17 August, 2012

Perfect Bar Plugs?

I might be a bit obsessed with bar plugs. I've probably ordered samples of 20 models over the past few years, and darn few met my standards. I'm a big fan of Velox plugs, but they can look a little clunky on a fast bike. Plastic plugs all look really cheap to me, even the lock-in type. Actually, there was a really high quality lock-in soft plastic plug made by Milremo, but those are long out of production. I'm still sad that I can't find my last pair. Wooden bar plugs look nice, but can fall out if not installed with great care.

These are my current favorite bar plugs. They even replaced the Velox plugs on my Pass Hunter. They are made of polished and anodized aluminum alloy and have a resin expanding wedge thing, so they lock securely into the bar. I like the low profile look and smooth dome shape, clean, simple, and durable.

They are easily removed so they can be replaced after you re-wrap the bars, or moved to you new bike. At $9 a pair the price is right, especially so since they'll probably last forever.

We currently have them in silver, black, and brown. If they sell well we'll probably add some primary colors. We can have them made in any color, but the minimum production run is pretty high. Any ideas for new colors? The model we stock now is for 23.8mm (road-diameter) bars, but we might get some for 22.2mm bars in the future. Never thought I could write this much about bar plugs.



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20 comments:

  1. Unknown8/17/12, 3:03 PM

    I would love to see these for 22.2, I've taken to wrapping cork tape over my ergo grips on my flatbar for added padding, grip, and a splash of color, and it's hard to find good plugs for that situation. Also, just because it's my personal accent color, a good medium orange would be a lovely addition to the primaries :)

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  2. John I8/17/12, 4:21 PM

    +1 on making them for 22.2. Not a lot of options for those of us that wrap 'em.

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  3. Dale8/17/12, 5:20 PM

    I like these a lot! The expanding resin plug should work a lot better than the rubber bung on my Nitto aluminum plugs.

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  4. Martin8/17/12, 9:15 PM

    A third vote here for 22.2 and a second for orange. White would be good as well, but understandably more difficult (different process).
    No logos.

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  5. Anonymous8/17/12, 10:12 PM

    The plugs that come with Ergon grips are crummy. A nice aluminum plug would be much better.

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  6. stubecontinued8/18/12, 11:18 AM

    Celeste... of course.

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  7. Rodney Moseman8/18/12, 6:11 PM

    tressthuGreat looking bar end plug. The only down side I see is that when leaning a bicycle against a car the edge of a metal plug, if it has a sharp corner can produce a nice scratch, A slight radius on the contact area goes a long way to damaging the car finish.

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  8. Hobbes vs Boyle8/19/12, 9:43 AM

    I feel bad for asking the question but: how much do they weigh?

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  9. Exhausted_Auk8/19/12, 9:54 AM

    I prefer bar end plugs that double as reflectors. These look great, but I would probably cut out donuts of red reflective tape to stick over them.

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  10. Anonymous8/19/12, 8:56 PM

    Bronze please.....

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  11. Ἀντισθένης8/20/12, 3:29 AM

    Wine corks!

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  12. dwainedibbly8/20/12, 7:35 AM

    Please make them for 22.2. And sell them singly, since some people use bar-end mirrors with city bars.

    Mrs Dibbly wants purple, but realizes that's a huge longshot.

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  13. Anonymous8/20/12, 12:01 PM

    Wine corks work great and look really nice when shellacked :)

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  14. Noah8/20/12, 12:23 PM

    The Velox plugs are great since they are soft and don't scratch things they hit into. But they aren't so nice looking. It would be fantastic if you could do a classy looking bar end that doesn't damage everything it comes in contact with. In the meantime I'll stick to cork or the Velox ones.

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  15. Anonymous8/20/12, 1:31 PM

    I like the aluminum plug, but why not aluminum expanders? The original Campy bar end shifters used resin, and finding one that's not cracked or disintegrating is not easy. (After only a few short decades ;-) On the other hand, the aluminum expanders in Suntour bar ends really will last forever.

    Rich F.

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  16. VeloOrange8/20/12, 4:29 PM

    Hobbes,

    They weight 29 grams together.

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  17. islaysteve8/21/12, 6:37 PM

    I will probably get these when I retape my bars, with comfy cotton tape, of course. What would go well with rich brown? Bronze, copper? Maybe just the silver. Wonderful to have such choices. Steve

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  18. Arleigh Jenkins8/27/12, 8:03 AM

    how about copper and black for colors? Options for mtb would be wonderful!

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  19. Plain_Jim9/9/12, 1:12 PM

    (I also sent this as an email)

    Wait - you wrote your original blog post about those excellent bar plugs in mid-August, and here it is September 9, and you're sold out of the silver and black already? Please tell me you're ordering more! I promise to make up an order with some skewers to make it worth paying the shipping.

    As for primary colors on 'em - seems to me like everybody's got red bikes (d-mn you, Specialized!), but I have no idea who modifies their bikes, or doesn't.

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  20. VeloOrange9/10/12, 9:32 AM

    Yep, these have been super popular and we've run out of black and silver. But more are being made and we'll air-ship a couple of boxes. We have samples of other colors coming too, and plugs for 22.2 bars.

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