Originally Posted by
HillRider
Finally, are you sure you want to do this? I've had bar ends on three separate occasions and always found them inconvenient. As an alternative that lets you sweep the entire cassette and offers friction front shifting look at Gevenalle (gevenalle.com) shifters. These are dedicated brake levers that use the shift levers from downtube or barend shifters but put the shifters right on the brake levers. They are as convenient as STI's but more rugged and versatile. Since you plan to buy the shift levers and new brake levers anyway, the cost difference won't be that much. I now have these on four bikes and wouldn't go back to any other type.
Until earlier this year, would have concurred with this, but having built up a drop-bar MTB with Shimano 6480 shifters have found them to be easy to use coming from STI's and Ergo levers, have put in just under 900km on it in the lst 2 months, with a couple of long rides 170km & 280km, and have not missed the ability to shift instantly like you get with STI's, although it does make you plan a bit further ahead with your shifting,
For the brake levers, yes this is an additional cost, but this can be useful, currently I'm running mini-v's and got Tektro RL340's which are cheap, am considering getting full size v's later as clearance is very tight with fat slicks, and will probably go with Cane Creek v levers, with these being separate, it will be easier to fit, rather than using say a Travel Agent with the Tektro levers (have used Travel Agents int he past and didn't like them).
For the Gevenalle personally, these are the ugliest shifters I have ever seen, and have no intention of ever using/buying them, but that's each to their own!