frogman

I am thinking about trying Pauls Thumbies with Shimano 9 speed Bar End shifters. Anyone use this combo, how well does it work? Thought I would ask on BF before plunking down the money

aggiegrads

I have used them, and the combo does work well. I prefer the aesthetics of them mounted traditionally, but the inverted “Rivendell method” feels better to my hands.

if you choose the riv method, make sure that you have the correct ones mounted and play with the position enough to get it right before you cable them.

easyupbug 

My son-in-law has a set and loves them on his commuter. I tried them and they worked with his 6500 groupset perfectly but with arthritis in my thumps they were not for me.

HillRider

Be aware that Shimano barend (and downtube) rear shifters are very high effort and take a lot of force to make a shift. I fitted a pair of SL-BS790 levers on Gevenalle brake/shift levers and soon replaced the rear shifter with a Microshift equivalent which is much easier to operate and just as reliable. The front friction Shimano lever is fine.

frogman

Thanks for the info hillrider. I have been reading reviews on the Shimano and Microshift bar end shifters. The reviewers say the Microshifts are easier to shift as you said. Reviews on both shifters say they miss shift, etc after a year or so. They blame the shifter designs. I don't take much stock in the reviews just like other shifters, the cables/housings need to be checked and replaced once in a while, not neccessarily the shifters fault.

squirtdad

interesting..... I did not have this experience with 9 spd durace barend shifters with an ultegra 9 speed triple set up. Setup was super easy, I just found I did not llike bar end shifters. ymmv

canklecat

I considered the Paul thumby adapters for my Shimano bar-end shifters a couplafew years ago but arthritic thumbs forced me to reconsider. I was already having some difficulty with my existing Shimano Exage thumb shifters before they wore out and broke. I tried a couple other thumb shifters and decided my thumbs wouldn't cooperate.

So I switched to bar end shifters on a swept bar. Plenty of leverage from using the base of the palm to push down and a pinky to pull up. No problems.

Only problem with bar end shifters is thigh/knee clearance on slow tight turns, or knocking the shifters with my knees when standing to pedal. Wide albatross bars on my hybrid solved that problem. Slow turns are still a bit tricky but I could cut an inch off the ends of the swept bars to fix that if it bothered me enough.

HillRider

I've used both 8-speed and 10-speed Shimano barends (and liked neither) and had no problem with the high lever effort when mounted there. However, Gevenalle brifters position the levers similarly to thumb shifters and you can't comfortably use as much force to shift them. So, the Microshift shifters were a big improvement.

Note to frogman: I have well over 25,000 miles on each of two sets of Microshift 10-speed levers and they are still shifting accurately and solidly. Never any problems with them.

djb

the 9 spd microshift levers on my gevenalle are working the same as when bought 4 or so years ago. Not as much mileage as Hillrider, but a reasonable amount.
They still however need that usual slight finesse with each upshift, but thats ok.

blakcloud

I have the 9 speed Dura Ace on Paul Thumbies and have used this combination for years. With that said I agree they are a little stiff to shift but they work just fine. The beauty of the 9 speed and under, they can always be set back to friction if that is what you desire or need.

frogman

Thanks for the feedback everyone. I am torn between the Microshift units or Shimano. I think I need to try the Shimano's hopefully at one of the bike shops in our area to see how "stiff" they feel to me. If money was no object I would buy both and try them.

djb

I've ridden a friends older trek 520 with 9 speed shimano and the lever action on that era of them was perfectly fine for me, and I'm not a big guy.
I think you're doing the right thing to try some out.

pdlamb

I've got Shimano 9-speed bar ends; original was from 2008, its replacement (after gorilla baggage mis-handler incident) is probably ca. 2015. I've never had problems with lever stiffness on either front or rear.

I got a test ride on a new bike just before the Covid shutdown last winter with Microshift bar end levers. Nice bike, but subjectively it took at least twice the effort to shift as my bike with Shimano levers.

So YMMV.

djb

I don't know if bar end microshifts are the same as those on my Gevenalle shifters, but mine have a central bolt that changes shifting stiffness....I don't think barends have this function?