Alt-Bars
Well talk of different bars and how many hand positions are comfortable got me thinking about my selection of bikes with weird bars.The most comfy alt- bar for road riding I have found is the Nitto North Road. Here it is flipped for pleasure. Three distinct comfy positions:
Next up. Old fashined WTB dirt drops. One comfy position, great off-road. And then two fairly average positions.
Last up is the On One Mungo. The ends do not flare out, so I do not find them comfortable. The middle section near the stem is too bendy to find anywhere good to rest my palms. So only the curves are comfortable. Fine for short rides, but longer rides can be a pain. Note, this and the first bike have the same top tube lengths. The Nitto North Road needs a long stem because the bars have very little forward sweep. The Mungo has lots of forward sweep and works with a much shorter stem. The Mungo is great if your bike is a little shorter than you like....
posted by markie @ 5:46 PM
10 Comments:
A post called "Alt Bars" from Markie could just as easily have gone in a very different direction. ; )
Howzabout the OnOneMidge? Kinda dirt-drop, kinda not. Seems to have more flat up top than Mungo (moustache), more drop.
I have never owned a midge, but from a couple of brief rides I thought it was very like the dirt-drop. Its advantages being shallower drop, and more space available on the top. The over-riding disadvantage for me was that the hooks (or drops or whatever you call them) were a good bid shorter than the old WTB dirt drop.
Nitto moustache trumps the Northwave and On-one bars you've got IMO. If you come across some for cheap, grab them and give them a try.
So far as I have seen the nitto moustache bars extension comes straight back. Making them very similar to the On-One Mungo. I find that really uncomfortable. My vote remains for the Nitto North Road.
I disagree with you about the Mungo's having only one comfortable position. I even went out yesterday to find how many I use. There is three that I use. But I tend to use them in mixed conditions, meaning on and off road. I find that for off road I like them for being upright and having a finger close to the brake. Hands on the bar ends when climbing or in not brakind situstions. And thumbs hooked around the hoods and palms resting on levers for easy road cruising.
The Nitto may be better but I have not tried them.
I've been thinking of turning an old (18 yrs) RockHopper into a single speed cruiser to bike with the kids and was thinking of going the alt-bar route. this will help, thanks.
i agree, north road flipped are da best, and as an added bonus they are made of steel not that aluminum crap. i found that i had to trim a few inches off the ends, so that they didn't interfere with the steering.
Nice. Great concise entry. I'm curious. Do you have photos of the entire bike with the flipped North Road bars? Is this your current set up?
I thought Northroad bars were only compatible with MTB levers, i.e. 22.2mm clamp. How'd you manage to get that road lever on there?
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