Due to a shoulder problem, I have switched all of my road bikes to flat bars or moustache handlebars. On some bikes, I use down tube shifters, on some regular handlebar shifters, and on the moustache bars I usually use bar end shifters. Here is the deal. I would like to use bar end shifters on one of my flat bar bikes, but I do not know of a way to attach them. I can invision something like the crummy drawing I'm attaching. Hopefully, you will be able to get the drift of what I would like to do. I have asked several mechanics if there was such an adapter and no one has ever seen or heard of one. Surely, I can not be on the edge of a great invention. Have any of you ever seen such an adapter that I can just buy or am I going to have to fabricate something? Any thoughts would be appreciated. I realize you may be thinking it would be weird, but I really want to make this work. See the picture. Thanks.

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I have exactly that shifter setup on one of my bikes.
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I took a mtb bar end, sawed off the curved portion you'd normally grip, leaving just a stub. Then installed the barcon shifter into it.

The trick is, that mtb bar end grips are not intended to have things plug into their tubes; thus often times the inner diameter will not be big enough. best odds are if you select old steel bar ends (thin wall tubes), aluminum ones tend to have thick walls unless they're expensive...



-background info on my usage:
flat bar, with 4 bar ends: 2 sawed off facing rearwards to mount the barcon shifters, 2 ski ended ones facing forward with TT reverse brake levers on them. Essentially double-sided pursuit bars so they can mount shifters in addition to the usual brake levers.

Why don't you just use Mt. Bike thumb shifters. Easily available and will index road groups until the very newest bikes. Roger

Do you have a picture of your setup?

FWIW, one of the adaptations, in making a comfortable Under the seat steering recumbent,
steering setup is boring out the inside of a tube bar end , to insert a bar end shifter,
and have a reversed MTB, brake, cable coming down to also reach
from the comfort of having you hands down at your sides ,
in a lounge lawn chair with pedals.

Thanks for the reply. I would really appreciate seeing a few pictures of your setup. Is this possible? Also, I have not seen any steel bar ends (I'm assuming you are referring to the grips that bicyclist attach to the ends of their handlebars to get a power grip when climbing). If I have the wrong idea, please let me know. Thanks.

Thanks for the information. How much material did you have to remove from inside the the end of the handlebars? Do you think it is a safe setup given the thinner material?

What about removing material from the bar end shifters to make them fit the inside of a mountain bar grip? It would seem more difficult, but maybe safer in the long run. I have not looked at mine for a while, but I seem to remember that there could be some material removed and they would still work.

I've done this to fit bar-end shifters in thick-wall recumbent handlebars. I removed one wedge, thinned the other two, and turned down the diameter of the screw to fit inside. It worked, but it wasn't particularly pretty.

Steel bar ends are generally found on the cheapest bikes. Here's some:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Shorty-No-Be...-/260558447304
They're a lot easier to modify than making the bar-ends shifters fit in a thick aluminum extension.

-lightfoot
correct, by 'bar end' I am reffering to the handlebar extensions often put onto mtb flat bars to gain an additional hand position.
not to be confused with the shifter itself 'bar end shifter' aka 'barcon'(less ambiguous)
photos are difficult...

-willis
Actually, I purchased those exact same bar ends from that same seller for my 'prototype' attempt
conclusion; cheap bar ends are indeed steel, but have inconsistent tube quality -one side fit fine, the other had slightly thicker walls and needed to be reamed out
For final configuration I used nicer bar ends, which were steel by virtue of their manufacture age (very thin wall cro-mo); not modern cheap steel ones(hi-ten junk)



So, it is advised to use bar ends from the mid-eighties made of good quality steel for best results. Unfortunately the ebay market for such a thing is not well demmanded. nowadays the bar ends are aluminum, carbon, or ergonomic(not round tubes)

Alternately, at performance bikes I saw Forte' OS (oversized) bar ends, which are aluminum but are larger diameter; this will likely work but you will have to put up with the obtrusive clamp area (aluminum stuff tends to be fatter than steel)

True. I have a set of mid-'90's Onza bar-ends made from thin-wall steel. They would be perfect for this application.

I used Paul Thumbies when I converted my flat bar from a triple to a double and 9-speed to 10-speed. I went with Shimano 10 speed Dura Ace bar end shifters.

Here is a pic of my bike with the Paul Thumbies.


Then I went with moustache bars for more hand positions.