Ti Muk 2 Gets A New Bar

The Answer Pro Taper Carbon handlebar.

After waiting two full weeks past my ordering date, these Answer Pro Taper Handlebars finally showed up. I ordered them directly from Hayes up in Mequon, Wisconsin. That's just shy of a five hour drive from where I live. Yet it took two weeks to get the handlebar here? I could have ridden the Ti Muk 2 there and back in less time. Anyway.......

I'm a little miffed. Hayes nor the USPS gave me much to go on in those two weeks. In fact, my last communique' from the USPS said that the handlebar was "moving to the next facility". Yeah....that's comforting. But I hear this is par for the course now when ordering stuff. I guess my excellent experience recently ordering from Silca is extraordinarily rare. 

But, the point! Yes......the handlebar arrived! I got it installed and went for a ride immediately. I have a very good feeling that me and this Pro Taper bar are going to have a long, happy relationship. I surmised, as you may recall when I first brought up this handlebar, that the extreme sweep of the Jones Carbon Loop Bar was just not in agreement with me ergonomically. Not 100% at least. This Pro Taper bar looked like a good middle-ground between average sweep and the Jones sweep. Goldilocks? Yes, it would appear so, at least at first blush. I'm going to give this a bit of time before I declare this a done deal, but let's just say I am in no hurry to go put that Jones Bar back on. 

Anywho.... How about some images?

Excuse the filthy nature of the beast, but here you can see how my hand height is about the same as with the Jones Bar.

This bar is wider than the Jones bar, and it allows for a clear path for my Schmidt light to shine.

Like the black wings of a bird.....Caw-caw!

I was a bit concerned how this Answer handlebar would play with my dynamo light, but the mount snuggles right up against the stem, and there was enough straight handlebar to accommodate that mount. Plus, now I have a clear path for the light to shine instead of getting shadows from the cable housing runs, as with the Jones bar. 

The Ergon grips are nice, and I do like them, but I am going to pop for a set of the Bio-Kork Ergon grips when I can get those because they insulate a bit better than these will in the cold temperatures. I could have cut down the ESI Silicone grips I had on the Jones Bar, but I might be selling those, and whomever buys them may want those too. 

So, the experiment has been kicked off, and so far things look good. Oh....and for those who care about such things: The Pro Taper Bar weighs 190 grams. So, I lost a bit of weight with this swap also. Anyway....I will be putting in more rides on the Ti Muk 2 as cooler weather approaches, so I will update things when that happens. Right now I have a massive cleaning job to do, (obviously), and I need to do tubeless maintenance on these Cake Eater tires. Then I should be ready to roll onward. 

Stay tuned......