Wibaux

I am installing some new Dura Ace bar end shifters to my touring bike and am having a little bit of trouble. They are installed into the drop bars and ready to go, but for some reason they seem to be reversed.

When I shift to a larger cog on my rear derailleur I am pushing my bar end shifter downward. Shouldn't I be pulling it up? On my front derailleur when I shift to a larger cog I am pulling it up.

Also, on my rear derailleur it isn't allowing me to go to my highest cog.

TurbineBlade

Do you have a picture? Some derailleurs move as you describe yours - by pulling the cable tighter the derailleur shifts to larger cogs instead of the other way.....they call it "rapid rise" or "low normal". Some people prefer it, some don't. It's fine like that if you don't mind.

If you can't reach your highest cog (smallest or largest?) you need to either adjust your rear derailleur, or if it was shifting fine before you installed your bar ends, you probably have excess friction on your shift cables for some reason....again, a picture helps here.

desertdork

If your rear dérailleur is a Shimano "rapid rise" or "low normal" dérailleur, what you're experiencing is normal.

Edit: check your high limit screw

Wibaux

Thanks for the help. Hopefully this picture helps as well.

Will I have to adjust differently now? Because I thought I should have adjusted my low gear screw to get my chain to my highest cog? What about the barrel adjuster, will that be different too?

LarDasse74

Limit screws on low-normal derailleurs work exactly the same as they do on traditional high-normal derailleurs.

Cable tension on low-normal derailleurs work exactly opposite to traditional high-normal derailleurs. Too much cable tension and the chain will tend to go too far toward the next smallest cog; too little it will either not shift from the largest cog in one click or, when not in the largest cog, rub on the next larger cog while pedaling.

Jeff Wills

You have a "low normal" derailleur. The "default" cog is the largest, i.e. the lowest gear. What you describe in your original posting is what I'd expect from your parts.

TurbineBlade

https://www.parktool.com/repair/readhowto.asp?id=64

Basically you have to set the low and high set-screws, to tell the derailleur how far it moves at the end of the largest cog, and the end of the smallest cog. Sometimes when you can't reach a cog it's because the set screws are stopping the derailleur before it can get there.

The barrel adjuster (or rear indexing adjuster) adjusts the tension on the shift cable, which has to be set to a specific tension to tell the derailleur how much to move to hit each gear when you *click the shifter (indexed shifting). If your shifters don't have clicks and just move linearly back and forth, you don't have to adjust the barrel adjuster too much since YOU are telling the derailleur(friction shifting) how much to move.....you probably don't have this system, it's old school.

Hopefully the article helps.