Hi all,
I became interested in so-called alt-bars as I have been fine-tuning my new winter bike. I came across the VO Crazy Bars, which seemed really interesting and the measurements were pretty close to what I thought I wanted....close, but not perfect. In my reading, I discovered that the VO Seine bars are the VO Crazy Bars without the Crazy, which would allow me to space the horns a bit wider than the 420 of the CBs by using the old bar-ends from my mtn bike.
One question I couldn't find a good answer or picture to was what people did about brakes on the horns, so I am posting this up to show what I did, and then to rave about my experience thus far. So, here we have what I did:
The bar ends are for 22.2 mm, and they fit past the bends, which are at 420mm. I have mine out a bit further at 450mm. There are angles at play in the bars and bar-ends, but at 450 they are spaced comfortable for me and end up being at a good wrist angle. After riding the initial setup a bit, I decided that brakes on the horns would be very nice. Fortunately I had some interrupter brake levers, so I put them on and it looks fairly clean with both sets. Very nice to have the ability to brake on the horns, which I have found to be my primary riding position (similar to my drop bar brake hoods):
I will cover them with tape at some point, but it is currently mitten weather, so I don't need the padding at the moment. Note that I used a bit of gasket material to get the interrupter brakes to fit on the bar-end. The levers are for 23.8mm bars, but they are plenty sturdy with the material in place.
My $0.10 review: love 'em. I went from drops to these, where I would ride 85% of the time on the hoods and occasionally with my finger-tips on the straight top of the bars or corners, but these latter two weren't very comfortable riding positions. So one and a half positions. The CBs bars give me four comfortable, useful, riding positions. The lower horns have the same feeling as on the drop bar hoods; the upper horns the same, but stretched out a bit more; the swept-bar ends are for super-upright, looking around ****-eating grin cruising (esp. when going down long hills), and finally palms on top of the shifter area is a pretty upright comfy position too. Out of the seat on the horns feels really powerful and very comfortable for climbing. Overall, they are really great.
The only thing I need to figure out now is the shifters. I think I'd like them on the horns, probably rotating concentric to the bar-end plug (not a bar-end shifter (up/down)). This is going to require some development as I don't think there is anything off-the-shelf which will fit.
Anyway, hope this is useful for someone else considering making the change.