Tumbleweed Bicycle Co. Big Dipper Handle Bar: Mid-Term Report

 Note: Tumbleweed Bicycle Co. sent a Big Dipper handle bar to Guitar Ted Productions at no charge for review. I was not paid, nor bribed for this review, and I always strive to give my honest thoughts and opinions throughout. The first part of this review can be seen HERE.

The Tumbleweed Big Dipper Bar was used most recently during my Turkey Burn Ride

One of the objectives I wanted to achieve with this review was to see if having the hoods position be so wide, as compared to anything else I have used in the past, would cause any ergonomic issues after a multi-hour ride. 

That ride happened on Thanksgiving Day during my four hours, and a little bit more, ride on multiple surfaces. Included in the ride were paved roads, bicycle trails, double/single track, "new" cut trail, gravel road and grassy field traverses, Throughout it all, I never had any issues crop up with regard to how wide the Big Dipper Bar is. No weird pains, numbness, or discomforts. That is a good thing, for me at any rate.

Now let's take a closer look at the hand positions the Big Dipper offers.....

More On Hand Positions: Up top you can see from the image to the left here that there is a lot of space between the stem and the hoods. This is what I was mentioning in the previous post in this review. Because you can get on that straight section of bar and have your hands further apart, you have far more control while riding in that position than you would have using a narrower bar. 

That white object on the right edge is the Bookman Volume light so there is no hint of the stem yet in that view. That's a LOT of handlebar there! That said, you might notice that my arm looks like it is coming at an angle to the hoods which might suggest that the bar is narrower than it might actually be. That is not the case as in reality, my arm comes down at a very slight outward angle from the shoulder being the narrowest point. But just barely so. It is almost a straight shot from shoulder to hood. 

And you can see that the reach is minimal here also. If you were to try this handle bar, you may not have to lengthen your stem at all, and in fact, you probably will want a shorter stem. I ended up going from an 80mm stem to the 60mm stem which is installed on the bike currently. Of course, your experience may vary. That experience will be determined by your bicycle's geometry, your preferred seated position, and how high your handlebar is going to be off the ground. Those will all factor into where you will need to go to make any handle bar work for you, not just this one. 

Again, here is another image which really shows you how much room the tops allow you here. But my focus now is on the drops. If there is one area of the Big Dipper Bar I would change it is here. 

Essentially, there is one place to land here, and in the heat of a tricky moment, going from the hoods to the extensions means that you had better nail the landing or.... Yeah, there is one place to go, unless you cock your wrist and stick your hand up more towards the lever perch. 

This could easily be solved by giving about an inch and a half extra extension on the end. Plus, you could move around a little then while riding in the drops. 

While I feel the extensions are at a bare minimum length, I will say that riding in the drops is comfortable and I can stay there as long as I want or need to. So, while the extension is kind of short, in my view, it is shaped well and it is a good place to be while riding. I just wanted to give a little more context to my statements in the opening post of this review regarding the hand positions. 

Ride Feel: These bars are not as stiff or dead feeling as some I have tried. Like I mentioned in the opening post, your hands have a lot of leverage on the bar with that width that the Big Dipper Bar gives you. This allows for some "give" over some bumps, depressions, and obstacles. But it should in no way be mistaken as "suspension" or even as "vibration damping", because that is not what the Big Dipper Bar does. 

Gravel's vibrations are not damped out by the Big Dipper Bar,

 It will help take the edge off hits and spring back at you a bit when the bar rebounds back to its static position. This feels like "suspension", but it isn't really. It's just that the energy coming from the wheel gets transmitted to you in a less sharp manner. Likewise, you are not going to escape those higher frequency vibrations that gravel can induce, that is, unless you are running bigger tires at a lower pressure. 

So Far... Good stuff. The Big Dipper Bar is a great design. The width is not as noticeable after a few rides, and honestly, this handle bar feels very natural to me at this point. That longer ride with all the variances in terrain and surface types didn't cause issues related to the handle bar at all. 

So, now I need to load up the Gryphon, do a nice, decently long ride, and then I should have a pretty good handle on the capabilities and performance of the Big Dipper Bar. The thing is, that may not happen for a while yet. We could be dealing with snow and ice at any time now, so hang on and I'll try to get this done as soon as I can.