|   To Flatbar or H-bar? that is the question | redhaze
Sep 21, 2003 6:27 AM | | Jeff of jonesbikes.com sent me a VERY strong H-bar to replace my cruiser bars that destructed while dropping the fixie off a 3+foot drop. (as seen in the video http://red-haze.com/vids/UrbanLegendsmtbr.wmv or http://red-haze.com/vids/UrbanLegendsmtbr.mpg (sorry, mpg is 44MB))
While this is not his signature Titanium bar, it feels indestructable and not too heavy. I finally got it mounted and went for a Stella ride yesterday. Of course, many others immediately noticed that something was different.
"Why is Bob riding his fixed gear with those funny bars?"
Once someone actually puts their hands on it and sees how the angle pretty much matches up with their natural hand postion...
EDIT:dangit, hit the post button too soon
...you can see a light come on in their eyes. Its a dim light, but ya gotta consider who I ride with...or who would ride with me.
After riding around for a few hours, on some technical logs (one new logride that has a bunch of knots and a 90 corner that I haven't been able to ride before, but was able to yesterday, not saying the bars made me better rider...but mebbe they helped?) and stuff, I was pleasantly suprised to find that I just didn't think about hand position and also any hand/wrist pain that I've been suffering from since falling off a rock in Moab in May.
If anything, these H-bars may be too stiff, or maybe not, but they surely feel strong. Brake placement is somewhat problematical, thats why I have the long lever canti on it so far. Two fingers reach that pretty good so far. And the grips may have to be changed as they are open cell foam and will be really wet here in a couple of months.
I've got another dimension disc fork and wheel with magura brakes that I might use, tho that Loiuse squeals like a stuck pig.
Since my hand position is moved out and back just a bit, I may need a different stem, but I like the strength of the RaceFace stem that is on there.
These h-bars and mr. Jones are pretty cool.
this bike will be at Barbie Camp for all who want to try fixed gear and H-bars.
bob |
| My thoughts, after experimenting with cruiser bars | GlowBoy
Sep 22, 2003 1:05 PM | | (which also put your hands at an angle somewhere between left-right and fore-aft)
I'm finding that I like an angle like that for cruising along on moderate terrain, but they don't seem like they will work well (at least for me) on more gnarly stuff. Both flat bars and drop bars put my hand in a very secure position where it's not likely to slip. I haven't found that to be true with the cruiser bars (either upright or inverted). I could never get them tilted quite right - too low and they're not secure on the downhills, and too high and they put too much pressure on the wrists.
I suspect the H-bars might be similar. At least for me - I'm prone to hand numbness from too much wrist pressure, so someone else might not have this problem.
Let us know what you think! And I'm definitely looking forward to test driving them at Barbie Camp. (speaking of which - I WILL attend - thanks for the ride invite today but I'm still not quite ready for "real" mountain biking yet - but I will be at BC and do whatever level riding I'm up to at that point) |
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