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2011 LHT Handlebar Upgrade - Crazy Bars or Truck Stop Bars?

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2011 LHT Handlebar Upgrade - Crazy Bars or Truck Stop Bars?

Old 01-14-22, 09:25 AM
  #26  
gauvins
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Originally Posted by tyrion
You can compare their shapes on https://whatbars.com/
Interesting site. Make differences between bars more salient (eg: width ranging from 400mm up to 810mm; backsweep from 0 up to 80(!!) degrees; rise from 0 up to 100mm).

I understand the basic argument wrt width (wider -> more control; wider -> less aero). I kinda understand the backsweep argument (not enough or too much puts strain on the wrists). I don't understand why one would want a rise instead of a proper stem. And there is no discussion on the merits of aero extensions (from experience, I know that I have tried to ride in this position over butterfly bars, quickly giving up because it was so uncomfortable)
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Old 01-14-22, 11:16 AM
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I used a stem extender to raise up my bars on my trek 520. apropos of nothing, are some uncut steerer longer than others? I know that the surly lht uncut is nice and high. I wonder if the trek 520 was just as high before it was cut. (i bought it used) .
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Old 01-14-22, 12:16 PM
  #28  
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Originally Posted by jpjuggler
I used a stem extender to raise up my bars on my trek 520. apropos of nothing, are some uncut steerer longer than others? I know that the surly lht uncut is nice and high. I wonder if the trek 520 was just as high before it was cut. (i bought it used) .
As far as I know, only surly sells bikes like this. Other companies cut them so that they look cleaner and racier in the showroom, and while stems can change position, sometimes it can be limited.

high bars=Old foggy
and I get it partly., from the marketing angle.
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Old 01-14-22, 04:43 PM
  #29  
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Thanks for all the great suggestions and options presented. The picture of my bike I posted before was rather old and I took a new one today. I had already rotated the bars so they were more level to the ground, but I have not moved the brake levers to adjust for the change.

I am going to make the following changes before I take my next ride to see how things shake out.
1. Make sure the top of the bars are parallel to the ground.
2. Reposition my brake levers further towards the bends to provide a better angle for riding on the hoods.
3. Move the stem up one or two spacers closer to the top of the steerer for a more upright riding position.

Once I make those changes I will take a test ride and post a new picture. The weather has been pretty crappy lately, so the timing of a test ride will be somewhat variable. If I can get a dry 40 degree day, I will go out and ride.

Here is a current picture of my bike.

current set up as of Jan 14, 2022
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Old 01-14-22, 05:08 PM
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Originally Posted by djb
As far as I know, only surly sells bikes like this. Other companies cut them so that they look cleaner and racier in the showroom, and while stems can change position, sometimes it can be limited.
....
I think all Surly bike frames are shipped with the same amount of steerer tube on teh fork, in other words I think if you buy a 700c LHT, they all had the same steerer. Steerer length was not different for different frame sizes. Or at least they were before discontinued.

My Thorns I think all had the same steerer length too. I cut it on one of my Thorns to make it fit better in the S&S case but left it on my other one. I have a stock uncut LHT fork on my Lynskey, has a good height.
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Old 01-14-22, 05:20 PM
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Originally Posted by bigwies
Thanks for all the great suggestions and options presented. The picture of my bike I posted before was rather old and I took a new one today. I had already rotated the bars so they were more level to the ground, but I have not moved the brake levers to adjust for the change.

I am going to make the following changes before I take my next ride to see how things shake out.
1. Make sure the top of the bars are parallel to the ground.
2. Reposition my brake levers further towards the bends to provide a better angle for riding on the hoods.
3. Move the stem up one or two spacers closer to the top of the steerer for a more upright riding position.

Once I make those changes I will take a test ride and post a new picture. The weather has been pretty crappy lately, so the timing of a test ride will be somewhat variable. If I can get a dry 40 degree day, I will go out and ride.

Here is a current picture of my bike.

current set up as of Jan 14, 2022
Everyone has their own preferences. I like the top of the bars horizontal. And I like the hoods about 15 or 20 degrees up angle.



If you are new to unwrapping and wrapping bar tape, I think that Park Tools video is pretty good on youtube for bar tape. There are lots of good and lots of bad videos on youtube, but anything you see from Park Tools will be well thought out.

