Originally Posted by
downtuber
the typical bare metal tubular bar ends that you see everywhere are fairly useless.
there's a few reasons for that. one because they are bare and offer no cushion, they feel too hard. two because they are too thin to hold onto very comfortably, unless you have child size hands. and because they are bare metal they offer no grip which means they are slippery which is not a good thing when your hands are sweaty. so they have a very poor grip.
You can put grips on barends. I find I like being on the barends more than on the flats for long rides, so I put my controls on the barends. This is a pic of early fitment stage. I now have an interior pair of barends also, but not for my hands, rather to lash my sleeping bag to for dirt road touring rides.
Controls on the barends by
Lester Of Puppets, on Flickr
A-Ha, found a pic of bike in touring trim:
P5170149 by
Lester Of Puppets, on Flickr