Originally Posted by noimagination

In the spring of '95, my T700 was $800 (Narragansett Bikes - they're still around, though in a new location, and haven't dealt in Cannondales in probably 15 years or more). It had (still has - lives in my basement as my back-up bike) bar-end shifters, as you note. Originally, the front shifter was set up friction, and the rear was index. Eventually, I just went friction for both, especially when I switched from the original 7sp cassette (with spacer) to an 8sp cassette. It would have been funny to watch me try to install the first 8sp cassette, since I wasn't aware of the spacer on the hub body (hey, I'm not a bike mechanic, I only ever worked on my own bikes). Eventually my LBS pointed out the spacer (and kindly didn't laugh at me). I'm not sure why the bike had a 7sp cassette on a hub body that accommodated an 8sp. I didn't miss the extra gear, I only went to the 8sp when the 7sp became more difficult to find and when the 8sp was the practically same price as the 7sp anyway...

As I recall, brifters were not yet offered in '95 - I think that the R, ummm, R300? R400? still had downtube shifters, though indexed - which seemed to me to be odd and newfangled at the time.