Originally Posted by canklecat

My hands are always on the grips when shifting bar end shifters on my hybrid's albatross bar. The trick is to just use the base of the palm to push down, a hooked pinky to lift up. Works great, hands remain in position for handling and braking. The only time I shift my grip is for extreme lifts to get the front into the big ring on the triple, or rear to get into the 32T cog. I hardly ever get into the 50T big ring on the triple, and there are only a couple of hills where I'd need the 32T rear cog, since the front triple has a 30T small ring.

Also bar ends just look good on some bike/handlebar combinations, especially swoopy swept back bars. The only thing to watch for is knee clearance. Some folks with cut a bit off the ends of the swept back bars to offset the length of the bar end shifters. It's a tight squeeze on my Univega but the top tube is a bit longer relative to the frame size, and with a slightly longish wheelbase, so I haven't needed to trim the ends of my albatross bar. I might if I switched to narrower swept bars.

Thumb and trigger shifters are good. Had 'em, used 'em on other bikes. They still require shifting the hands a bit so we're rarely in the perfect position for shifting and braking without needing to move our hands. But I'm never in a situation when I'd routinely need to shift and brake quickly and often -- I don't race, don't ride singletrack or anything but fairly good gravel roads.

I would prefer brifters for fast group road bike rides but I'm accustomed enough to my downtube shifters that I can hold a line while shifting, no risk of making other folks nervous in a paceline. But just because we can do it doesn't make it ideal for that situation. I'd rather always have my hands on the bars.