STI vs Bar-end?

One complaint I have with bar-ends is that I always accidentilly hit my knee against the barend, shifting my bike into the hardest gear when I'm not even peddaling. Over time I destroyed my rear derauileur...

Sounds like a good reason to go with STI. Personally I go with a little bit larger frame (which means longer top bar), so I don't have that issue.

I am the proud owner of a bike with bar end shifters.
Although some people beleive that you may hit your knees against the bar end shifters, i have never had this problem myself, even when riding out of the saddle over the handlebars. The reason that many touring cyclists like bar ends is because of the reliability. With bar ends you never have to worry about badly adjusted gears and they are less likely to break than sti shifters.
This is because with bar ends you have 2 settings, an indexed link gear setting and also a free setting which means that you can move the shifter as much as you want until the gear seems to be in the right place. This means that if you are doing long journeys then you don't have to worry so much about the gears as in about 10 secs you can switch from indexed to free gears.
😎 😎 😎 😎 😎 😎 😎 😎 😎 😎 😎 😎 😎 😎 😎 😎 😎 😎 😎 😎 😎 😎 😎 😎 😎

supercourse said:

One complaint I have with bar-ends is that I always accidentilly hit my knee against the barend, shifting my bike into the hardest gear when I'm not even peddaling. Over time I destroyed my rear derauileur...

The trick with bar ends to avoid your knee strike problem is to just cut 2cm off the end of your handlebars so they don't stick out so much.

If you are touring through South America or Asia where you won't be able to get a replacement for a while and gear failure would be a disaster use bar ends.

I would have done at least 50,000kms of touring with bar ends and I have never had a problem with the levers. STI is so much easier to use though. I have had an Ultegra lever cause problems but not whilst I was on tour though. The Dura ace levers seem much better that the Ultegra's and have never missed a shift.

Cheers

Geoff

[Why exactly are people afraid of the STI? I feel like a broken bar-end or a broken STI 200 miles from civiliation would suck and be equally hard to fix.

Actually, barcons are easier to field service since they have so few parts, most of which (beyond the lever and body) can be substituted for with parts from a decent hardware store. Besides, it would be hard to imagine what could break (other than the indexing, which you then have friction shifting).

Also, if we are talk about repairing or replacing drivetrain components in underdevelopled countries or remote areas, you are much more likely to have to replace a rear derailleur, wheel, hub and/or cassette than a shifter.

Friction shifters will continue to work for you if you are forced to switch from a 9sp cassette to a 6 or 7sp, which you are more likely to find in less developed areas (even in the USA). They will also work with even the cheapest POS Sri Lankan or Chinese derailleurs.

That said, it's a matter of preference. I have two touring rigs, one rins barcons, the other 9sp triggers.