Question About Bar Ends.

[nsandz]

Hello,

I will be going on my first tour in mid to late September (Bar Harbor, ME - Key West, FL). I was having a lot of trouble with pain on my original bike (Fuji Touring). The local bike shop said it was too big for me and we did a number of advanced fittings and tried to get a dropped handlebar bike to fit me where I had no back pain (I have short arms and a price budget). We were having a lot of trouble but then I tried the Trek 7.3FX and loved it! My back pain is gone, except now I have a flat handle bar and I bought simple bar ends that are just a metal tube and very hard. I am wondering if there are better ones for long tours that perhaps may have rubber grips or at least a more ergonomic grip to them. Any suggestions?

Thanks everyone!

[Cataboo]

I think you can get rubber covers for bar ends. you could also buy the padding gel and foam handlebar tape that people use for taping up road bars.

Flat bars are actually kinda brutal in terms of hand positions - so something you might want to consider is getting butterfly or trekking handlebars, they give you a lot more positions. they get taped up with handlebar tape.

If you want to stay with straight handlebars - consider getting some ergon grips. They're currently on sale at REI & at performance bicycle.

Other handlebars that you could consider are the soma sparrows, but I don't know how they do for long tours.

[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

[Catrin]

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

Very nice! I don't regret my final handlebar choice that I and my LBS debated - but I do like the looks of the Sparrow bars - they were more concerned that I was about the room on the bars for assorted things plus room for my hands and I decided to listen, especially after seeing the website for the Soma Sparrow also referred to this...so we settled on 2-inch risers + Titec L-bend bar-ends.

nsandz - I am looking forward to hearing what you decide. Don't let my concern about the width of the Trekking bars worry you, I am very new to all of this They are a very attractive option for touring, and I am told the wider bars provide more stability.

What kind of shifters do you currently have?

[Cataboo]

nsandz - your trip sounds awesome - just try out a couple of these suggestions before September. The easiest one to do is those ergon grips - rei & performance have them on sale currently and both of them will let you return them indefinitely if they don't end up being what you need.


If those don't work, then I'd say try trekking bars next and soma sparrows last.

I love my soma sparrows, I'm not sure I'd want to ride across or down the US on them.

[Zen]

Soma Sparrows
These are Soma bars, I'm not sure if they are sparrows


For a long time in the saddle I find my flat bar/bar end combo sufficient.