Trekking bars/mountain shifters

[Catrin]

I've been told that Trekking bars will take mountain bike shifters - is this correct? I've not given up on my bar-ends as of yet, but if I can make this combination that is pretty much the best of both worlds. Shifters I like along with the ability to have different hand positions!

[Catrin]

Replying to my own question

Sheldon Brown and a few others to the rescue! Apparently butterfly, or trekking, bars can indeed handle mountain bike shifters/brakes. I've no idea what I will eventually decide to do but this is good information. I can see XT shifters to go along with my other XT components

However, I need to give this bike at least a couple of months before I start making changes of this nature - the best thing is to get used to the shifters I have

[indysteel]

What kind of issues are you having right now with the bar end shifters? Trouble riding one handed?

My guess is that you are death gripping the bars when you try to go one-handed. Loosen up. Way up. I know this sounds counterintuitive, but you will be a better bike handler if you keep a very light hold of your bars. You'll aslo be a lot more comfortable.

For now, put the bike on your trainer and practice shifting and getting your water bottle out and into its cage without looking down. Stay relaxed as you do. Then get back on the road and try it.

Keep telling yourself that you can do this; it just takes practice.

[Catrin]

What kind of issues are you having right now with the bar end shifters? Trouble riding one handed?

My guess is that you are death gripping the bars when you try to go one-handed. Loosen up. Way up. I know this sounds counterintuitive, but you will be a better bike handler if you keep a very light hold of your bars. You'll aslo be a lot more comfortable.

For now, put the bike on your trainer and practice shifting and getting your water bottle out and into its cage without looking down. Stay relaxed as you do. Then get back on the road and try it.

Keep telling yourself that you can do this; it just takes practice.

I will do this and keep practicing. Yesterday I practiced just moving my hands around on top of the bars...and I found that this wasn't a problem as long as I kept at least some part of my hand on the bar. Even if it wasn't a finger, so that seems to be a part of the key.

So will continue to practice and to remember to "keep it light" That is bound to help with my Trek as well.

[OakLeaf]

Indy has good advice...

Another thing you might try on the trainer is to work on how your body feels when you're using your core to support yourself. Put your bike on the trainer, put your hands on the bars where you usually ride (hoods?), then take all your weight off your hands. Now you can move your hands from the hoods to the tops, or take them off the bars, but your torso isn't moving. Next, do the same thing with your hands on the drops near the shifters. Finally, practice taking each hand from the hood to the shifter and back, still keeping your weight off your hands and trying to keep your shoulders level.

That's not the best way to build core strength, but a lot of balancing is just learning to trust the way your body feels. (I just experienced this within the past month, learning to get into a handstand against the wall. First it was impossible, then when my yoga teacher helped me it was terrifying, but once I understood how it felt when I was high enough for my legs to get light, I just went up. )

[Melalvai]

I have mountain bike shifters on my Trekking bar. I have thumb shifters now; I had grip shifters in the past. Both work fine on the Trekking bar.

[tzvia]

A lot of good advice already given here. I can second the 'core strength'. The key to moving around drop bars is not to prop yourself up by your hands; your core strength (back and stomach muscles) should be doing this. Your hands are for shifting, braking and control. Make sure you are not locking your elbows, they should be kept a little bent. This will aid comfort of the hands as your bent elbows will act like shock absorbers. Once you are comfortable like this, you should be able to move into and out of the drops as you are not 'leaning' (collapsing) on the bars and pushing down on one side when you lift your hand from the other.

[Catrin]

I've been talking with the head mechanic at an LBS (they will also do my fitting once I've reached about 150 miles on the new bike). He has convinced me that a better alternative for a first step is to keep the same shifters, but move then to the top of my existing bars. He said that Paul's Thumbies are very versatile about where they can be installed on the bars and that my fear that they will be awkward can be addressed.

He said further that while it is true that trigger shifters can be installed on Trekking/Butterfly bars, there are not many places on the bars where they can go and that I may not be any more comfortable with that situation than what I currently have.

The hardware/labor cost would only be about $90 to do this work, so it seems a reasonable first step instead of immediately switching out bars and shifters - and who can say what would be needed for the brakes? This is a pretty major move and I don't want to make such sweeping changes as a first attempt.

I do wonder if my bars are just too low on my LHT, but we will address that at my fitting. It was recommended that it would be best to move shifters before my fitting so that everything can be adjusted properly. This makes sense to me.

So, I will keep working with these bar-end shifters, but I am pretty sure that I will go ahead and have them moved to the top of my bars. Time will tell

[Catrin]

Thanks for all of the advice regarding core strength and balance. This is probably part of it, and I've mentioned this to my personal trainer so he can help with this - though he has been helping me with my core for some time. He suggested that until my bike is properly fitted to me it will be difficult to nail down if there is more of a core strength issue, or a fitting issue. Probably a little of both, I suspect.