Can anyone see the image?

I have done a similar conversion of an old Ti hard tail. As a temporary measure I used bar-end shifters. I liked them so much that I kept them and sent back the SRAM Rival ones I had bought. I use Trp cable brakes. You can get bar end shifters for just about any mech from Microshift.

Bar end shifter are fantastic. My gravel bike is shod with them sacking the ultegra 11spd I planned to ship across from my road bike.

This is kind of where I am at the moment. After a year on a cobbled together monstercross using old bits (2×9 Sora/XT, old Cannondale bars, 2nd hand 650b wheels crowbarred into a 26″ Kona frame), I like it enough that I’ve now accumulated the next 1×11 set-up (including a Microshift bar end shifter) ready for a post-winter rebuild (blog posts).

I appreciate the positive feedback on barends. Almost all other feedback I read about them is they are an OK compromise.
Can they be made to work, indexed, on a 3×10?

@rocketdog

That’s a grand looking rig

I notice you’ve gone for a thumb shifter. How do you find that?

I notice you’ve gone for a thumb shifter. How do you find that?

@gs_triumph original was a friction thumbshifter but it was awful especially for quick shifts off road as I had to take my hands of the hoods to shift. Cable brakes couldn’t cope with the inertia of the big tyres. Switching to hydraulic brifters was a night and day difference

@rocketdog

My plan is to set everything up with the old tiagra levers and promax brakes. Check it rides ok. Then if all is running well I will switch out the shifters for some hydros. I already have the calipers after all.

With bar ends, unless mechanical discs turn out to be better than I remember, then I’d need to get hydraulic levers at some point anyway.

OK, wee update.

New shimano brake and gears cable sets
Old promax cable calipers
New Ritchey beacon bars
Old tiara 4700 brake levers
New microshift bar end leavers
Existing SLX/XT drive train

So far I have the bars and shifter on the bike.

Despite fretting about whether the gear cables would.fit with the shifters havkg moved to the end of the bars, what didn’t occur to me was that the brake cables would so bloody short … Doh! …New cables ordered.

Progress report…

Done!

In the end I went with the tiagra derailleur and an 11-32 cassette I had. I got some tiagra 4720 hydro levers off ebay so have retained hydraulic brakes… delighted. Bar end shifter for the FD retaining the triple crankset. Ritchey beacon bar and a Brooks cambium saddle I picked up off Facebook marketplace to finish it off.

Only had a wee spin around the garden but pretty happy overall.

Brakes need a wee bit of fettling before I take it any further. I always struggle to get hydraulic brakes well set up. They’ll probably get looked at by LBS.

Still waiting for carbon fork to arrive but no even sure if I want it now.