What do you think about bar end shifters? Do you use them on your strict C&V builds?
I've been thinking about how to make my 1978 Team Pro more rideable. One issue I have with the downtube shifters (Simplex retrofrictions) is that I am not coordinated enough to shift when riding out of the saddle. So if I'm, say, pushing hard on a hill and the grade eases so that I want a bigger gear, I have to sit down, shift, and get up again. I've gotten used to simply shifting while staying up, using brifters and Gevenalle shifters.
I do recall from prior bikes with bar ends that sometimes my knee hit them when sprinting or climbing out of the saddle. I don't know if those bikes were perhaps poorly sized for me.
So, the book on the Ti-Raleigh teams shows a few team bikes with bar ends, in races. Apparently a few of the team riders used them, back in 1976-1980, and thus I could try bar ends without losing the "correctness" that is important for this particular bike in the fleet.
I have a suitable set of bar end shifters and some CLB alloy housing that I could install. One thing I wonder is if Benotto tape works well when wrapped over housing. The other is if I should try to adapt the retrofrictions for bar end use, and how.
Comments?
I'm a tall guy and generally ride a 25" frame. I find it's way too long of a reach to downtube shifters and my two drop bar bikes now have Suntour Barcon friction shifters (picked them up hear and there, you can still find them on ebay). The Barcons go back a long ways, long before either of my drop bar bikes were built (1983, 1994). I also cheated a bit on the freewheels and use ramped freewheels (the kind used with indexed shifting) to help the shifting performance.