Hybrid Bicycles - Bullhorns with brifters?

Partly inspired by the fact that drop bars are forboden for me and personal experience/observations. I have my flat bar set up with some rather large bar ends, and I spend a lot of time with my hands on them. Plenty of time that I thought to myself it sure would be nice to at least have brake control from that position.

While at the LBS today, I noticed how comfortable the hoods on road bikes felt and how much real estate was available for mounting things on the bars, since the controls were on the sides of the bars.

Then I had an idea, but I don't have the resources to see if my idea is actually possible: Take some bullhorn handlebars, invert them where they are pointed down, and mount brifters to them. Wouldn't it be as if someone were to just cut the drops (hooks) off of regular drop bars?

It's hard to tell if bullhorns have enough tubing to take brifters. Why not just buy some drop bars, get the hoods positioned where you like, and then cut the excess tubing off? You don't have to use the drops but they're nice to have when the wind is howling.

I don't have the tools to DIY the mod and I'm not cleared medically (it's a glaucoma thing) to ride a proper road bike. The doc said it is okay for me to ride, but doesn't trust me with the drops. My wife was there when he made that decision, and she's been enforcing it ever since.

It was just an idea I had, but lack the knowledge to know if it was a good one.

Dahon's Speed Pro TT comes stock with brifters and bullhorns,so it's certainly feasible. You might also want to look into a trekking/butterfly bar;it would let you use your stock controls. You could use cross levers to add extra brake levers where you want them.


edit: just thought of something;I've seen a bike that had long barends on a flat bar with brake levers on them,sort of a 'ghetto bullhorn' setup. Depending on the diameter'shape of your barends,you could just mount your brakes levers on them and add a set of cross levers where your brakes are now and get the setup you want.

I don't have the tools to DIY the mod and I'm not cleared medically (it's a glaucoma thing) to ride a proper road bike. The doc said it is okay for me to ride, but doesn't trust me with the drops. My wife was there when he made that decision, and she's been enforcing it ever since.

Tool wise all you need is a $10 hack saw to cut off the excess tubing. About as easy a DIY as they come for bikes. If you left the drops on the bar and never used them nobody is going to report you to the bike police :) With or without drops you can make it work.