Question About Bar Ends.

[Zen]

Something like this?
They're just regular grips I had the lbs put on.

[susan.wells]

My commuter bike has a flat bar handlebar. I did some research and decided on the Ergon GC3. Here's a link to a blog that helped me make that choice: Kent's Bike Blog. I've been really pleased with these.

[nsandz]

Thanks everyone! These are all great ideas, I just have to figure out which one is best for my situation...

I was looking at trekking handlebars, I have never really seen these before, and I am a bit confused.

There are ones that resemble the shape of a butterfly, and the only thing that makes me reluctant to get those is that I think I would have to redo my whole system, new shifters/brakes and whatnot.

However I saw a Bontrager- Satellite Plus Trekking 25.4 and Bontrager-
Satellite Elite Carbon Trekking handlebars.

It says that these give you many hand positions...but I do not understand how these give you more hand positions?

P.S.
Zen - I LOVE your pink bar ends!!

[Cataboo]

I don't see how that would give you all that many more handlebar positions either.

However, you can put trekking handlebars on your bike without having to get new shifters or anything like that.

Here's an example:
http://forums.teamestrogen.com/showthread.php?t=30740

[Catrin]

I did learn in my research that Trekking bars are HUGE - as in very wide. This may not be an issue for you, but as I have a quite short reach and have narrow shoulders this led us to go for riser bars instead. I would have loved them, but there you go. They do not appear to come in a range of sizes either.

The Soma Sparrows were of interest, but they wouldn't work for me either as they require a single shifting/brake "pod", so to speak, and those are not available for cantilever brakes. Otherwise there is limited space for hands...

[nsandz]

I did learn in my research that Trekking bars are HUGE - as in very wide. This may not be an issue for you, but as I have a quite short reach and have narrow shoulders this led us to go for riser bars instead. I would have loved them, but there you go. They do not appear to come in a range of sizes either.

This also may be an issue for me, trough the numerous fitting sessions we found that I have very short arms compared to my torso, so my reach is pretty short. I suppose I am going to have to go back to my LBS and bother them with more questions...lol.

[Catrin]

This also may be an issue for me, trough the numerous fitting sessions we found that I have very short arms compared to my torso, so my reach is pretty short. I suppose I am going to have to go back to my LBS and bother them with more questions...lol.

The Soma Sparrows were much smaller than the Trekking bars - but of course depending on your existing brake/shifting system this may be an issue as well. I liked the looks of them, but couldn't use them without changing more than I was willing/able.

[nsandz]

However, you can put trekking handlebars on your bike without having to get new shifters or anything like that.
Here's an example:
http://forums.teamestrogen.com/showthread.php?t=30740

Thanks for the link! That is a pretty amazing setup!

[Cataboo]

The width of the trekking bars doesn't really make a huge difference - if you look where Heifzilla has her shifters on her trekking bars - they're very close together in the front of the bar - the shifters are actually before the stem, making it a shorter reach than any other handlebar that she could have put on there.

And her shifters are in a spot where her hands are close together - yes, there is a lot of handlebar to each side... but theres a lot of handlebar directly in front of where the shifters are...

So... yes, if she wanted, she could put her hands on the very end of either side of the trekking bars and have a very wide grip - but she can also put her hands very close together on it and ride. And she's got a lot of different choices of where to put her hands depending on what she's doing and that's going to resist hand fatigue.

As for the soma sparrows, I have a set of 490's on my surly. My shifters are integrated with the brakes,but there's room to do it with non-integrated brakes & shifters.

Here's some pics of Saraspins's trek fx with soma sparrows on it:
http://forums.teamestrogen.com/showt...sparrow&page=4

Notice that she angled the bars downwards, you can also use those bars right side up - which makes them lift up.

Here's a pic of my surly with the soma's angled upwards, and you can see looking at the shifters that there is room to put a separate brake thing in front of them.

[Cataboo]

another thread with more pics of the soma sparrows on my surly
http://forums.teamestrogen.com/showt...=soma+sparrows