Bar end
shifters have really fascinated me and seem like the way
to go but I can't afford to buy them (at $120 a piece) so
I had a go at making them myself. Here are some closeups Pic
1, Pic
2 - It wasn't a complete success - well there are
limitations I found as I made them but I think they're
better than what I had before when they were mounted on a
short steering stem in the more conventional place
through the forks.
The things that aren't so good are:
- Now they're welded on it's going to be hard to get handgrips on. (I made it with them on because of this reason but they also got a bit hot when welding, had to dunk in water a few times so the rubber wouldn't melt) I didn't notice this before but the mount for the lever isn't straight up from where it is fixed to the bar end. It has to head away from the center where the cable exits if you know what I mean. For this reason I used the existing mount as it would be a little fiddly to make but it makes it hard to fit the hand grips. It doesn't make it easy to finish off the bar end so it looks great.
- It's hard to put the cables in. They go up into the handlebars so you can't hold the inner and feed it into the outer unless the outer is in 2 pieces. (as there's a lot of inner inside the handlebar and out of reach) Still I got it in but if it was a difficult cable to get in it just wouldn't work.
- I've made the bars on
my bike so they aren't too wide but now I can
get my jeans caught on the shifters on hard turns
if I'm not careful.
Date: Mon,
24 Jul 2000From: Giles Puckett
I took some old Shimano-600 down tube shifters, they have a small diameter drum that winds the cable (about 3/4"). Took a piece of handlebar-sized (7/8") Al round stock, and cut out a flat on it to take the screw piece that takes the lever. The other end was turned down to fit into the bar end, a wedge cut out and screw fitted to tighten it up inside the bar end. Somehow managed to find room to bore a hole for the cable, going inside the bar.Check out the drawing.
ED. Looking at Giles design I'm wondering if a screw in the side of the handlebar (locking the new piece) might work too. Another thing I though of is would it be too hard to thread the inside or outside of the handlebar so the new shifter could screw in/over? (or have the handlebar welded up at the end so a smaller thread could be cut into both)