Riding my Baron low racer has never been a completely pleasant experience, because my right leg contacts either the shifter or my fingers. The problem is that the Baron is designed for long-legged riders, not height-challenged riders like myself. I have tried trigger shifters and friction shifters, but the problem persists. The tiller's length is adjustable, but it's uncomfortable if I move it closer to my chest. Recently noticed that SRAM offers a 10-speed grip shifter, so I ordered one for $134. Received it yesterday and attempted to install it today. Big problem - The assembly is 3" longer than a 9-speed shifter assembly, and will not fit a Baron's preying mantis handlebar. The instructions say to not disassemble the shifter. That's fine, but the shifter is not a sealed unit, and came apart when I tried to pull it off the Baron's handle bar. Sproing!!!!! Took it inside the house to try to figure out how to put it back together. Finally figured out how to fit the spring back into it when, sproing, the spring flies across the kitchen and disappears. An hour and a half later I find it in the bottom of a grocery bag full of newspapers. Put the shifter back together, but it is locked up. This is supposed to be a high quality shifter (X.0 line), but I'm not impressed by the fact that almost the whole mechanism is made of plastic. The only metal components are the return coil spring and the detent leaf spring. The assembly is way too long and has too many separate parts. Good design or poor design? The only other thing I have to say is: ARGGGGG!!!
 
 

10-speed friction shifter installed on Baron.
 
 

SRAM X.0 10-speed grip shifter installed on Baron. End of grip has a clamp, but Baron's handlebar is too short for clamp to be effective.
 
 

SRAM X.0 shifter - lots of parts.
 
 

Sproing!!! The shifter came apart when tried to pull it off the Baron's handlebar.

Quote from FlyingLaZBoy on Sep 27^th, 2012, 9:42am:

 
An $134 Slinky.  

Quote from jayg on Sep 23^rd, 2012, 8:51pm:

 
 
My Baron has been sitting in the garage with no rear derailleur shifter, so I looked in my parts box and came up with a 10-speed SRAM TT500 bar end shifter.
 
 

 
Uh oh, the shifter won't fit into the end of the handlebar. Darn Optima specs a handlebar with a non-standard I.D.
 
 
 
 
Hmmm........need to ream the I.D. with a "precision" Harbor Freight adjustable reamer    Took a long time, but finally got the bar end to fit into the handlebar.
 
 

 
Hey, the shifter works like a charm, and my right knee doesn't contact anything at it's most rearward movement, like before.    Now, I hope the bar end doesn't disembowel me if it's in the full down position and the bike happens to go down with me on it. If the bike does happen to go down on the right side, the shifter is probably going to be toast.

I noticed yesterday, following you, that your hand placement on the Baron was noticeably unsymmetrical.  Now I know why.