This morning I spent some time pulling the bar end shifters off, along with the cable stops, in preparation for mounting the L422 Light Action shifters from last year’s donor bike. Alas, I’m not clever enough to get them off the stem shifter mount - or maybe they’re not meant to come off.
I sat and drank coffee on the back deck with my wife and unbidden came the solution. I re-installed the bar ends and cable stops, grabbed the last gear cable from last year’s swap that netted me the donor bike + cables and housing and dug around in the bin of housings. There was a short length of Campagnolo shifter housing. I cut two pieces long enough to run from bar end to the base of the brake lever and ran cables through those and the too-short housings, butting them together and taping the lot in line on the bars.
Then I did the same on the other side and wrapped it all up in the blue tape that came with the bike.
So now I need to swap out the rear axle (too short!) for the rear axle on my son’s bike (too long!), fit tires and chain and pedals and it’ll be time to start riding!