Fav. Handlebars Shimano or Campag: Why

[Too Tall]

What is your fav. bar for Campag Brifters or Shimano STI and why.

Shimano: Salsa Pro. Puts the lower part of the lever fairly close to the bars when you are in the drops which is good for crits. If you set the lower part of the lever level with bottom of the bars the tops give a flat area and no sharp rise. Bars are strong like MOOSE!

Campag: Kestrel EMS. These bars are deep set the Brifters up to make a loooong shelf on bar tops. Miles of flat to hang out on.

Bars I want to try: Nitto 175s AKA "Dream Bar", Nitto Noodle.


*Smiley - "Felix the cat, the wonderful wonderful cat" get it?

[Climb01742]

new school: modolo carbon curvissimo
old school: nitto noddle

both position shimano brifters well. campy bhifters are best positioned in the trash. :) (just kidding...sorta)

[zap]

TTT. Modolo's carbon curv. look interesting too.

Easton Carbon is quite frankly a pain. Can't wait to get rid of it.

[Climb01742]

zap, try the curvissimo's. pricey but great ergonomics. i don't think you'd be disappointed.

[shinomaster]

what is a brifter?

[alembical]

the brifters are the one-piece brake/shifter units.

Alembical

[PaulE]

I like the Salsa Road Pro. It comes in a true 46 c to c width, and my mitts, which are not that big, fit nicely in the ergo section of the drops. I only have Shimano 9 sp.

[BigMac]

No perfect bars but 3 pretty good ones:

Salsa Pro Road (now available in black only, yuck!)
Cinelli mod.66 (long discontinued)
Deda 310 (discontinued)

The Salsa Pro Road (and Bell Lap on fixed gear) have lovely deep drops and are reasonably well built. The transition from flat to drop could be flatter, the return at bottom of drop could be much longer and another 50g of material would alleviate their annoying spring/flex, particularly noticable when in drops.

The Cinelli mod.66, aka "Merckx bend" had classic deep drop, level tops, long returns, the still unequalled perfect bar shape. They were incessantly squeaky with that ridiculous center sleeve design Cinelli and Nitto have used for years. The mod.66 was also from the 26.4mm clamp generation that was unique to Cinelli alone and since has been abandoned even by them. If someone would only copy that shape in a 26.0 extruded bulge I would be a very happy man...albeit not in a ridiculous "modern" sub 300g flexy design.

The Deda 310 was nearly my dream bar if I only used flats and hoods. At 310g (probably >350g in 46cm version) the bar had very minimal flex and wonderful feel. The stout build and extruded bulge meant this was one silent bar and the transition from flat to drop was billiard table level, what more could one ask for? The drops were so shallow I think only the most petite of hands could fit comfortably for any reasonable period of time and the return area was similarly non-existant. So close yet so far.

Now if I could morph the best features of these 3, I could indeed have my dream bar...probably buy an even dozen knowing the vendor would discontinue them within a year because somehow folks are buying the sales pitch that sub 250g handlebars are a good thing :crap:

Ride on! :banana: :banana: :banana:

[JackL]

I love my Easton carbon bars!

[Climb01742]

with all the small custom frame builders in america, i wonder why there isn't a custom handlebar maker. and if not full, person by person customization, maybe someone who brings back great designs from the past, as bigmac mentioned. is there a technological or financial reason that would make custom bars prohibitive?

[oldmill]

Ritchey Bio Max bars are for me the most comfortable bars by far, especially in the drops. The Noodles are similar in that the top part sweeps back a bit toward the rider, but the drops are not nearly as comfortable imho. Much less ergonomic than the fit-to-your-hand Ritcheys. Too bad because I love the way the Noodles look and have kept them on one of my bikes largely because of it. (fwiw I have Shimano on the Ritcheys and campy on the Noodles).

[dohearne]

I have the Ritchey Biomax on 2 bikes both with Campy shifters (not sure you can call Campy a brifter). I have small hands and the Ritchey Biomax bars allows me a comfortable reach when down in the drops with very good access to shift up and down on both hands while there. The location of the brake/shifters is level from the handlebar bend all the way out to the hoods. For me this provides a nice elbows in and bent position both on the hoods and in the drops. Until I got the Biomax I never felt comfortable in the drops, but since putting the bar on my bikes I now can spend long periods in the drops feeling very comfortable.

[shinomaster]

I hate the drop part as its too small. Maybe I have the shallow drop. But I like how flat the tops are to the ergo power. I like my ritchey pro bars in the opposite way. I love love the drops. Wish the top bar interface was more flat. IS there a happy middle? My Itm pro 250's are amost good..

[saab2000]

..... are the Cinelli 65s. They are the famous crit bend and I wish that they would come out with a modern one of these which had the bend in such a way as to accept the modern brifters. I have tried and even filed some Ergos to get them to work, but it just ain't happenin'. I have some on an older '80s bike with "normal" brake levers and I love all the comfy positions.

I have a set of the Modolo Curvissima bars. They are not bad, but no way are they worth the cash. IMHO, carbon bars are the biggest ripoff of all time. I do not dislike my Modolos, but they are not worth 8x the price of good aluminum bars.

