How to fit bar end shifters?

[swee'pea99]

Is it reasonably easy to fit bar end shifters? I'm a bit baffled as to how the cable gets from the handlebars down to under the bottom bracket - with normal down tube shifters, it's just a straight run. Anyone know of a good link to a 'how to'? (I've tried Park Tools and Sheldon, but come away empty-handed.) Thanks for any advice.

 

[andygates]

Easy. You run a cable outer along the handlebars to the shifter boss on the downtube. You'll need a little ferruley adapter gidget there, which you may get with the shifters.

Use bits of tape to hold it all in place, then re-wrap your handlebar tape over the outer to finish off.

 

[swee'pea99]

Thanks very much for responding. That makes sense. Any idea what I should be asking for/googling for for the ferruly adapter gidget? (I'd be looking to get the actual shifters off ebay, and they seem to come always just as the shifters themselves.) I tried googling it, but got no hits, so I tried google's suggested alternative, and got #1 hit: "[SIZE=-1]ginny insulate bedlington Verdi gidget quipped 313233 rhyme host65 sanatorium ...... orphanage deliverymen persimmon crax host420 adapter tame blondelle", so I'm guessing that wasn't right.
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[Smokin Joe]

You want these -

http://www.probikekit.com/display.php?code=A8068

Listed as out of stock, but the Shimano ones a little further down the page do the job too.

You have a choice with the cable run, exit from beneath the tape just below the brake levers or take it all the way up the bars near the top of the tape. The former is more efficient as the cable run is shorter, the latter looks neater.

 

[mickle]

Never seen Smoking Joes latter and can't envision how the cable run works. The way I was trained to do it is to first of all cut off a section of handlebar each side equal to the length of the shifter body, install the shifters and tape the cables to the straight section of the drops. Run the cable in a 180 degree loop from the lower straight section of the bar to the down tube stops.

I've got to install some on a bike soon and I'm really looking forward to it, haven't done bar-end shifters for ages.

 

[Smokin Joe]

If you dig out some old photos of Tom Simpson you'll see what I mean, the cable exit point is more or less the same as with Ergo shifters.

 

[swee'pea99]

That's brilliant. Many thanks to you both.

 

[mickle]

I had a quick look through my albums but couldn't find any close ups of Tom Simpsons shifter set-up for some reason.

 

[swee'pea99]

mickle - yor message appeared while I was composing mine...I couldn't find SJ's 'later' shimano's either, but a search on-site producedhttp://www.probikekit.com/display.php?code=A8069

 

[swee'pea99]

Re Tom Simpson pic:
http://www.unc.edu/~hymas/images/simpson_yellow.jpg

like that, SJ?

 

[Smokin Joe]

Mickle,

One here that shows Simpson's set up. Most of the pros who used to use bar ends had the same -

http://www.velonews.com/photo/39496

 

[Danny]

The way I was trained to do it is to first of all cut off a section of handlebar each side equal to the length of the shifter body, install the shifters and tape the cables to the straight section of the drops. Run the cable in a 180 degree loop from the lower straight section of the bar to the down tube stops.

Sorry if I am being dense here, but why do you need to cut off sections of handlebar? Don't the shifters mostly sit inside the handlebar, a bit like ordinary bar ends?

And doesn't cutting the handlebar risking damaging its overall integrity?

 

[andrew_s]

You just trim about an inch and a half off the ends. The reason is that then the length of bar plus bar-end shifter isn't much more than the length of the bar alone was previously. If you don't you can find that your knee can knock the shifter when out of the saddle, giving an undesired gear change.
I never bothered. I could change gear with my knee, but it only ever happened deliberately.

There is no effect on the integrity of the bar.

 

[mickle]

Mickle,

One here that shows Simpson's set up. Most of the pros who used to use bar ends had the same -

http://www.velonews.com/photo/39496

Vely intelesting! Wonder if the extra bends in the cable have much effect on shifting quality.

 

[andy_wrx]

Probably far less than the bends some people put in when trying to run bar-ends in the ends of tribars and run the cable inside or taped very tightly to the outside of the tribars...