Mark:

The whole crux of my question was if there was a consensus that bar-con shifting would be easier, on me and the bike, than STI. I love STI shifting on my solo bikes. I'm happy with Shimano. I've never had STI fail me at any time. The whole STI repairability/serviceability/durability has been a big non-issue for me.

I've got this brand-new Rivazza with 60 miles on it and I'm wondering if it would be worth-while to remove the STI and install bar-con shifting. Shifting with bar-cons on my retro Woodrup seems to be much easier, able to be used without much thought and effort, so the notion of putting a similar system on the tandem sort of appeals to me. A side benefit would be that I would have extra STI equipment laying around doing nothing, so I would have to buy another frameset to build up so this expensive gear doesn't go to waste!

We're going to our first tandem event this weekend, and I it will give me an opportunity to talk to and observe other teams. There is no such thing as too much knowledge.