I use strapping tape to tape cables to my bars before I try to wrap them, that way the cables stay where they should be. I do not wrap the strapping tape full length, just use it in about three spots on each side to keep the cables where they belong.
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Old 01-14-22, 05:44 PM
  #32  
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what I'll add is that if you look at where the hoods are in relation to the steerer tube, they are at least 6 inches ahead of the steerer, the flats are maybe 3 inches closer--but what is cool about alt bars that sweep back, like in your very first photo of the whatchamacallit bars, your hands are now way back closer to the steerer area. This is what its like with my jones bars, and it makes for a neat feeling.
Yes, you'll want positions to move your hands forwards for a more leaning forward position, but I have to say that I find this far back position kinda fun, and most of these swept back type bars have hand options forward a bit for headwinds or whatever.

but really, all this blah blah is only that....you're just going to have to try stuff and see how you like it. And the more you ride, the stronger you are and all that, plus theres the weight thing going on, which probably affects some ridiing position aspects, but that can change.
Anyway, just wanted to say how I was surprised to find how I liked riding with the jones bars and having teh hands much closer to me, and a more upright position, If I were to tour on that bike, if more on gravel and offroad it would be fine, but on more open roads , I might like them less and or put a longer stem on.....so many variables here eh?

well, have fun trying out stuff, I guess just try to think of options or at least order of things so you dont blow too much money on something you could find out you arent crazy about afterwards.
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Old 01-16-22, 09:13 PM
  #33  
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I ride one of the newer Disc Truckers so I have had over a year riding on the Truck Stop Bars. For dropbars, I do like them and appreciate the rise, but have been increasingly towing with the idea of migrating the bike to a flat bar configuration. Like many others, I pretty much never use the drops.

I am pretty confident that I would not find flatbars with more than a little backsweep comfortable. At the moment, I am pretty sure I am going to start with the Ergotec AHS Comfort bars, which are basically just the riser (25mm) version of the Humpert Hornbars:

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Old 01-16-22, 10:05 PM
  #34  
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Originally Posted by djb
Denhams can't be found in my part of Canada, and even if available, I'm pretty certain I'd be looking at probably 200 bucks to get them from Holland to Canada, shipping, customs and all that jazz.

that's a lot for bars
I don't think they are available in N.A. at all we have tried hard I have emailed many times along with other people at the company including our owner and some former staffers as well. Koga has a goldmine and they don't want to extract all the gold just yet or they can't be bothered to just ramp up production and I believe they are made by Satori and they need to get on the horn right away and tell them to kick into overdrive. These are great bars and hard to beat.
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Old 01-16-22, 11:33 PM
  #35  
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Originally Posted by veganbikes
I don't think they are available in N.A. at all we have tried hard I have emailed many times along with other people at the company including our owner and some former staffers as well. Koga has a goldmine and they don't want to extract all the gold just yet or they can't be bothered to just ramp up production and I believe they are made by Satori and they need to get on the horn right away and tell them to kick into overdrive. These are great bars and hard to beat.
I went to the Koga site and could not find anything on Denham bars. Can someone provide a link?
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Old 01-17-22, 12:14 AM
  #36  
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https://www.cyclesense.co.uk/m61b0s7...ndlebar-31-8mm

(they ship to the US, but currently out of stock)
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Old 01-17-22, 12:30 PM
  #37  
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Originally Posted by MarcusT
I went to the Koga site and could not find anything on Denham bars. Can someone provide a link?
Nothing from Koga that I have seen but this is going to be better than what you will find as it is from the guy who designed them:
https://www.cyclingabout.com/koga-denham-bars/
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Old 01-17-22, 12:36 PM
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Originally Posted by veganbikes
Nothing from Koga that I have seen but this is going to be better than what you will find as it is from the guy who designed them:
https://www.cyclingabout.com/koga-denham-bars/
Thanks, but after an exhausting search, I gave up and just ordered the Surly Moloko.
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Old 01-17-22, 12:40 PM
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M
Originally Posted by MarcusT
Thanks, but after an exhausting search, I gave up and just ordered the Surly Moloko.
The Moloko Bar is quite nice as well so not a bad deal, but I think the Koga's are my favorite but yeah hard to get, especially these days.
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Old 01-17-22, 08:58 PM
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I moved my existing bars up the remaining two spacers to give me some additional rise and went for a quick one hour ride today. Things are much more comfortable on the tops and on the hoods, but the drops were still not even close to being a comfortable position. I still need to move the brake handles down a little to give me a better wrist angle when I am on the hoods. I will post a picture of the changes tomorrow.
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Old 01-25-22, 11:28 PM
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Originally Posted by veganbikes
M
The Moloko Bar is quite nice as well so not a bad deal, but I think the Koga's are my favorite but yeah hard to get, especially these days.

Mounted the bars. Have not had a chance to try them out yet so still need to be tweaked. May need to change to a shorter stem and there is no convenient way to mount a strap on mirror, so ordered a bar end mirror. Will probably re-do the tape job. Not my best work
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Old 01-26-22, 12:20 AM
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Sorry for the delay. Here is my latest set up after raising up the bars two spacers.
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Old 01-26-22, 07:30 AM
  #43  
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Originally Posted by MarcusT

Mounted the bars. Have not had a chance to try them out yet so still need to be tweaked. May need to change to a shorter stem and there is no convenient way to mount a strap on mirror, so ordered a bar end mirror. Will probably re-do the tape job. Not my best work

the Moloko bars are what I have on my Surly and I really like them.
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Old 01-26-22, 10:09 AM
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257 roberts I do like the look of those Moloko bars, but my Carradice Keswick handlebar bag will not fit in the loop so I had to rule them out.

