By Scott
It's hard to believe that it has been 3 years since we launched Casey's Crazy Bar. In a world of drop bars and flat bars, the Crazy Bar was polarizing. But, we'd be remiss if we didn't dig back further into the realm of alternative bars to an original one - the Daija Trekking Bar.
I remember seeing these bars on bikes ridden by an older Austrian couple in New Zealand back in 2001. The bars fitted well with the front and rear panniers, rack top bags and trailer they were each pulling around the south island of New Zealand.
OK, so now that you have seen the myriad of cockpits out there, you can see how this bar is the ultimate in individualizing a handle bar. I've never seen flat bars or drop bars get built up with such a personalized feeling about them. In the photo above, we put tape along the sides, but you could easily use another set of grips there as well for more cushioning.
For those of you who are now intrigued by these, some basic spec's - the clamp area is a 25.4 mm, standard for flat bars. The straight section where your main grips, shifters and brake levers would fit is a 22.2 mm clamp area and is 15 cm long. They work best with a 25.4 mm threadless stem, as trying to get a quill stem around all those curves could prove to be a nightmare. If you had a quill stem with a removeable faceplate, that would work as well (wink, wink, nudge, nudge).
( Photo taken by Endlessvelolove )
Posts
15 comments:
Also known as Brezellenker (pretzel bars) in the German-speaking world.
Before I had a dedicated touring bike I used a set of these bars on an inexpensive mountain bike set up for loads and they worked out very well. Sold the bike but kept the bars since I had gone to the trouble to stitch on leather wrap, may someday put them on the new ride as they give a lot of options.
Unfortunately Brezellenker are seldomly set up by somebody who knows what he/she is doing. Here in Germany you mostly see them attached to Walmart-class bikes in any arkward position you can imagine (e.g. impossible to reach the brake levers....)
I had a set on my 'round town load carrier for a while; I had MTB brakes on the flats (toward me) and old-style road levers on the front, set up as interrupts. Then I put clip-on aero bars on it. It was ridiculous.
I found that the flats and the curves were too flat to get a comfortable hand position (coming from drop bars or bull-horns), and the sides were too wide. The flats were also extremely flexible, which was a little unnerving. All told, I wasn't into them, but they helped me pin down what kind of handlebars work well for me, and which don't. Kind of like one of those fit-kit bikes with all the adjustments.
One of these days I'll build up a bike with Casey's Crazy bars, they seem pretty ideal, provided you're not overly concerned with aesthetics!
I have a very similar shape bar that I got from Nashbar years ago. My bike had drop bars with integrated brake/shifters. I have the open side toward the rear but the brake handles mounted toward the front. I tried with the brake handles close by, but it brought my arms so close to my waist that I couldn't brace myself adequately in a sudden stop.
that campeur in the photo has a kick stand plate....so the use of the top clamp on that greenfield kickstand is unnecessary!!! And clamping too tight could damage the seat stays....
Scott made a similar bar, with the "flats" joined together by a plastic piece. I still have a pair on my tandem.
@kickstand police. Relax. It's not VO' s bike. And they're chainstays, not seatstays.
On the Nitto "Noodle" drop bars on my Rivendell Sam Hillborne, I have V-Brakes with the Tektro drop bar V-Brake levers and the, now discontinued, Tektro interrupter V-Brake levers. It's great. I have brake levers wherever I put my hands. I can't fathom why the bike world, or Shimano at least, has decided to kill V-Brakes. They work great, are powerful, easy to maintain and inexpensive. Well, that inexpensive part is certainly why they want to kill them. Yes, I know racers would hate my setup, because it is not tuned for the fine manuvers needed in a peloton. I am never in a peloton. In my riding, I don't even use the brakes a lot, but when I want them, I want to be able to stop. This V-Brake setup (with Kool Stop salmon pads) gives me the stopping power I want.
Well, my point in relation to the trekking bars is that, if I were to contemplate them, I would want brake levers where I could get to them. I am not comfortable with a bar where a much used hand position has no easy access to the brakes.
With the current bikepacking trend, I was wondering if the pretzel bars would get some serious internet love by what I consider the 'right' crowd. And here it is :)
In my experience, these bars are only used by very inexperienced riders on very cheap bikes, or by die-hard grumpy males who sandpaper the threads of every screw on their bike to make it go more smoothly. I consider myself part of none of these groups, and just for me, the form vs. function approach of these butterfly bars is just not doing it for me. I tried them once when I has a very cheap town bike, but no matter how I angled them, I was still only using two of the 743 hand positions offered by them, as they were a little too flat for the aero tuck. Also, but this is more theoretically speaking, their shape seems to provide for a lot of flex at the open end - perhaps too much?
A lot of good posts in this discussion. It would be very interesting to see if anyone here is using them to good success on a good touring bike for offroad touring.
Please site references for your statement or is it the statement your opinion?
Thanks for your input into the discussion. Alt'ernative' bars in general have polarizing opinions, that's for sure. In my touring experience, they are a perfectly suitable handlebar. Some riders like flex in their bars when tackling rough gravel or crushed stones. And while some may only find a few positions worthwhile, others may need every single one due to previous injuries or simply wanting the ability to put their hands wherever they want and not being limited to 2 or 3 positions.
Most importantly, I think we can all agree that we should support whatever it takes for someone to get enjoyment out of riding their bikes, even if they have some weird bars.
-Igor
Just got my trekking bar yesterday. Installed them last night. Went for a ride today. Excellent bars! I don't do drops, and flat bars are achey after a short time. Albatross was nice, but just not quite right. Boscos... very comfy for cycle path cruising, but climbing out of the saddle, or trail riding not so much.
So far, these trekking bars seem to offer a great balance for the type of riding I do.
I have been using a trekking bar on my Miyata Six Ten for a few years now. I have the open end facing away from me (I once thought I was the only weirdo doing this!)and I mounted the brake levers on the outer curved part of the bars.
I have tried to maximize the amount of knee clearance I have. This setup is very comfortable for me around town - better than drops.
I was tossed one of these when I picked up an old Cannondale frame. Those it's a CAAD frame, it's a nice black, and I think it'll do well with a Brooks saddle, matching bar tape on the trekking bar, and a couple of canvas bags. The bike is a '90s hardtail, so not a lot of complication there.
Post a Comment