Originally Posted by mcavana
i know what kind of shifters your are talking about... the kind where part of the grip turns... kind of like a motorcyle grip turns to give the engine gas...
To put it frankly, those kinds of shifters suck. many people on this forum are not familiar with them because they are not popular on todays quality bikes. you are much more likely to find them on a Xmart bike (or a lower quality lbs bike). I highly recomend you try other kinds of shifters before buying grip shifters just because you are familiar with them. A bike a purchased new a few years ago (a low quality trek mountain bike) came with that kind of shifter... they simply suck IMHO... and would be a bad choice for a touring bike that you want to make as bulletproof as possible!
Disclosure:
this is just my opinion... If you disagree, go with your origional idea. I am just trying to be helpfull...
Mike
While I agree that there are many other shifter options better than grip-shift, I disagree with your statement regarding durability. The grip-shift works just like a standard bar end shifter, and has the same amount of moving parts, it is no less durable. In fact, it is less likely to be damaged as it is not exposed in a fall.