Bar end vs. STI.....who cares?

[jimbeard]

     Bar ends are just plain relible which is what i look for on a tour's. I do not want to be stuck because of equipment failure.
               Jim

Jim

[Sailariel]

Litespeed, Bar end cables are cake to replace. Just put new cables on mine. Left the housings in place, shot some dry chain lube into the housings. Lubed the cable, and strung it through. Adjustment took a little time, but everything is on "go". Been riding bar ends a month now and just love them, Am giving serious thought to putting bar ends on the aero bars on my go fast machine.   Beat regards, Alex

[Sailariel]

I spend a lot of time at the local bike shop--since it is only a block away and the owner is a good friend. He contends that the greatest enemy of STI shifters is dirt--saying the grit causes premature wear. His solution is to give the shifters a blast of compressed air weekly. If you don`t have a compressor, canned air like you use to clean your computer keyboard works just as well. Also a dry chain lube applied to the pivots with a hyperdermic syringe helps keep things smooth. Alex

[professorsquire]

I'm a bit surprised that no one has talked about the advantages of
Campagnolo Ergo levers as an alternative to the STIs.  After a three-
week end-to-end tour in England, I replaced my Ultegra STI levers with
Campy Centaur levers (and a J-Tek ShiftMate to fix the velecity ratio).

The Campy levers are cheaper, rebuildable, and don't have the cable
sticking out the side to interfere with a handlebar bag.  The front
shifter is infinitely adjustable, which is important for those of us who
push our gearing to the limits of the advertised capacity and beyond.  
The rear shifter allows multiple upshifts as well as multiple downshifts.  
I will never buy Shimano levers again.

I have also used bar-end shifters.  They are certainly OK, but not as
convenient as "brifters".  For example, braking to a stop at the bottom
of a hill, the brifter lets you change down to a lower gear while
braking; the bar-con leaves you stuck in top.  I've actually had more
maintenance problems with the bar-cons than with the brifters.

This message was edited by professorsquire on 11-13-06 @ 1:28 PM

[Sailariel]

Thank you for the info on J-Tek Shift Mate. Looked it up on the net and found hearingoffice.com-do gives complete installation instructions--well illustrated. Harris Cyclery also has the conversion charts and parts list. When my 105 STI shifters fail-whether it is one or both, I will most certainly go with Campy. I hate disposable stuff- especially something as pricey as shifters. I rode a friend`s bike with Ergo Shifters andd loved them. My wife`s bike has Sora STI. Can they be adapted as well? I assume that 105 will adapt since you see lots of Ultegra and 105 mixes.

[mike_khad1]

I think the answer to this question depends on where on the drops you spend most of your time. The majority of my time is spend on the hoods when I'm in shifting situations - STI works fine. I spend very little time in the lower drop position - mainly when coasting down a hill and I don't usually need to shift much.



Work to Eat
Eat to Live
Live to Bike
Bike to Work

[Sailariel]

I spend most of my time on the hoods as well. My concern is mostly that STI, for the most part, are unrepairable. So, when they do fail--everything eventually wears out--I would like to replace them with something that can be serviced. In earlier discussions the J-Tek Shift Mate was brought up which allows the use of the Campy Ergo Shifters to be used with Shimano components. Campy components have replacement parts and are not "disposable" like Shimano. I`ll look around and see if I can find a set on sale and then get the J-Tek device which makes everything compatible. I like the bar ends on my commuter but much prefer STI or Campy on my performance machine.

[tofubicycle]

My Xtracycle is set up with barcons, but I have them intalled onto Paul Thumbies and use Northroad bars. My touring rig is currently set up with the Jones H-Bar (which is a type of flat bar) and Dura Ace downtube shifters mounted to Paul Thumbies installed, of course, on the bar. I prefer the barcons/downtube shifters for the primary reason other folks have stated - reliability and ease of adjustment and repair. I just thought I'd add my $0.02 since I don't use drop bars and thought this might be a slightly different perspective.

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i'd rather be biking.

[Sailariel]

Good insight. Love the bar-ends on my commuter/touring machine. They seem much more precise,especially when I get down into my "senior citizen" gears. They also are very intuitive. I do, however prefer STI type shifters on my performance machine.  Regards, Alex