Wednesday, November 01, 2006

Bar Time: Again....Part Two

Yesterdays post on riser bars didn't bring any defenders of the faith like I though it might. In fact, some of you said that I might even be making some sense! I scare myself sometimes!

Well, I thought that I might make a few more suggestions to those of you out there that might be influential in the making and designing of products, I know you're out there! Anyway, without further adieu...............

Bar ends: With my suggestion that we throw the riser bars into the fiery pit and get ourselves on some nice swept flat bars and riser stems, I'd like to address bar ends. With a swept back bar, your bar end choices become rather limited. The sweep puts most bar ends into a posistion that might cause concern with hooking objects like trees or small children, ya know? So a redesign of bar ends is necessary. How about an adjustable angle bar end? (I know....it's been done before, but I'd like to see a modernized update)

Funky Bars: There are alot of strange little companies making sketchy products to satisfy the needs of folks that can't get on with the traditional handle bars for off roading. ( This does not include On One, who do a very fine job with their bars) There needs to be a company that has the cajones to step into this market and put the necessary engineering into a "funky bar" style that actually will be safe and well done. (By the way, Titec.......when is that H-Bar coming out? Sheesh!)

Grips: I love what Ergon has done with their grip line up, but isn't there anyone else watching this? There's got to be some sort of answer from some of the other grip companies out there. Look.........round grips are stupid! Last time I checked, my palms didn't form a perfect I.D. when I curled up my hands around a beer bottle, much less a bicycle handle bar. ( Hey! Now there's an idea.......Ergonomic beer containers!)

Glove/Grip combos: This has been attempted before, but it hasn't been done right yet. Just like shoes and pedal interfaces have developed over the past 15 years, handle bar/ glove interfaces need to be better thought out. Heck, gloves ought to come with grips that work with them. Makes sense to me............

Anymore brainstorming out there? Let it be told here! Give me a comment. I'll point this out to some folks that should know.

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