John E

You beat me to it!

I originally built the UO-8 from a bare frame -- I worked at a Peugeot-Nishiki dealership at the time -- for my wife, who want stemed shifters and UO-18 upright bars, which are similar to MTB bars. When she decided she preferred riding trails over streets, because of traffic intimidation, I built her a mountain bike and repurposed the UO-8 as my commuter and shopping beater. With its disproportionately long top tube and a downtube-mounted cable stop already bolted in place, drop bars and SunTour ratchet barcons were a natural choice, and they have worked superbly. My other road bikes all have downtube shifters, and I do not understand the comments about barcons being just as destabilizing or "inconvenient." In contrast, I find that the barcons give me fast access to gear changes, while maintaining two-hand control on the bars. Yes, the response is a bit slower than with DT levers, but it is not bad, so consider me a big fan of barcons. I bring the cables straight out in front, at the base of the bar bend.