Comments on: What Is It About “Funky Bars”?

By: nasee

nasee — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 02:03:52 +0000

I switched to the On One Mary Bars for my Single Speed. I just can’t say enough about the setup that I have now. No wrist/ hand numbness. I also get better leverage with climbing.
Highly recommended!

By: Jared

Jared — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 15:29:22 +0000

Thanks guys. I really appreciate the input. I SRAM would just make a trigger for i-Motion, I wouldn’t have a problem.

By: Guitar Ted

Guitar Ted — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 13:51:34 +0000

Jared,

Typically the grip shifter thing isn’t very elegant or practical on an H-Bar. It can be fitted, but because of the way it works best on the H-Bar for posistioning, (see Cloxxki’s comment) it requires weird cable routing and looks……….well, hideous in my humble opinion.

Other alt bars may be more attractive. Try thinking about an On One Mary bar. Grip Shifter compatible, normal routing for cables, and if you want the extensions, like an H-Bar would have, you can mount bar ends at the apex of each bend on the Mary bar. I would think the posistions would be quite similar, and your dream of using the i-Motion drive train could be more easily, and attractively, realized.

By: Cloxxki

Cloxxki — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 07:40:59 +0000

People have used Rohloff twist shifters, placed invested on H-bars. I recommend to keep all of the grip ens free for hand placement, as that’s what the H’s shine at.

By: Jared

Jared — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 22:34:49 +0000

GT, do you think it would be possible to run a grip shifter on the right-hand portion of an H-Bar? I’m looking into a new commuter and want to run an alt-bar on it, I think the H-Bar fiits the bill, but SRAM’s i-Motion 9 requires a twist style shifter.

By: Chewieez

Chewieez — Sun, 28 Oct 2007 18:19:18 +0000

I love my Mary Bars on my SS. I used to get wrist pain in my right wrist from a lot of standing and mashing. This is gone with the Mary and it’s a great conversation starter. I’m happy alt bars and steel hardtails are popular again as I missed out on them the first go around (being younger).

I’ve often thought of getting another Mary bar for my geared FS bike but haven’t yet. It would involve a new stem since I currently use a OS bar so the cost isn’t worth it.

-Greg

By: Choke

Choke — Sun, 28 Oct 2007 02:35:11 +0000

I love having On-One Midge bars on my Karate Monkey. I wanted WTB mountain drops for years before finally getting the Midge. Back in the day, I rode almost exclusively on my bar ends, then on brake hoods when I put standard drops on my bike. Now I don’t think I’ll ever go back to a straight bar again and there is no way I’d use a riser bar.

By: wunnspeed

wunnspeed — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 19:35:47 +0000

I’m also a fan of “Alt” bars. Can’t say I like the Jones bars, but many of the others I think are cool. Personally, I’ve been running 12 degree bend bars for years. I tend to run them back and a little bit down which seems to work well with my wrists. Dirt Drops have been in my arsenal for years as well.

By: Cloxxki

Cloxxki — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 19:29:13 +0000

Funny, here in Europa at least, many relaxed high-end touring bikes have handlebars extremly usable for off-roading.
Zoom for instance, stick its label on ~620 handlebars with ~38º sweep. Just not forward sweep, so you need a long stem or top tube. The half inch of rise I use inverted for a nice aero tuck position.
Just a couple weekends back, I converted the street-mtb I once built for a lady friend. Yup, 560×3º broomstick with bars was on there. 20mm longer (140mm) stem, that cheap trekking bars, and after trying it on a longer road ride, she’s sold. Wish I’d have a 150mm stem, that would be even better for her.
That’s jsut the cheap way in, but there are more sophiticated choices like the B.O.S. FloWing. 27º of sweep I think, and a low-rise version in the works.

For now, i’m happy with the 17º Salsa. A carbon version on the way, oh boy! The alu already is fairly light for the amount of comfort. I’m used to resorting to heavy bars, to get a comfortable wrist position. This 17º seems to be on the lower end of what I can sortof live with. Hot spot seems more like 25-50º.

And don’t think you’ll lose manouevrability with comfortable sweep!

By: Mike

Mike — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 14:29:22 +0000

Thanks G-T, master of the pun. Actually, that exact concept you talk about is something I experimented with over 2 years ago with both Shimano and SRAM shifters. SRAM was a better option at the time because both levers were pushed with the thumb. Although, now some Shimano shifters utilize a release lever that can be released with either a push or a pull so it would work as well.

The problem is mounting the shifter to the bar because the body of the shifter has to be offset inboard a bit. That’s where we got a little hung up. We had some cobbled mock-ups, but that’s about as far as it went. I think it’s worth revisiting again now.