Originally Posted by
dddd
The bar-end shifters required a lot of force to operate and the shifting response was vague with huge hysteresis losses between lever and derailer.
There is a trick to getting vintage cables to run nicely, and bar ends make this difficult. The trick is to not have S-curves in any outer-cable section. With simple curves all the clearance between the inner and outer is taken up as soon as there is tension, but with S-curves tension gradually takes it up. In a sense it is trying to straighten-out the outer; the degree to which it does so varies with tension - giving that mushy-feel. Unfortunately with bar ends the only way to not have S-curves is to have the cable exit the bar wrap much lower down, just as the lowest section starts to rise - and this never looks as tidy as the wrong way.