Thanks to you and af895 for the response. As af stated in his reply, there is a copper wire and braided shield in each wire so you are correct it looks like a potential of six connectors ( 2 to each shifter and 2 to the pickup sensor). Seems like a lot of opportunity for shorts, bad connections, weather issues and lost data.

I think I may go with your suggestion of leaving enough slack in the wires to accomodate dismantling the handlebars. The issue then may be what to do with the "extra" lengths of wire needed for this accomodation. The wire on my two bikes is wrapped under the handlebar tape. It would be a hassle to rewrap the tape everytime.

Will have to wait until I have the two in hand to see what might work best.

Thanks to you two for your ideas.