I do have a couple question about the Ergon grips.
  • How do you like them overall?
  • Did you consider using any of the Ergon GC2 through GC5 models with bar ends?
    • If so why did you go with the GC1s?

The VO Crazy Bars are now back in stock on their website and I took the plunge. They should be arriving shortly and I will be going with some type of Ergon GC grip. Not sure about GC1 vs. GC4 vs. GC5.
I also need to work out the brake levers for this build. I am now thinking Shimano Sora BL-R3000 . I believe they support both short and long pull brakes, so I can stick with my current cantis and easily switch to V brakes later.
Does anyone have any experience with the Soras?

Any feedback would be appreciated.
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Old 01-26-22, 10:28 AM
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Originally Posted by bigwies
257 roberts I do like the look of those Moloko bars, but my Carradice Keswick handlebar bag will not fit in the loop so I had to rule them out.

I do have a couple question about the Ergon grips.
  • How do you like them overall?
  • Did you consider using any of the Ergon GC2 through GC5 models with bar ends?
    • If so why did you go with the GC1s?

The VO Crazy Bars are now back in stock on their website and I took the plunge. They should be arriving shortly and I will be going with some type of Ergon GC grip. Not sure about GC1 vs. GC4 vs. GC5.
I also need to work out the brake levers for this build. I am now thinking Shimano Sora BL-R3000 . I believe they support both short and long pull brakes, so I can stick with my current cantis and easily switch to V brakes later.
Does anyone have any experience with the Soras?

Any feedback would be appreciated.
I chose the GC1s because I already had full 'L' bar ends to mount, so GP 2-5 would have been redundant. (the higher the number the bigger the bar end)
I like them, they help a lot with wrist numbness, but there are continual adjustments for the height/angle of the palm support too high and it's worse, too low and they do nothing.
Let us see the end job so we can oooh and aaaah.
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Old 01-26-22, 12:39 PM
  #46  
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Originally Posted by MarcusT
I like them, they help a lot with wrist numbness, but there are continual adjustments for the height/angle of the palm support too high and it's worse, too low and they do nothing.
I have to disagree on this. I've ridden with ergons for a bunch of years and I found that once you figure out the slight downward angle (my preference) then it's pretty much set. I've used them on three bikes and I find therm to really reduce pressure points.

until I got my first pair (5 model with long barends) with a used bike, I didn't think they were worth the money, but I'm sold now.
On my Jones bars I don't have the gc1 made for swept bars, maybe should have, but the regulars work well for me...But I don't have big hands so easy to angle my palm comfortably.

I wouldn't use bar end models on swept bars, the bar ends could catch on things as they will stick out to the sides.
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Old 01-26-22, 01:01 PM
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Originally Posted by djb
I have to disagree on this. I've ridden with ergons for a bunch of years and I found that once you figure out the slight downward angle (my preference) then it's pretty much set. I've used them on three bikes and I find therm to really reduce pressure points.
Not sure why or what you disagree, it looks like we saying the same thing. When I posted continual, It considers when there is seat adjustment, handlebar height, angle, etc. It can change from season to season or even as little as moving the saddle back or forth.
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Old 01-26-22, 02:44 PM
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Originally Posted by MarcusT
Not sure why or what you disagree, it looks like we saying the same thing. When I posted continual, It considers when there is seat adjustment, handlebar height, angle, etc. It can change from season to season or even as little as moving the saddle back or forth.
Sorry, I wasn't clear. All I meant was that I found it fairly quick to find the right angle.
But very good point on how little changes in the various things can and do happen. It is curious how sometimes even during a season, we feel the need for small changes. I guess our bodies and flexibility change during the season.
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Old 01-27-22, 09:32 PM
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So the build has begun. New stem and bars installed. Bar end shifters moved over to the new bars. I still need to pick up some new brake levers, brake cables, housing and the Ergon GC1 grips. The new VO stem is 120mm/6 degree rise.

I am hoping to get the rest of the parts I need tomorrow as we are forecast for 18 to 24 inches of snow starting early AM on Saturday. That will make for a good weekend project. The big issue will be getting back out on the road after a big storm.


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Old 02-07-22, 04:07 PM
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Basic assembly and my first really short test ride is complete.
I still need to take it on a real test ride and make sure I have everything adjusted properly. I still need to cut down the new brake cables and install the crimp ends. Once that is done, I can add the final touches like bar tape and end caps.
My quick test ride have me thinking about switching to trigger shifters, but I am going to give the bar ends a try for a while and see how I like them on the end of the horns. Overall I like the change so but, but it will be an adjustment to get used to the extra handlebar width. The new bars are over 300mm wider than my old bars and even getting it in and out of my narrow basement door was an adjustment.

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