Replacing handlebars on the cheap

[HappyTexasMom]

As those of you who have read some of my other posts already know, I've got a cheapie mountainbike that I'm trying to bring to tolerable riding level as cheap as possible, to get me by for the next 6 months or so until I can afford to buy a "real" bike.

Background: I'm new to riding, currently riding around 12 miles around town. I'll *never* go mountainbiking. I do hit a bit of gravel/dirt on the canal paths. I have issues with pain in my neck/shoulders which I believe are caused from too long of a reach. Longer term, I'd like to ride longer rides, working up to a century. I'll probably want a road bike at some point, but something with wide-ish tires (i.e., not the real skinny ones).

I think I've decided that butterfly/trekking handlebars will work for me (http://www.amazon.com/Nashbar-Trekki...7159094&sr=8-1 except I'll order directly from Nashbar, but their site isn't responding for me at the moment).

I currently have grip shifters plus what I'm pretty sure is a simple slide-on rubber grip. I'm thinking I can install it with the open ends up/towards me, and just use my current shifters, brake levers & grips. I don't even know that I'd need the drop/forward position right now (I kind of doubt it on this bike), but I could use tape if I want it. I guess I'd also need tape if I want to use the side position (which might be useful for hills; not a lot of them where I currently ride, but there are a few).

So I'm thinking for my minimal, cheap setup, I just get the bars and tape.I do realize I might have to replace some cables. I *think* I'll be ok except the front brake might be a little short. But aside from that, do I need anything else?

Then I figure as time goes on I can upgrade grips and/or shifters if I decide to. Or I can put these handlebars on whatever new bike I get if I decide I want to. Does this sound reasonable?

One thing I've read is that the butterflies are a different diameter than drop bars, so does that mean I won't be able to use them on a road bike (which I'm assuming is normally fitted with drop bars)? Or is it just that I'd need to change out more parts to make it work?

You ladies are so helpful...I hope some day I will be at the point to help others so much as you have already helped me.

[sarahspins]

The trekking bars you linked you *should* be able to use your MTB brakes, shifters, and grips so you shouldn't need to replace anything just to make it work.. unless as you said your cables won't reach.

If you wear gloves (I recommend it), you can probably get away without any tape on the rest of the bars for now.. and add it later if you know you want it. You can do the tape yourself.. it's not actually that difficult (I'd recommend non-adhesive tape.. that way you can wrap and unwrap as many times as you need to get it right).

I just replaced the flat bars on my hybrid with some soma sparrow bars which put my hands/wrists at a much more natural angle when riding... and I taped up the whole bar, which was kind of tricky since I had to go over my shifter/brake mount, which isn't really designed to be taped over. I installed mine as drops, but they can be set up as risers too.. if you search google images or flickr you can probably find a lot of examples. I'm really happy with it so far, even though I've only ridden about 20 miles with it set up like it is.

I considered trekking bars, but I wasn't sure that they would really fix the specific problem I was having, which was numbness in my hands. The sparrows fixed that, they also shortened my reach and dropped me into a more aerodynamic position (I can really feel the difference in headwinds).

It may also be possible to just swap out your current stem with the bars you already have to something shorter or with more rise.. you may find yourself wanting to change the stem even with new bars.

Oh, and to answer the road bike question.. you can use shims with MTB bars and use road components, it's really the other way around that becomes problematic.. since you can't fit MTB components on road bars. I think odds are really good though, that if you buy a new bike at some point, you'll be able to work out the fit so that you aren't having to immediately swap out parts. Or at least, that seems to be how it is for most people.. not for me, but I didn't start to have issues until about 45 minutes into rides, so it's not something I realized would be a problem at first (and I think really, it just comes down to my stock flat bars just being too wide for me - if they were 5cm narrower perhaps, I probably wouldn't have had any trouble).

[HappyTexasMom]

Thank you Sarah! I haven't been wearing gloves, but have been meaning to see if I can dig up my very old pair that I bought...OMG, 20 years ago! If not, I'll probably spring for some at my LBS. I really do miss them, and it would be nice to be able to avoid the taping (for the short term, because I still have to find out what kind of tape I want, gel or no gel, etc., or I saw some sort of foam wrap things referenced in a blog somewhere that looked interesting).

[Cataboo]

HTM - make sure to read Sarah's thread:
http://forums.teamestrogen.com/showthread.php?t=31857
I posted some example pics of trekking bars on a mountain bike page 3 or something like that?

You should also look up a thread by Hefzilla where she installed trekking bars on her mountain bike recently.

Otherwise, Sarah gave you a ton of good info.

With gloves - sometimes they contribute to your hands going numb, I can only use pearl izumi gloves if I rip out the padding.

[sarahspins]

With gloves - sometimes they contribute to your hands going numb, I can only use pearl izumi gloves if I rip out the padding.

Weird! My new PI's are the ones I've found most comfortable so far... REI had them on clearance for less than half price, so after I decided I liked them, I went back and bought the other 2 pairs in my size They're fairly padded... but I've tried riding without gloves, gloves with no padding (my motocross gloves), and everything inbetween it seems... and I liked those the best.