origin of ape hangers

[Ken Robb]

The first ones I ever saw in the 1950s were on hillclimb bikes. That is a contest where a really steep dirt hill is attacked one bike at a time to see who can get to the top in the shortest time or, failing that, who gets the farthest up the hill. There were classes for everything from stock bikes and tires to very looooong specials with snow chains on the rear tire burning nitro blends. Since one really big problem with most bikes is keeping the front wheel down while climbing these hills many riders would stand up and lean forward as far as possible to weight the front wheel. Very tall-"ape-hanger"- bars made this easier.

Well you know how we now have pick-ups all jacked up to look like off-road race trucks and road bikes with 20cm drops from saddle to bars to look like roadracers? The ape-hangers were copied so the rider looked like a bad-*** hill-climber. I tried a couple of bikes with them and it really detracted from my ability to control the bikes. My pits were cooler though.

[William]

Ken,
I understand what you're saying, but it doesn't make sense to me. Wouldn't taller bars (AH'ers) have a tendancy to pull/place you outside the COG once the incline starts getting really steep? In effect contributing more to pulling the front wheel off the ground? It seems to me you would want bars closer to the bike itself, maybe even extremely low bars so when the bike is getting verticle and you're standing on the pegs, you're closer to the ground. It seems like Ape Hangers would put you out behind the rear wheel when things get close to verticle contributing more to flipping you over.

I'm not saying that isn't what they did, just that it doesn't make sense to me. :)

William

[Too Tall]

So that what do we call Senor's large saddle to bar drop?

"Knuckle Draggers"
"Gravel Grabbers"
"Bell Ringers"

Hmmm?

[Ken Robb]

the riders w/apehangers would progressively lean forward more as the cycle got to the steeper parts of the hill until they had the grips almost touching their shoulders. There may be other techniques.