I have some TTT Formas which are heavy and primitive, but they are not bad. Also, ITM makes pretty good stuff. I might stick with them in the future as they just make good stuff with a bit less flash.

The Ritchey aluminum bars have a bend which does not agree with my hands and wrists, which is too bad because their stems and other things are pretty good.

Cinelli: Bring back the 65s with modern aluminum and with a curve which will accept Campagnolo Ergo levers without having the tips stick way out!!! I will buy them!

[Climb01742]

saab--for me, what makes the modolo curvissima bars so good isn't that they are carbon, it's their shape. shallow drop. nice ramp to brifters. but most of all, how they route the cables on the bar tops to create a bulge that really fits my hands/fingers. that bulge or oval shape is far more comfy than normal round bar tops. in my experience, that's unique and quite nice. i agree they're costly. but their shape is more than simple an alu bar shape done in carbon. at half their price i'd love them twice as much! but for a special bike, i think they're a worthwhile indulgence.

[saab2000]

Mr. Climb01742,

I agree that the shape of the Modolos is pretty good. That is why I bought mine. But it has turned out not to be better than the shape of other bars.

I am not upset that I bought them. They have thusfar been good bars. And shape is a very personal thing. I thought they would be very good and they are, but they are not better than far less expensive aluminum bars in shape or in any other characteristic.

Believe me, I like my Modolos, but they (and all other carbon bars) are not worth the cost, IMHO.

Just my $0.02...... :beer:

[Too Tall]

What was I thinking? I forgot about the Zipp B2 bar. It solves a problem that's bugging me namely how to get the levers closer to the bar and still have a decent drop bar not some shallow deal. AND they are one of our product sponsors. Hmmm.
Zipp B2
Reach: 84mm
Drop: 152mm

PS - We LOVE those venerable Cinelli's and used them on PBP 99' and setup really great with good ol' Dia Comp levers. Sweet.

[Climb01742]

saab, agreed. on most my frames, their price ain't justified. maybe i'm silly, but on my "trick" rigs, i splurge. :D

[Brian Smith]

two seemingly radical beliefs inform my lever and bar selections:

1) drop bars are especially good when held in the drops instead of onto what is mounted to them

2) the most critical location of the brake lever is that which it occupies at the moments during which maximum braking is occurring and that is followed by the path swung by the lever on its way to that point

i suspect i'm in little company, but i find nothing wrong with either TTT "forma family" bends for large saddle to bar differentials (or Salsa Bell Laps for lesser differentials,) and a straighter-bend lever such as sprint/GPX (or current record to a slightly lesser degree.) My hands are slightly larger than average, but I know there are many riders with much larger hands.

i suppose that my having a riding background which early in its history includes a lot of skills-based riding which was very brake use intensive has something to do with my being very picky about brake feel and ergonomics, but I'm surprised that more people do not complain about this stuff more.

-Brian

[alembical]

Brian,
I too like the feel the TTT Forma. I have not really tried a whole lot of the bars out there, but it has been because I feel comfortable on the 3T Formas and have not interest in the new carbon offerings. Why change something that feels right.

Alembical

[jerk]

best: cinelli 65s

2nd best: cinelli 66s

the 66 was available for a while in a 26.0 clamp....the jerk has a few if anyone needs'em. the 65 was unfortunatly never made in 26.0 which means if you want to use'em on a modern bike you've got to use a steel stem and spread it a bit....

here's what you do with those bars if you want to use them with campy 10 speed....find the old point levers in the garbage can of your local bike shop...replace the guts and blades with the new record carbon junk (a la the jerk and a pretty fast guy named ullrich back when he was on pinarellos and something painted to look like a bianchi)....now you've got enough room for your little fingers and you don't need to pull the DUI french/lance/ put the hoods facing up in the air....now with shimano that's the only game in town.....

the jerk's favorite bar would be a cinelli 65 top with a 66 drop...some track bars come close but they're not perfect and generally way too heavy and only availble in narrow trackie style 38s/40s sometimes 42s for fools who don't know any better...(not that that's a problem for the jerk who likes 42s but big mac might have an issue)


anyway the jerk is working with some taiwanese folks who know carbon fiber...the first project is a walser style aerobar, the next one is probably going to be round handlebars in shapes that make sense....no these things won't be light but they will be super stiff and strong....yup, carbon for the sake of carbon.

jerk

p.s. the walser project is coming along a little slower than expected. the jerk will keep you updated.

[Dr. Doofus]

ritchey wcs -- like the jerk, your narrator loved the 66...but he got used to itm 260s, which sucked like his mom's lame-ass kasha that she insisted on foisting upon us a couple of times a year and thank god my pops was a semi-enlightened new-school cat from alabama who would barbeque pork, but the doc digresses...he's gotten used to the wcs and has grown to like the bend of them...and he and i ride in the drops for about 50% of our weekly mileage....

will probably switch to the ritchey classic bar this winter, just to get back to the round feel

ritchey wcs stems (yanked that crappy itm big one off the corsa finally)

[Jeff N.]

3T Zepp XL, ITM Super Over, ITM Pro 225. Jeff N.

[bostondrunk]

nashbar special, 19.99, with suntour supreme shifters on the brake levers, mounted at 49 degree angle <burp><burp> :beer: , with shimano sante rear derailleur..<burp>