Having ridden for years with a front handlebar bag, I guess I'm just used to pushing the cables from the bar end shifters one way or the other to mount or unmount the bag. That said, I now run my Atlantis with a DT front shifter and bar end rear shifter for two reasons unrelated to cable/bag interference - for some reason, my left hand is less tolerant of the shifting motion required for the bar end shifter than my right and, on past tours, my front derailleur has at times become balky in dirty conditions which I attribute partially to the derailleur spring having trouble overcoming the additional friction caused by dirty cable housing. I find the front shift much more reliable and quick with less effort with the DT shifter. On a two month tour just completed, I had zero troubles with front shifts despite lots of gravel and rain whereas one week tours on gravel of past with bar end required daily lubrication and exercise of the front derailleur and still things could get balky. For whatever it is worth, a couple of the guys I toured with used brifters and suffered from similar issues. The downside was the double shift to or from the granny was not nearly as smooth as with two bar ends but at least they always did happen. I just don't worry much where I've got to push the cables from the bar ends. I have another bike with two bar ends and a bag which works just fine for me on day rides.
Bill S San Diego On Thursday, August 25, 2022 at 2:44:26 PM UTC-7 [email protected] wrote: > I love all the replies and knowledge here. It's pretty fun. > > I did a little test. I put my RD in the biggest cog. I then shifted all > the way down to the smallest cog without pedaling to put slack in the > cable. Then I pulled the cable tight at the downtube. Then I shifted back > up to the biggest cassette without any derailleur spring tension in the > way. It actually felt pretty smooth. I never did this test BEFORE this > routing, so I have no control, though. > > I will say that just a couple days before I ran new cable that I put a > derailleur hangar extender on the rear so I could go up to a 32t rear cog > with my Ultegra 6500 derailleur. It works fine, but I wonder if some of the > shifting resistance is more about making larger cog jumps and running my > derailleur out of spec, and not entirely cable friction. Also, I've been > running the bike in indexed mode. > > So, step 1 is to go to friction mode and hang out on the smaller side of > the cassette; see if it feels any easier. If so I'll have to figure out > where to go. If not... > Step 2, try the long floppy cable thing. > Step 3. consider Tiagra 4703 and a 4700/5800/6800 long rear derailleur. I > have a 2x10 4700 setup on a budget carbon road bike and it was actually > pretty good. It looks like they have a 3x10 lever setup. I know that RD can > handle a 34, shifts smoothly, and is easy to set-up. Plus a 10s cassette > will still fit my older wheels. > > Or I just go back to a high end, ratchet, downtube shifter and learn to > love it ;) Keep this circle going! > > By no means should this kill the conversation, though. Chat away! > > Cheers! > Ben > > On Thursday, August 25, 2022 at 12:15:35 PM UTC-7 Jeffrey Arita wrote: > >> Ben: I will add my 2 cents: we are big bar-end fans - they are on the >> bikes that have drop handlebars. We only go friction - not indexed, so >> YMMV. We use front racks and Wald baskets, and yes, depending upon your >> specific setup, the pair of long "U" cable and cable housing can get in the >> way. Try routing the big U's under the Mark's rack and then zip-tie them >> to the rack so they are somewhat stationary. Finally zip tie both U's >> together so they act like a single unit. Yeah, it looks clunky but it >> might help keep those big U's under control. >> >> Good luck, >> >> Jeff >> Claremont, CA >> >> On Wednesday, August 24, 2022 at 6:48:00 PM UTC-7 [email protected] >> wrote: >> >>> Hey all! Just looking for some gear chat. >>> >>> I have a Rambouillet with drop bars. I'm finally getting everything >>> comfortable, but I've been around the block with my shifters. >>> >>> My bike came with 8 speed bar end shifters. However, when I did my first >>> configuration I mounted them on the downtube. They worked great. It was >>> kind of a bummer to reach down, but I went with it because I loved the >>> simplicity and getting the cables off the handlebars. >>> >>> After a while I decided to put them back in the bar ends. I had >>> previously used bar ends for a long time, so it felt like home. However, I >>> have a front Mark's rack with a basket and the derailleur cables were >>> always getting in the way of the front stuff. >>> >>> So I just ran the cables fully under the bar tape and that install works >>> great to get stuff out of the way, but now my shifting performance is >>> pretty bad from the twisty cable runs; much worse than any other >>> configurations. >>> >>> So, nothing is really broken, but I know it can be better. Wondering if >>> I should try again with a new take on the "not under tape" routing. Or try >>> downtube again? Or just go nuts and look for a used STI system? >>> >>> Let's chat! >>> Ben >>> >>> >>> -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/rbw-owners-bunch/16663d71-0a39-4d3c-8044-72a9c2e752a3n%40googlegroups.com.
