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Mary style road drop bars

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Mary style road drop bars

Old 11-14-19, 05:37 PM
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Mary style road drop bars

I've seen Mary style "flat" bars but what are Mary style drop bars used for? They look like track bars to me. Riding on the drops look like the only comfortable option. Riding the hoods looks very uncomfortable and riding the tops looks difficult at best. I bought a nice vintage touring bike that has a high quality flat bar and stem and rather than change out the stem, bar, brake levers and shifters I'm wondering if adding a bar-end extension would be a more cost effective alternative since I almost never use the drops anyway.
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Old 11-14-19, 10:04 PM
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Wrong forum.
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Old 11-16-19, 09:53 AM
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Originally Posted by AnkleWork
Wrong forum.
If not mechanics then who might I ask?
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Old 11-17-19, 08:35 AM
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I did a Google search for "Mary style handlebars" and got a long list of hits that include discussions of their merits. You should find your answers there. Apparently "Mary" is a trade name used by one maker, not a generic type.
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Old 11-17-19, 01:39 PM
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Maybe post a picture of the bars you are talking about. My searches show Mary bars are a type of flat bar. I can only find one person selling a drop bar referred to as a Mary style drop bar and that looks like it has an outward flare to the bend with an inward bend to the drop.
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Old 11-20-19, 05:50 PM
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Originally Posted by dsaul
Maybe post a picture of the bars you are talking about. My searches show Mary bars are a type of flat bar. I can only find one person selling a drop bar referred to as a Mary style drop bar and that looks like it has an outward flare to the bend with an inward bend to the drop.
That's the one. There's very little top flat area. It slopes quickly down and out and the drops are slightly flared out. I saw some similar stuff on very old (60-70's) Austrian bikes.
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Old 11-20-19, 06:23 PM
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Originally Posted by Cycle Tourist
I'm wondering if adding a bar-end extension would be a more cost effective alternative since I almost never use the drops anyway.
Bar ends will obviously give you one additional hand position on flat bars. You might also look at trekking/ butterfly bars. To make your post/question more comprehensible you might delete the irrelevant stuff about the Mary bars, maybe change the thread title.
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Old 11-21-19, 10:45 PM
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Are we talking about something like the Salsa Woodchipper?



Not particularly my choice of bars, but I think they're popular with some tourists and casual riders.
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Old 11-21-19, 10:52 PM
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That only took one week (so far).
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Old 11-22-19, 02:34 PM
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I finally decided to take a bit of time and did a search for mary style bars and see they look very close to what we called "North Road" bars back in the day. A style I used on a couple of small wheeled urban bikes years ago. Oh well, I guess every generation feels the need to make the old their own by renaming it. Andy
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Old 11-22-19, 06:36 PM
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Originally Posted by Andrew R Stewart
I finally decided to take a bit of time and did a search for mary style bars and see they look very close to what we called "North Road" bars back in the day. A style I used on a couple of small wheeled urban bikes years ago. Oh well, I guess every generation feels the need to make the old their own by renaming it. Andy
That's what I stumbled across first, but I figured I must be looking at the wrong thing from the description...
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Old 11-24-19, 06:41 PM
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Originally Posted by ThermionicScott
That's what I stumbled across first, but I figured I must be looking at the wrong thing from the description...
A picture will help.
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Old 11-24-19, 08:31 PM
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Not at all what I had thought. Also not what I would want given the long sloping tops to the hooks. Good luck. Andy
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Old 11-24-19, 08:47 PM
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Those look somewhat like track/pista style drop bars.

Here are some Nitto Track bars.


https://an-excellent-test-store.mysh...rack-drop-bars
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