injury, or total exhuastion. To get from the inner ring to the middle it really just takes a downhill with no pressure on the chain. I have had one guy make fun of the crank on a big group ride. At the first really big hill, I stayed in the seat, shifted into the 28tooth little ring and about the 28 cog in the back and spun right past him on his compact double crank. He has never made fun since.

The other bike has the suntours bar ends as well( I have them on about four bikes). I use it for light rackless touring. On this bike I am running a shimano Deer Head made for half step gearing.

Its perfect, can shift under a load, and as I am running a 11-28 six speed in the back I use it as it was intended, for the most part. The rear is a shimano light action I put a long cage on, it works well, though to be honest I am really only running it because it looks good on the bike.

My deal is that I spend very little on my bikes. Everything exept tires, cables, pads, and the like is salvage, yard sale deals, or just really cheap. That is actualy the fun for me.