That looks like a nice setup. What bars and levers are those? It looks like either flipped and chopped drop bars or bull horns.

Do you have a side view? It is hard to see in that picture how much the bar turns up on the end.

I've never understood this. Having disassembled the Shimano bar-end shifters that were on an old bike, they don't seem to be terribly repairable. Neither do STI levers, but at least you know that every bike shop in the country has them in stock. Bar-end shifters? Nobody in my area stocks bar-end or DT shifters; even the Luddites are riding 9-speed STI these days :D

I'm not a fan of bar end shifters just because my back can't handle drop bars. I've been riding flat bars or trekking bars for the past decade. For me, grip shifters put the controls where I keep my hands anyway.

Last night I sat on a Kona Sutra just to check it out, and in a few seconds my back let me know that bar-end shifters are not for me. But putting something like the friction/indexed combination somewhere else on the bars looks appealing. How do these compare to the old Thumbies?

I once repaired a smashed seven speed trigger shifter on a mountain biking trip. Used some JB weld, a paper clip, carved bits from a plastic coffee can lid as shims. Used a leatherman and some kitchen drawer tools from the lodge we were at. The hardest part was various know it all's telling me it could not be done while looking over my shoulder. Rode it the rest of the week till I could put another on, it shifted fine.

So with bar ends, they may or may not be more or less repairable, but any blow(In my experience) that can disable one will probably leave you with other problems to deal with as well. I have a suntour bar end that has a bent lever, about five degrees in. Happened on a rear rack, the driver backed it into a tree. The shifter still works, but the bar had to be replaced.
Personally I don't use bar ends for any repairability or even durability crap. I just like them better than sti.

+1

AFAIK you can't buy parts most bar-ends - only replace the pair, and it is an order item, just like most everything else these days.

Some of the Luddites use Campy Ergo, which are repairable/rebuildable. You can order individual parts from diagram and rebuild them, although hardly anyone sells Campy parts in the USA, and when you order the price reflects this lack of competition. A single bar clamp assembly is $36 shipped, pretty expensive for a fancy hose clamp, but cheaper than a new L or R Shimano brifter, which is usually your only option if something breaks on STI. Due to pricing of Campy parts, at some point it's cheaper to order whole new Ergo shifters, and the best deals are in UK. Plus you have to deal with component compatibility.

http://branfordbike.com/product/11ca...lt-nut-514.htm

Perhaps a better option is Microshift brifters - QBP started distributing them in the past year. Why pay $95-130 for Shimano Ultegra bar-ends plus another $20-60 for brake levers ($105-190 total) when you can get Shimano 9s compatible brifters for $106-120? Nashbar and Performance also sell a rebranded version of Microshift brifters for $115-160.

http://www.aebike.com/Shimano-Dura-A...s_p_18798.html

http://www.aebike.com/MicroShift-Dua...h_p_64458.html

https://www.nashbar.com/bikes/Produc...08_-1___202436

I've read that bar-end shifters are preferable for tours because you only need a screwdriver to fix them, they clear up the cockpit, and work flawlessly for as long as the bike as some previous posters have stressed.

You believe everything you read?

Yes. At least until I think about something I read and realize it doesn't make sense.

Well Park Tool shows that you don't need just a screwdriver, but depending on the model, this may be true. The model shown on the Park Tool website uses an allen screw instead of a normal screw.

The bars are Syntace Stratos Zero bullhorns and the levers are Tektro RL720. I know these are usually used on the tops as in-line/interrupter levers, but they work well with cantilever and mini-V brakes when run pretty much backwards- with the levers pulling the cable instead of pushing against the housing. Having the barrel adjusters on the levers is nice to dial in the sensitivity and wheel clearance. The bar-end shifters are Shimano Ultegra 8-Speed.

http://imageshack.us/a/img819/3563/p1040510x.jpg

What do you plan to do after you disassemble the shifter? Replace broken parts with chewing gum and a hair pin?

Are you being serious? You can get a more satisfyingly pointless argumentative experience over in A and S on the helmet thread.
Easy disassembly makes cleaning easier for one thing. The point is not really field service, though I have fished about three frayed or broken cables out of a STI shifter on the side of the road, something that preventative maintenance should have taken care of. That's not why I don't use it myself, but its not really a selling point for me. (My big turnoff is the feel and the sound of other riders untrimmed or misadjusted chains grinding for hours on long rides).

Thank goodness that they do make many shifting options for many different riding styles, goals, budgets, whatever.

