When I bought my bike, it came with regular road bike handles. The bike was actually available in two versions, a road bike, and a tri bike. The frame was the same. Here is a stock photo of the tri version:
After riding the road bike with aero bars attached, I started to not like how it looked. I wanted that sleek tri-bike look. Also, I thought it would be nice to have the shifters on the bar end. So, I ended up buying the various parts I needed – bullhorn, brake levers, and bar-end shifters and this week, I had a bike mechanic install them. He had to run new cables, but in the end, I think the bike looks great.
I rode 17 miles with them this morning and I love the shifters! With the original STI (integrated) shifters, I’m never quite sure if I wnt up (or down) one or two gears, but with the bar-end shifters, it is all indexed so a single click is a single gear change
All I’m missing are a set of deep section carbon wheels.