Why bar end shifters ? - Page 2

well i went out and bought a fuji with sti shiftetrs i have gone 500 miles with it and the shifting is not always good into the big ring on the front. I have to keep the cable banjo tight. Also shift into the small ring on the rear helps the front to jump up on the big ring. Also with sti shifters you cant have abag on the handle bar. I still wounld trade because i stay in mn so repair is not an issue

I am using Dura-ace 9spd STI on my touring tandem which has done over 13,000kms with no problems. I do carry a bar-end lever in my tool bag just in case.
You can use a H/B bag with STI by using rollermajigs where the cable comes out of the brifter. I have an ortleib medium that has done several tours

I have a set of Dura Ace 10 speed bar end shifters on the bike - they work great.

Riding road bikes since 1970, you can imagine that I've had every kind of shifter, including barends, downtubes, mounted on the handlebar stem... you name it. Also both integrated Shimano and Campy. I've also moved back and forth between different types. Personally, I find that everything else, including barend shifters, feels a little odd and inconvenient after using brifters for a while. It's hard to go back. I could if I really had to, but I don't think I would deliberately make that choice at this point. My full touring bike has the downtube shifters it originally came with in the mid-80's (Suntour ratcheting levers), and I actually prefer that over bar end shifters.

In my opinion, as I've said before, bar end shifters we're always a more complex setup because of the extra cables coming off the handlebars. So, we weren't talking about simplicity, like that of downtube shifters. The only real advantage was that of being able to shift without taking your hands off the handlebars... which is useful sometimes when riding a fully loaded touring bike. But modern brifters take care of that requirement.

For anyone with abrs that end up pointing upwards (eg. Under Seat Steering Recumbents) they're the bees knees.
Forefinger & thumb for the gears, 3 fingers left for the brakes!

We seem to be going round in circles here.

Can we agree that high-end "brifters" (hate that term) are pretty reliable, except when they break, but that for ultimate simplicity and reliability, bar-ends or downtube shifters win the day and the best compromise between reliability and ease-of-use are bar-ends?

Having used all three, and using both integrated and bar-ends today, I'd choose the latter for a long ... and especially a remote tour.

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NO I don't agree.

Bar ends all the way.

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