I like the bar-end shifters as well. When I bought my LHT I was a little apprehensive about them - worried about easy they'd be to reach down there on the ends of the drops. It took about 2 minutes to get used to them there, and I liked them immediately. The rear (right) shifter works in an "indexed" mode - that is, it "clicks" from position to position. The front (left) shifter is a pure friction shifter. What I like is that, as you shift the rear derailleur you may get a little "clicking" as the chain angle changes and the chain hits the side of the front derailleur cage. However it's easy to just reach down and give a little "tweak" to the front derailleur to move it just a little and get rid of the clicking.