AnkleWork

Like eleven more years?

easyupbug 

Exactly, only tiny difference for me is I like the heavy cotton twine to be tightly wound and have found fishing line makes a better loop for pulling through than the line itself.

Andrew R Stewart 

It seemed that operator's comments were coming from someone who either was never shown how to best handle bar ends during shifting or had never used them. His opinion is so far removed from the many dozens of customers, friends and my experiences. Most have said that with their hand still on the handle bar (at the very end, just above the lever) They can both steady the steering during shifting and only use their fingers (not their arms) to move the shift lever. There're reasons that brifters took over the vast majority of the drop bar shift controls so quickly. less upper body movement to reach the shifters, hands on the widest portion of the bars for control being the two biggies. Bar end levers just provided much of these same advantages (compared to down tube placement) but for decades longer and long before indexing or brifters were common. It bothers me that so many are so quick to give strong opinions with so little back up or explanation of their experience. Opinions without context ring fairly hollow.

As to the tape wrapping question. Bottom up to center, casing exits the tape just below the brake lever bodies so that the angle of the casing leaving the bars is parallel to the angle that the casing needs to run along the top end of the down tube. A wrap of electrical (or in my case the base layer of cotton tape that is under the cork top layer) just at the point the casing leaves the bars helps to further keep the exit clean and tight. Wrapping bars is so simple yet it's an obvious indicator of the wrench's skill and motivation to do a good job (which is lacking to some degree often with some including those who earn their living turning tools on bikes). Andy

wschruba

Just because nobody else brought it up, a great way to START the wrap job is to capture a short length of the chosen wrap between the cable exit on the shifter and the bar. A complete wrap around fixes this in place without tape, adhesive, or a bar plug to hold it in place. If you do choose to route the housing for the shifter all the way up to the end of the bar wrap, you'll likely need a tandem cable or cable splitter to reach the rear derailleur.

Phil_gretz

Too bad you've come along so late. The bicycling world could've benefited from your wisdom 50 years ago, when these shifters were in use even in the pro peloton. Man... We're lucky that we've all survived.

I like bar end shifters, and I use them on more relaxed, touring-type bikes. They're nifty.

fietsbob

cut a taper on the end of the tape at the starting end and you may get less of a bulge,

bulge is no issue to me so I don't bother.. ...