Bar end shifter question

[Jonny69]

I'm looking for some bar end shifters for the aero bars on my retro TT build. It would be nice to have 6-speed indexed shifting but I don't see a lot of them on the market as everything is set up for 9/10/11 gears now. Looks like my only off-the-shelf option are the Dia Compe ones which look nice and retro but are friction shifting.

My question is this: If you take the lever off a 9/10/11 speed indexed bar end shifter, does it have the same square boss that old downtube shifters used to have? If that was the case I could mount a pair of indexed 6-speed downtube shifters in place of the ones that come with the set and get my indexed shifting.

 

[hamster]

In short, yes, usually. The only problem is that the 6 speed ones may not fit exactly in the barcon surround. Frankly on 6 speed the lever movement if sufficiently big not to need indexing anyway.

If I was going as far as buying barcons for the mounts, then I would try running friction at first and see if I got used to it. I run my tourer on friction a lot of the time.