Quote Originally Posted by Owlie View Post
Do explain further! I don't understand mountain bike shifters (yet). But yay for happy hands!
Triggers require use of the thumb to shift, sometimes only the thumb, sometimes a combo of thumb and forefinger depending on system. I run SRAM, and their triggers are thumb/thumb. Of course the front is a bit harder to shift than the rear for obvious reasons. I had a pretty bad flare of arthritis in my thumb a month or two ago and that made matters worse.

Because I rarely shifted the front last year some corrosion set in which really made it HARD to shift the front - even a very large mechanic at my LBS noted how hard it was to shift - I needed new cable/housing, and it really needed doing now.

Thankfully the SRAM X0 (race level) grip shifter for a triple is dirt cheap right now, the new 10-speed cassettes that are meant to work with a double have apparently affected the price. That is my assumption, but my LBS was able to get the new grip shift for next to nothing.

The LBS guy said it wasn't as straightforward a process as he had initially thought, the challenge was to get the two to work together. My Ergon grips also weren't meant for grip shifters, but I had faith they could make it work and they did. They did a good job cutting it to make it fit, I couldn't/didn't want to buy a whole new set and I REALLY LIKE these grips. I don't use the bar-ends for my hands, but they give me confidence when I am riding between trees on the trail My mountain bike now shifts better than it ever has!