Flipped handlebars
 

Driving home from work yesterday, I saw a guy on a road bike who had his handlebars turned 180 degrees upwards - these were regular road bike drop bars, but the drops were concave forward! Of course the brakes were mounted where you'd expect them to be on drop bars, so he'd have to actuate them with his palms. I wish I had my camera with me, but it was quite a sight!

Not a rare sight as you might think... Sometime called 'DUI Handlebars'

I've seen this a handful of times. Usually ridden by guys with untrimmed beards with plastic bags attached to their pannier racks and muttering/talking/yelling to themselves.

It's also for racing.

More upright position = more power.

Good for uphill TT's or hilly RR's.

I used to have my bars that way when I was 10 years old, it made attaching the paper bags to them much easier (this was the 70's, when kids still had paper routes :) )

bum bars!

Either you are joking or you misunderstood the OP...

Yup!

Did you spend all your earnings at the corner doughnut shop as I did ?

Fond memories of being exploited child labor earning $.50 / hour or whatever it worked out to.

At the Donut shop and on BMX bike stuff :lol:

Well traditionally drop handlebars are usually convex facing forward.

I'm pretty sure that I have an accurate understanding of what concave forward looks like. :D

Back in the 70s and early 80s, a much less PC term was applied to bars that were simply rotated up at least 135 degrees so that the drops were way up above the stem.

OP, are you talking about bars removed from stem, flipped so they were facing backwards, drops not way above the stem, but down where drops belong? Eeeek! Did they have a toptube pad?

Drops above the stem, as if he just loosened the bolts on the face of the stem enough to rotate the bars upwards.

I've seen a couple of these Vancouver.

Just looks like a bunch of idiots.

Death upon impact?

The original "comfort bike"

No way dude I'm flipping my bars when we do Pier to Peak and I'm going to drope you. :roflmao2:

No because people who get DUI's and have to ride a bike typically don't know how to set up the road bike they've had collecting dust in their garage for 15 years.

See it all the time. As others mentioned, usually the guys riding them are bums talking to themselves with bags of cans hanging from the bars.

+1

because the frame stolen by the homeless guy is too big and he can't reach the brakes. also, the convenience of being able to hook plastic bags from the liquor store to your handlebars.

I just hook 'em on my hoods. Works great, more aero.
I guess if your're rockin' olde school non-aero brake levers, you're SOL, tho.

I saw a kid riding like that not too long ago. Only thing is he had Sora components. Still not quite sure how he shifts with the bars facing like that.