I've never used bar end shifters, but I do occasionally bump my legs into my bar ends on my road bike while out of the saddle during very low speed tight maneuvers like weaving through cars. I imagine, once I get off road this would happen even more often. So I think I'll stick with the thumb shifters.
Since I'm replacing the brake lines, and the stock lines look like this...
..., I'm wanting to buy a new "straddle cable carrier". I've read Sheldon Brown's page on cantilever brake geometry and although the kinematics don't make sense to me, his numbers indicate that using something like this:
to spread out the yoke angle will increase braking power.
Any experience or thought with a wider straddle setup like this? I don't like the awkward adjustment setup on the stock piece, if nothing else I want to get rid of it just because an aftermarket part looks easier to adjust/equalize.