Some of the reasons given here for or against any particular shifter are pretty good, from manufactures costs to reliability, to personal ergonomic tastes. Even the reasons that I find silly, for or against, are just my opinions and no doubt held dearly by those that gave them(though if a bar con shift makes you wobble you are probably doing it wrong or something is horribly wrong with your bike).

Why Not? OK preferences exist. You Pick, your own, and cope with the consequences of that choice
down the road.

Good Luck :innocent:

Hi from the new guy (new to the forum, not to biking).

I never looked at bar end shifters as being field repairable, necessarily, the advantage is being able to switch over to friction mode until adjustments (or repairs) can be made in the event of a mishap.

Unfortunately, that little fact seems to be lost on the engineers at Shimano who are "designing out" that feature by making their rear shifters index only. Makes you wonder if they actually use what they design...

the tendency is to think of racing as the showplace , they keep adding speeds to sell to the racer types ..

that 10th cog , and they I suppose, dropped the friction option..

The placement in mind is the front of aero Bars , the big niche; Triathlons and Time Trial race stages.

9 seems plenty for someone with decades of touring with a 6 or 7 speed freewheel.

I've heard a few times (on this forum) that the rumors of an index only bar end shifter from Shimano are greatly exaggerated. I still haven't used one myself though.

It is nice to have a friction mode, but in my opinion it is far from a necessity. Indexed shifting has become pretty trouble free and requires very little maintenance or adjustment.

I bought my bar end shifters, new, when the most speeds you could get were 8, I've used them for a long time.
The psychology of previous investment in them has long since worn off and the reality of living with them has long since set in.

My wife's Tri bike has no friction mode on the rear shifter.

The thing about bar ends is that you can simply switch them to friction and keep on going. I've had mine apart and they aren't complicated. No matter what happens to them, it would be easy to use them as a friction type shifter so you can continue on your merry way. That is the reason so many advocate their use.

Road transmission and MTB transmission are getting a messy divorce and shifters for one may or may not work with the mech or cogs of the other, esp the front mech. If you want to use the low gears of an MTB triple with drop bars, you have to get a Tiagra road triple shifter. It works down to about 24T but it isn't an MTB mech.

MTB and road brakes have different cable pulls. Cantilever, V brakes and discs barely work with integrated road levers. Long pull road levers are only available in non-integrated style.

Only higher-end components have the build quality for long term durability but they have the specs for racing, not touring, eg high cog counts, thin chains and cogs. As these systems trickle down, the tourist has no sensible options below 10 speed.

Friction over-ride permits you to get the system working with a bent hanger or a rear mech that was not designed for your system.

All of these factors mean that if you prefer drop bars to flats bars, then STI is becoming increasingly non-viable and we revert to bar-ends.

It is much easier to get the brakes and transmission working well using flat bar components, hence the increasing popularity of butterfly/trekking bars on euro touring bikes.

With my 9 speed Tiagra setup, I carry a backup friction DT lever to get me out of trouble.

Awe shucks, you had to throw in the butterfly handlebars! Now everythings a mess. I don't think that my neck would take too much of being tucked down using aero bars or in the drops-even though that would certainly be the preferred position. I got rid of my Centurian a few years back because riding here in Winnipeg on these crap roads just beat the boys up all the time. So much to think about and test out. I think a Trek 520 with butterfly handle bars, mountain bike shifters, and disc brakes....nope! that won't work either, can't put discs on the 520. Got a Trekkie Tech around to weigh in? Maybe I'm just complicating things here. Thank you all for your replies. I'm no closer to figuring it out, but there has definitely been value to alot of your replies and I appreciate them.

For me its a physical thing, have carpal tunnel, I can't squeeze the brake in the STI position, hand just won't work that way anymore. See set up I have works great for me.




http://bikeforums.net/attachment.php...hmentid=322260

If it's on the Internet, of course! :thumb:

EIGHT SPEEDS? YOU HAVE EIGHT SPEEDS?.... hangs his head in shame as he mounts his ancient bike with a 6 speed rear cluster.... :cry::roflmao2:

I don't even claim to understand the rush to add more cogs to the rear of a bike, I have ridden 3 speeds for so long that a bike with 8 speeds is a luxury. FWIW my first transcontinental tour in 1977 was on a 10 speed, I did swap out the front chain rings to drop the overall gearing a bit. Sucked going across Kansas with a tailwind though, I was spinning out at 22mph.

Aaron :)