Bar end shifters …. Yay or nay?

Looking to rebuild an infrequently used MTB into a disc ready touring/road frame to put in some road miles.

I plann to use much of what I have; shifters, mechs, brakes (BB7s) etc.

I have some midge bars and suitable levers for the BB7s.

What I don’t have is shifters. It seems that the most economical route might be to go for bar end shifters, or use a flar bar and I don’t fancy a hybrid 😉

Having never used them I’m keen to get people’s thoughts.

Do they work with MTB mechs? SRAM/SRAM, Shimano/Shimano

If combined levers weren’t so flapping expensive I’d be tempted to try them and swap out the BB7 MTNs for some road ones ….. But they aren’t so I’m not! 🙂

Run 9 speed Dura ace bar end shifters with a SLX long cage mech without any issues.

cheers Chudsy. Out of interest what’s that on?

Its on a Surly LHT, its a bit of a hodgepodge drivetrain on it but it works and fits with what the bikes used for. Like the bar end shifters but I’ve never used road still levers. Brake levers that will work with your mtn bb7’s should be easy enough to find.

Cool, thanks.

I have a set of Tektro(?) levers that work well with the BB7s.

Some of the best shifters if you can get high quality ones. Had dura ace 9spds on my Roadrat for years, never gone wrong apart from when cable rusted into outer…may have been couple of years with same cable and no lube so will let that go. Even then, just changed it into friction mode when touring in middle of scotland and would still get mech across the cassette. Work with shimano mtb mechs front and rear – good because getting shifters for drop bars to work with mtb mech (for super low 22t front ring) can be impossible, leaving 26t smallest option.

I have a set of 8 ultegras on my tourer.

Great things, i don’t even bother with indexing them.

Wondering a similar thing for a monster-cross project. Currently 10spd SRAM but have a 9spd XT mech. Thinking of getting 10 spd Dura Ace bar end shifters. Just wondering how they work on mild off road?

I like them. Fitted to a cx to use gears with hlylex brakes but found the shifters to be really good. Pros and cons, but rarely need to shift in situs where they’re hard to get to. For 1×10 gearing its only a few clicks in one hit to get the gear I need.

clubby, you’ll need the new Microsoft 10s versions for MTB. First impressions of them are good.

So in general it being further to the gears doesn’t bother people

You need to be a wee bit more aware of potentially changing gear but it becomes second nature.

Clubby they are great offroad I’ve raced the same bike with stis and bar ends at the cairngorm adventure triathlon which has some mild offroad ridden pretty fast. I’d rather have the shifters seoerate from the break levers when things get lumpy.

I had them on a 1969 gazelle

I really liked them, just take a little getting used to

I quite like the look of “Retroshifters”

Sort of a hybrid thumbie/STi solution…