Bar end shifters, on road bikes? opinions please

[Wold Ranger]

I am about to embark on another long term refurb, a nice early 70's if not late 60's Falcon.
Sadly I am of an age that I well remember watching these being raced at Pro and Amateur level, road and Grass track and have been researching componentry from original photo's of the era.
There was actually some nice pics from the '65 Tdf in the CW recently and it's made me remember how many racers actually used bar end shifters, not down tube, about 75 percent looking at many pictures of the era.
I remember now all my well healed pals of the time, having bar end shifters on their racing steeds.
We tend to always go with Down tube shifters with retro builds, but it would appear these were the minority of that period. Wadya reckon folks?

 

[Midlife]

It really was personal preference, tourists used bar end shifters as did some TT and road bods. I personally didn't like them as they made the bike look cluttered at the front end.

I rode grass track and did it fixed

What Falcon is it?

Shaun

 

[Apple Tree]

My Frank Lipscombe race bike for time trials and road races from the mid 1960s had Campag bar end levers. I bought it second hand at a year old and never changed them as I could not afford to do so. I never liked them much as I found them difficult to use and the cables were mainly exposed and did not look very good in my opinion.
About 18 months ago I built up a 1968 Condor with Campag bar ends and quite like them now. I think my problem in the past was that I did not know how to set them up properly. However I have covered the cables in under the bar tape Ergo lever style and they look much better.
I would like to use Campag bar ends on other builds but availability and high prices make this difficult.

 

[Robbied196]

Re:

I often ride two different bikes one Campagnolo Nuovo Record with down tube shifters and the other with Simplex Super LJ and Simplex bar end shifters. Personally, I find the Simplex smoother and more positive shifting with hardly ever any need to trim. If they are set up right its easy to shift with your little finger, they get my vote

 

[Wold Ranger]

Re:

Frame is one of the early Ernie Clements frames, has some nice minty chromed forks on it, not sure on date, but it's reasonably early, as no bottle cages or shifter bosses, rear stays are pencil slim and it is pretty light, nice ping to the tubes when you flick them. Needs a re enamel- and I've always been pleased with Woodrups' work, so was looking to them doing the repaint/chrome work. (If I can bide the long wait)
I won't be going Campag on the parts, everyone does that and it's not an Italian bike! Probably Suntour drivetrain as it's lighter and good/NOS stuff is reasonable to buy and it's much lighter.
Apparently the DiaCompe bar end ratchet shifters are supposed to be very good to use.
Had a similar bike in my Youth and it rode really well.

 

[Cefnbikie]

I have used bar end shifters for many years, on bikes used for time trialling and road racing, and for general riding and touring. From time to time I have tried down tube shifters, but always reverted back to bar ends. Interestingly, I have a 1966 photo of myself on my Harrison showing a down tube shifter for the rear mech, and a bar end for the front mech! I cannot remember why, but I do remember seeing other riders using this set up at the time. By the late 60s I was using bar ends to control front and rear mechs.

From the 60s/70s I used to tape the bar end control cable to the handle bar up to the brake levers, but from the mid 90s onwards used to take the cables to the top of the bars similar to Apple Tree. With the cable taped to the top of the bars I did find the gear change was less precise, until I fitted Shimano SIS outer cable. This made the gear change much smoother and more precise. This was important as I had started using a 6-speed Sachs Maillard block, with the narrow spacing between sprockets, and the gear change had to be more precise than when I was using standard 5-speed Regina blocks.

When I rebuild my Harrison (progress has been delayed by other distractions), and later my Condor, they will have a mixture of component makes, as that is the way my road bikes were always equipped. At one time I had Campag bar ends, with Shimano rear mech and Huret front mech. So a mix of components on the Ernie Clements would not be out of place – a lot of riders had bikes equipped like that in the 60s and 70s.

 

[Wold Ranger]

Re:

Thanks for that surfing a lot of old pictures of the TDF and various other Pro-Tour races, certainly bar end shifters looked to be in the vast majority. All interesting eh?

 

[mattr]

With the cable taped to the top of the bars I did find the gear change was less precise, until I fitted Shimano SIS outer cable. This made the gear change much smoother and more precise. This was important as I had started using a 6-speed Sachs Maillard block, with the narrow spacing between sprockets, and the gear change had to be more precise than when I was using standard 5-speed Regina blocks.

I think this is the key thing, with the old 5 speed blocks (or less!!) and 1/8th chains, stretchy/spongy outer cables were far less of an issue. Once you start getting into narrower chains and more gears that stretchiness becomes an issue. Especially with those extra loops of cable round the bars and the movement of the headset/bars.

If they'd invented compressionless outer earlier, we might never have had the downtube shifter era........ could have gone directly from bar end, to STI.

 

[Old Ned]

I think the barend front/down tube rear was a bit of a fashion statement at the time (60's) as one or two top riders used this arrangement for a while (Wes Mason?) It could also be a reaction to many frames BITD having only a single rear gear lever boss fitted as standard so a Campag style cable stop was used for the front mech cable.

I used barends for a long time (see my avatar) as I prefered not having to remove my hands from the bars to change gear especially for sprints or climbing. I always fully taped them to the top - BUT for time trials and single chainring - occasionally had the cable exiting under the brake lever.

All the fast men did this......................

 

[dutchie]

Also in the '80 some professional riders still made use of bar endshifters. Especially the road sprinters of that era did. Gerben Karstens (Televizier-Btatavus, BIC, TI Raleigh, ...) and Marino Basso (Molteni, Bianchiand many more I think. And in everuy other team they did go to.