Grand Bois Handlebars?

[BillG]

Has anyone tried these? They're sort of intriguing.

http://www.compasscycle.com/Handlebars.html

[jamesutiopia]

Am giving the Grand Bois rando bar a shot this season. I normally ride 46cm (ctc) shallow bars for general use (~63cm frames) so these are seriously different in every dimension.

The good:

Narrow width suits a low trail rando bike, and is not an issue if you already ride narrow-ish bars
Contrary to expectations, the width doesn't seem to interfere with breathing at all
The drops are superb-- so many positions in the drops by themselves you can spend all day riding down there with the right stem height
Upward sweep of the tops is ergonomically useful if you have broad shoulders. Probably less of a feature for smaller people. This is a feature not found in many other bars


The bad:

Don't love the narrow width on a normal road bike (no front load, 53mm trail)
The reach/depth of the ramps is crazy, and probably better suited to non-aero levers than modern brifters because brifters extend the ramps even further. With SRAM levers I've got ~20cm of depth from the stem clamp to the tip of the hoods. Am not convinced this much reach is a good thing, but it's something to try
Because of the huge reach it is hard to find a single stem length that yields good position on tops, hoods, and drops. I've optimized for the drops and compromised the hoods. I end up gripping the ramps instead of the hoods, which works OK for seated climbs but isn't as confident a position as holding the hoods in your fist. Compared to the hoods, the ramp position seems worse for seated-to-standing transition and sketchy pace lines (the brakes are far away)
25.4mm clamp is a design choice only a historian could love. Took awhile, but I eventually found my stem spreader (http://www.euroasiaimports.net/productcart/pc/viewPrd.asp?idproduct=8052&idcategory=1324)


They're really different, so this has been an interesting experiment. Much more fun than figuring out another wonky electronic device. Only similar bar I'm aware of is the V-O Rando bar, which has even more reach than the GB bar (I did buy the V-O bar, but never bothered to ride it). V-O bar also has a lot more splay (tops of a 46cm V-O rando bar are basically the same width as the 41cm GB rando bar: the difference is all the width of the drops)

I'd love to try a shallow (and admittedly less pretty) version of this bar, but it's so far out in left field there aren't a lot of options to try

Maes bars look nice, but haven't tried. Other opinions?

[rcnute]

I love the rando bars.

Ryan

[BillG]

Thanks for that extremely thorough review. Really helpful.
(and thanks rcnute for your input as well!)

[sg8357]

I have the Maes parallel bars, 42cm.
The drop is noticeably shallower than the Noodle bars.
I am used to long ramp bars and use the ramps a lot for cruising,
hoods are for climbing and getting a bit more stretched out on the flats.

They are lighter and with no sleeve won't creak like Noodles sometimes
do. Considering that all my modern bikes had Noodles, a little variety
will be interesting.

[BillG]

Those 1970s Maes bars look very cool.

[buck-50]

I've had the rando bars for a year and a half now- I'm really loving them. As you said, they need a certain type of bike to work right- mine is medium trail and the bars are just right.

I found that the upsweep and the shape of the bars really makes it easy for me to keep my elbows properly bent and my chest nice and open.

The ramps work well with standard aero brake levers but I can't imagine they'd work well with modern brifters. (god i hate that word.)

They seem to work best (and that ramp definitely works best) when the bars are about level with your saddle- lower and those ramps are gonna be painful.

[BillG]

My rando bike will have a front bag and rando-style fork with lot's o trail, but modern brifters (I hate the word too) and a fair amount of drop. It sounds like they won't be a good choice for me.
Thanks for all this info!