More On The Titec H-Bar

I have the H-Bars wrapped now and it definitely gives the bars a different appearance. The red tape I got at a Trek University seminar about a year ago for answering a question correctly. Go me! Ha!

The orange-ish stem will eventually be replaced by a black Salsa stem, once I decide if this rise and reach is good.






A shot from above gives you an idea of how much sweep there is in these bars. You can also see how the Titec version has "forward" sweep in the cross bar. This was a "happy accident" from the use of a standard riser bar for the cross bar. Titec simply turned it around backwards, hacked the ends off and mitered them to accept the welded on extensions. This helps alleviate the need to swap out stems from your previous set up, supposedly.




The controls pacement was a bit problematic. Using SRAM triggers, it's best to place them ahead of the cross bar, along with the brake levers. As I mentioned before, the brake lever thing is perfect for me, as I like to use one finger to brake with anyway.

The right side lever and shifter pod fell into place perfectly. However; the left side was troublesome, as I mentioned. The way the extension was welded on the left side was different enough from the right that I couldn't rotate the shifter pod into the exact same posistion and have it operate in all three gears. I eventually made a compromise set up that will require some test rides to sort out. I think that a higher end SRAM shifter pod, like an X-0 or X-9, that had the adjustable lever placement might not suffer from the same problems. Also, the newer Rapid Fire pods are adjustable for placement in relationship to the clamp, so those might be a great choice with H-Bars in this configuration.

Jeff Jones, the originator of this design, recommends the STI type "flippy shifters" from Shimano, or thumbies for H-Bars, so take that into consideration when thinking about these bars.

Trail testing won't happen for awhile, at least until the spring. I do think a few longer gravel rides are in the near future. I will report back after I get some time on them.