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The truth right here. Not much experience with barends as I wrote earlier but I'd like to think thumbies are comparable in feel. SunTour XC Pro thumbies and a load of XT thumbies have that same mechanical confidence in index mode in my experience. Even some crusty Campy Euclid(?) thumbies really came to life after some basic rinsing with WD40.
Shimano brifters, which I prefer, feel quite sensitive to wear as they get sloppy and imprecise as you put it after heavy use. Just built a new bike with GRX600 brifters and a Ultegra RX rear der and the shifting is so crisp. It's just bang bang everywhere. Wish I could have new brifters everyday.
I'm no Campy fanatic but that's a whole different cup of magic.
mankkis
I have the same experience; works really well.
No, I agree. For technical riding they are not ideal, having to let go of the bars.
But I've noticed when going back to my bike with brifters after riding bar ends for a long time, brifters just feel sloppy and imprecise to me. A lot of lever throw before anything happens. Don't know how to adequately describe it. I just really like the mechanical, direct, and confident shifting of an indexed bar end.