Wednesday, September 13, 2017

Off Road Drop Bar Stuff

I reviewed this bar recently, but there are so many out now, I cannot keep up.
I got a lot of hits on my Off Road Drop Bar page, ( temporarily down for maintenance), but now it appears a lot of those old links I used to direct people to for information have been shut down. I just went in there and cleaned things up, but the page is gutted and it needs a refresh.

It used to be that there were only a few real choices in off road drop bars as late as only five or six years ago. But since that time, the "adventure" bike, "all-roads" bike, and obviously, the "gravel bike" niches have blossomed and with it, choices for handle bars with flare and sweep.

So, instead of trying to be the unabridged page of off road drop bars, I decided to instead focus on design and where certain choices work and do not work in drop bars for off roading or gravel riding. When you get down to the brass tacks, certain things work and certain other things not so much. Some design choices are just down right weird. My plan is to shed some light on that and I will also use a few examples of classic bars which will illustrate the point well.

Then I may add in some advice and techniques on how to wrap bars, reduce vibration, and how to do other sundry details on flared drop bars. We'll see where it goes. It needed some updating and cleaning up, so that will hopefully be happening here in the Fall and I want to get that back on the site here soon. Suggestions? Comments? Concerns? Hit me up in the comments section. Thank you!

Stay tuned.......





2 comments:

Livino said...

This is exactly the sort of info I was looking for when I found your site, and I'm looking forward to your new page(s) on the subject.

Currently I'm pondering a drop bar ("monster") bike for use in long rides on unpaved surfaces - this is Brazil thus we have lots and lots of dirt roads. I got this carbon MTB frame from China that needs a new cockpit after a crash and SRAM being nice enough to make their MTB and road parts compatible gave me ideas. Already got a set of TRP Spyre "road" disc calipers just in case. So now I'm looking for the sort of short reach, short drop 'bars that fit my lack of flexibility and that would also be a good match for this "hybrid" machine I'm coming up with.

So hurry up I say, and please spare a thought for us tall stack, short reach kinda guys!

(Oh, I'd also love to know your thoughts on using suspension forks in that sort of "monster bike" application)

Ted said...

YES! Would love to see the new bar page once it's updated.

Though it veers into "downright weird" territory, I'd like to your thoughts on the Soma Condor. While odd in appearance, it seems to be very versatile.