Giant Doofus

I love this bike, but I've been having a little trouble with neck and elbow pain. After 5000 miles and multiple stems and other tweaks, I decided to do something more drastic, so I changed out the drop bars. I went with Nitto albastache bars, which I got from Rivendell. The swap out was fairly simple, even the cable routing was easier than I had expected. The most complicated thing was adjusting the canti brakes (which I love for riding, but make me crazy when working on!).

With a 70mm stem, when I'm out on the deepest part of the curve, it gives me the same reach that I had riding on the hoods before the swap. It also adds a more upright position. What I lose is the drops position, but I had lost that already. To get the reach right, I'd had to tip the drop bars up so much that I could no longer use the brakes from there.

I took a little test ride with it yesterday and was really pleased with the ergonomics. Braking takes much less hand strength than it did before. The shifting is very simple too. These are Tiagra levers, so you just tap down on the inner lever to shift up and tap down on both the inner lever and the brake lever to shift down. It's simple and intuitive.

So, here are a few pictures.

The whole bike:


The new bars:
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This is my in-traffic position:


Here's the on-the-hoods position:


I'm really pleased with the swap so far and eager to see how these perform over the long term.

Archwhorides 

Looks like a great setup and I love the Celeste green tape. I found myself wondering if the Incredibell could be mounted more conveniently but I quickly gave up.

Ridefreemc

I went with a similar setup on my Velo Orange (except I have bar ends) to ditch the drops. I liked the aesthetics of the drops, but stayed off them 99% of the time. The Nitto Albatross bars are what I use, and like you I can ride stretched out with hands towards the front (no brake lever access though) if I want, or more upright on the grips. My left hip is much happier now (that was giving me problems with the drop style bars).

mcours2006

Looks to be quite comfortable. Shifter position looks to be good as well.

Giant Doofus

Me too.

Archwhorides 

I suppose the bell strap could encircle the tape beside the left hand position on the hoods for thumb convenience, but that would unacceptably break up the visual line of the bar.

keg61

I like that. looks like a variation on the mustache bar? I'm thinking about using a mustache around 90 degrees off the horizontal on a backwards mounted stem for my tricycle rebuild( I have something similar to an airplane yoke in my minds eye)

Giant Doofus

It's a cross between a mustache bar and a north roads style bar. A little tamer than the mustache, a little less upright than the north road (the Rivendell version is called an albatross bar).

keg61

I posted without thinking, I've been waffling between the upside down mustache look or the Casey's from VOCasey's Chromoly Crazy Bar, Noir - Handlebars - Components

Giant Doofus

I looked at the crazy bar too. I think it could work really well for this purpose. Ultimately, I decided against it because I think it is too wide for me.

keg61

I hear ya, if I go with it I'll probably trim a bit off of each end, assuming that I can fit the grips and levers on without butting up against the"horn" section, 26" IS pretty wide

fietsbob

Shifting across the whole cassete, pushing that lever down 40 some odd degrees Comfortable?

Giant Doofus

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I don't normally sweep more than 4 gears at a time, but I've had no trouble doing that at all. Using the FD is actually more comfortable for me in this configuration. Takes less hand strength.

RubeRad

Looks pretty sweet!

Did you install it yourself and spend some time without bar tape tweaking the precise position of the levers on the curves?

noglider 

I have the same setup on my bike and like it tremendously. I have Sora shifters which use a thumb button for shifting to a smaller cog or chainwheel. I have the shifters pointed down, so I have to twist my hand quite a bit to reach the thumb button. Some would not like it, but I don't mind at all, because I always find it fast enough.

I can't use the "hood" position, but I also don't miss it.

Giant Doofus

Yes, I did it myself. All but the bar tape, that is. The professional at the co-op did that for me because we were getting close to closing time, and I didn't have time to learn how to do,it myself. I put on the new bars and stem, though, and recabled the brakes and shifters.

I had the tape put on right away on the gamble that this was the right position for the levers. It was just about the only position that would work without the brake levers bottoming Out. I've put about 50 miles on it so far and I'm very happy with it.

Giant Doofus

If you have a picture, I'd love to see it.

noglider 

I will shoot and post a picture tomorrow. I'm not sure if I have the mustache or albastache. It is a Nitto.

noglider 

@Giant Doofus, here are pictures of the bike. Go towards the end of the album to see my handlebars. I changed the bike a lot this month, installing a different rear wheel, two derailleurs, and Shimano Sora STI shifters (brifters). The brifters are in pretty much the same place as pictured in this album, except I might have tipped them down a bit. I'll take pictures soon, but this gives you an idea. For slow easy riding, I put my hands far back, and for more spirited riding, I reach all the way forward to where the levers are. When I need to brake, it's easy enough to move forward to brake. So I have a variety of positions, and they vary in reach but not in height. I think this is why I like it so much. And I'm not sure why, but among all of my too-many bikes, this one encourages me to rise out of the saddle more easily and frequently. It's very comfortable to stand when riding hard or even when pulling away from a stop and not riding hard.

rmfnla

I recently switched to a Mary style bar on my Curtlo but since I originally built it up as a flat bar it was a fairly easy conversion...

Giant Doofus

@noglider - Very nice! I might try tipping my levers down a bit after riding on them the way I installed them in the pictures above for a while. That looks interesting. I love the pictures, especially the dog supervising in the middle of the set.
@rmfnla - I like that set up a lot.

Now I'm looking for an aesthetic judgment. Would this bike look better with a mini-rack and rando bag on front instead of that large saddle bag on back? The saddle bag contains all the stuff that stays on the bike all the time (flat fix kit, tools, velcro straps, helmet cover, saddle cover, and so forth). Everything else goes in panniers. Lock and pump are under the bungee cords on the rack.

What's the BF members collective judgment on this?

RubeRad

I think it looks odd to have that big ol' seatbag mostly blocking the top of the rack. I get that you probably would only ever hang panniers off the side, so it doesn't really make any difference, but it looks funny to me, so I'd vote that a front rack would look better. Irrelevant to function though, depends whether you're ok with the weight on the front. I hear it's no big deal.

Giant Doofus

Yeah, it doesn't interfere with the panniers, but it just looks so ugly to me. I wondered if others thought the same. Plus, a front rack would give me a better place to mount the headlight, so I could get rid of that barfly sticking up above the bars. Thanks for the input.

RubeRad

I love that word. The dictionary I had in high school had it as an index word on top of one of the pages, so I'd see it all the time, and initially think 'adverb pertaining to vomit'.

Personally, I stopped even hanging my saddlebag from my saddle, because it sags and swings and bugs me. So I leave it in my kittier instead. But mine is not nearly as big as yours.

Giant Doofus

That's hilarious! Now I'll never see that word the same way again.

The Banjo Brothers saddlebag I'm using is HUGE. I can put not only all of my always-on-the-bike stuff in it, but also a wallet, keys, cell phone, glass case, rain jacket, you name it. Basically everything I would need for a a day trip on the bike in variable weather. It's also waterproof. Very functional. And...U G L Y.

I just needed BF permission to spend the money on a rack and bag. I'm looking at the Acorn compact rando bag. I think the proportions would fit this bike better, but it is pricey.