Bar end shifters on touring bikes

Several of the bikes on my short-list for a tourer(Surly LHT, Kona Sutra, etc) have bar-end shifters, and this is putting me off them somewhat – yet another system to get used to, not indexed and not in the ‘natural’ place for your hands, like on the hoods.

What are your experiences of ’em?

They are indexed

They have no fiddly breakable bits

Very bodgable

Brilliant for touring !

The rear is indexed – the front isn’t, but you can see what that’s doing and it means you can fine-tune it. Advantages are they’re light, simple, and you can change lots of gears quickly. They’re also not that far away from your hands really.

I use them a lot on recumbents – fantastic things.

Came on my LHT, like you i was unsure at first however, first ride on them they were totally intuitive! Ok so you cant shift while honking up a hill like you can with brifters, but if your touring then youll be sat down spinning. If you ride with you hands on the hoods or just behind on the bend them its really easy to just drop your hand down, no bending or stooping required like downtube shifters, simply bend the arm at the elbow is enough. I switched mine out in the end as i wanted to try some Kelly-take-offs instead, id be happy to go back tho on a touring bike.

I use them on my tandems and tourer. As above, the rear is indexed, the front isn’t though the rear can also be run as friction too which can help if conditions dictate. They are light and simple which is perfect for long distance tours. You can see what gear you’re in and can jump the whole cassette in a single sweep. Position wise, no issue but just mind you don’t poke yourself in the thigh – I did this in a crash.

Downsides, they are a bit exposed to damage when in transit but I slip a bit of plastic pipe over bar ends when flying etc to avoid this.

Right, the indexing is good news…stupid question but I presume that a non-indexed front will still have high/low stops on it? So I can’t go from the middle ring straight past the granny?

Getting very close to buying the LHT now…but might hold out for the Disc Trucker which will be available in the spring…

Yup, stops are controlled by the mech, not the shifter.

Bar end shifters are ace. Ultra reliable, light, positive-feeling, with the right mix of indexing and trim. They fall to hand better than you might think, though clearly not as well as STIs, but on a tourer you’re less likely to be overly bothered by being in a particular gear or having to change quickly.

The one thing I don’t like about them is the cable routing – I couldn’t bear to have mine coming out through the tape so routed mine under the tape all the way up the bar. Which just felt wrong for a bit, but isn’t so bad that you couldn’t put up with it.

They’d certainly be (indeed, were) my choice of shifter for a dedicated tourer and I think most would agree, which is why a lot of tourers come with them.

The stops are on the mech not the shifter so yes you can set the limits to your chainset

When I build bikes with them, I always run the cables all the way up under the tape – with good cables, the extra bends don’t matter much, it’s neater and less likely to snag on things.

“with good cables, the extra bends don’t matter much, it’s neater and less likely to snag on things.“

Aye. FWIW, I only ever use cheap cables and the shifting performance was absolutely fine. You just have to give a bit of thought to routing them in the way that’s going to be the most comfortable when you’re in the drops.

Just put some on my cx bike (Dura-ace 9 speed from CRC, cheap!) mainly because I was pretty horrified at the price of STI’s and my Campags need repaired – very impressed at the positive shifting and really like the friction option for when the indexing goes slightly off.

The stops are on the mech not the shifter so yes you can set the limits to your chainset

Yes, of course, I knew this! I’m blaming my manflu for the lack of clear thinking 😳

Lots of the guys I rode with and met on this summers transam had them. The one issue you may need to watch is that should your bike fall and catch the shifter it can either break of damage an internal washer which knackers them. It happened to a guy we rode with. Bit of a pain with couple of hundred miles to the nearest bike shop.

The Dura Ace shifters are stronger but a fair bit pricier, still way cheaper than Stis.

The one issue you may need to watch is that should your bike fall and catch the shifter it can either break of damage an internal washer which knackers them. It happened to a guy we rode with. Bit of a pain with couple of hundred miles to the nearest bike shop.

The main failure seems to be the plastic surround, if it cracks you essentially lose your indexing (still there but goes out of sync) leaving you with only friction. Happened to mine when i was on a tour, made little difference, just some slightly noisy shifts occasionally.

I loved mine when I had my touring bike.

The friction shift option is fantastic.

The only downside I found was that my knees would sometimes knock them when out of the saddle.