Originally Posted by
xB_Nutt
I personally prefer bar end shifters to "brifters", but I tend to be a little old school. I think it is easier to shift from the drops with bar end shifters and you can fine tune the front dérailleur much easier with the left friction shifter with the triple chainring up front. I contemplated going with integrated brake lever/shifters for this build, but cost and the front triple made me decide to use the bar end shifters.
This is probably OT, but I don't think you're just old-school. I've only been riding for a year (hence, not old school) but I'm seriously contemplating dumping the brifter for the FD in favor of a friction bar-end. Getting the tuning just right on it so it goes easily into all 3 rings *and* doesn't cross-chain except in the 2 most extreme combinations is pretty much impossible (on my frame, at least). So if I'm always trimming the damned thing anyway, and since indexing really doesn't add anything for switching between 3 gears...why the hell do I want a brifter for the front again?