Touring - Mustache handlebars

I've been looking at mustache handlebars for some time now and thinking "They look more comfy than drops and have more hand positions than flats" I wonder if they'd make good touring bars.

Has anyone tried them out for long rides or tours before?

They only work if you have a matching handlebar mustache.

I just bought some and will try them soon. I grew the mustache first to qualify for this trial.

I don't find them very comfortable. The position on the tops requires your hands to be pretty close together, which strains my shoulders. And the "drops" position puts my hands so far apart that it's not comfortable either. Combined with the fact that the hoods position is my favorite, well, I just don't "get" moustache bars. I do know a couple of guys that swear by them, though...

I have used Nitto Moustache Bars for about ten years on my around town bikes - A Moulton Stowaway and a LeJuene Track Bike. When climbing standing up, the position has felt awkward and much less efficient from the first use years ago and continued to this day. The placement and use of brake levers also feels unusual and a little awkward. Other than these concerns I have been happy with the M Bars but have not chosen to use them for touring as I prefer off pavement routes where braking and shifting at the same time appears difficult.

I've got a pair on my commuting bike. My ride is about 35-45 minutes with some climbing. They a good riding position for me to push myself to ride fast for an hour or so. After that they get all little old. For long rides a wide pair of drops is the best for me.

I've tried them and took them off after about a month, just didn't like the way they felt, I went to the Wtb Mountain Drop Bar and have loved them ever since.http://i667.photobucket.com/albums/vv35/JefLubers/001.jpg[/IMG]

People seem to either love or hate them. I've tried them a few times, but they don't seem to offer the flexibility of hand positions of either a wide drop bar or a flat bar + bar ends. Also, they're quite narrow, and I'm all about wide bars these days.

I like moustaches for my fixie; they give great torque for climbing and a decent aero in the front part. For me, however, they get uncomfortable after a few hours, which is at least part of the reason I've never done more than fifty miles on the fixie.

I ran 46 cm Salsa Bell Lap drops on my last touring bike (stolen). I reincarnated it with the same frame but went with 20 degree swept upright bars with Ergons and bar ends. Less than a hundred miles so far but luv-luv-luuuuuv it. It's going to take some tweaking, but you can often tell on an eight mile ride if something's going to work out over seventy, and this setup is definitely that.

207096

People have also used trekking bars and made the brake lever installation at the front of them,
to fit road levers,there. [see: sheldon/harris cycle shop web page]

I have a set of trekking Bars on 2 bikes, both with grip-shifted, Rohloff hubs ,
and a Mustache set on a 3rd, It, with bar end shifters for derailleurs.

a tourist came into the Bike Shop yesterday , she had bar end reverse levers
in the end of some mustache bars..
Canadians , so had some miles behind them, already..

I recently built up a bike with mustache bars. I love climbing, so the wider gap between my hands is great. I've done some pretty long rides on it, but I don't think I'd tour with it. When you're on the bike for than many hours for that many days you absolutely must have a comfortable upright position, which mustache bars just don't offer. I love em on my road bike, and will gladly do some very long rides with them, but for multiple days in a row I just could not recommend them.

Moustache bars have a lot more reach than drop bars. So to feel comfortable with them you'll need a shorter reach stem

Moustache bars have a lot more reach than drop bars. So to feel comfortable with them you'll need a shorter reach stem

I've had some terrible times using moustache bars on converted mountain bikes; the extra reach plus the already long top tube can make for impossible to fit bikes. Or if you're built like a gorilla, it might be a good thing.

strangely i was just thinking i might need a slightly longer stem (current its a 90mm) on my recently built up stumpjumper tourer with moustache bars. it has a slightly longer toptube than my other bikes but for whatever reason i feel slightly scrunched when i have my hands resting on top of the hoods. but i do prefer a bit more of a stretched out horizontal posture on tours versus more upright.

i've done a few short tours with the moustache bars: two or three days averaging 50 - 75 miles per day. so far i'd agree that regular drop handlebars seem more comfortable for the long haul. i do wonder if this might be a symptom of just being super accustomed to riding drop handlebars and knowing how to ride them efficiently. i've never ridden anything else. so it just might take some long trips to get used to moustache bars. i have found 75% of the time i'm on the hoods stretched out. i like to climb with my hands a thumbs distance from the stem or standing up my hands are on the corners of the curve before the straight rearward part of the bars. when i'm cruising slowly i'll put my hands near the ends on the straight part (and when i'm shifting the bar ends of course)

i'd really like to try some on-one midge handlebars but i can't find any vendors locally that sell the silver aluminum 25.4 clamp and shipping from the UK is very high.

Nitto's Dirt Drop stem is long quill, up angled high rise and fairly short [8cm],
that is what was supplied on the Bridgestone MB1,
when they shipped with drop bars,
It's what I used on my Mustache bar build.

I ran 46 cm Salsa Bell Lap drops on my last touring bike (stolen). I reincarnated it with the same frame but went with 20 degree swept upright bars with Ergons and bar ends. Less than a hundred miles so far but luv-luv-luuuuuv it. It's going to take some tweaking, but you can often tell on an eight mile ride if something's going to work out over seventy, and this setup is definitely that.

207096

I've also really liked the Bell Lap, not as exaggerated as the dirt drop bar.

I've also set up a 20 degree sweptback with barends for my Travelers Check as one of my handlebar options.

i'll be trying the new bar setup on some off road touring in a couple of weeks, with any luck. I liked touring on flat bars off road in the 80's, i think swept with barends will be a quantum leap for dirt and rough stuff touring.

Moustache bars have a lot more reach than drop bars. So to feel comfortable with them you'll need a shorter reach stem

That's a very useful bit of info! If the reach is too long, I'll shorten it with the stem. I suspect this will work well for me. It seems that I like to vary my reach more than the drop.

I have these handlebars on one of my bikes. I had no preconceived notions of whether I'd like or dislike them. I found I love them. I tip them up very slightly, so they're nearly flat. I go way forward when climbing hard.

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4122/4882450413_4e3b10f840_b.jpg

Seat Boy has it right, it is either love or hate. For me it has been love. I have mbars on my Nashbar road bike and Motobecane Grand Touring. I have done with the Rivendell way of using DirtDrop stem. It needs to be above the saddle and closer to work. I have found as I got older (with arthritiis,etc) I was not using the drops. The Mbar allows for more upright, more hand positions, and can get areo if needed. I have ridden centuries with no problems. Where with my drops as I got older my shoulders, back was hurting after long rides, it has hurt less with the mbars due to raised height of the bars. I am building up a 1990 Cannoncale touring frame. It will have a DirtDrop stem matched with the Mustache Bars. I have used the Nitto bars, so I cannot speak for the other brands out there (origin 8, Nashbar, etc). I have used bar end shifters (Silver and Suntour) with good effect. If used threadless steered, I would imagine one would use a stem that could match a dirtdrop. Anyway, good luck and give the bars a try.

I recently scored a Bridgestone xo-1 in my size, with the stock m-bars. This bike came with dummy brake levers mounted backwards, around where the tops would be on drop bars, to simulate this hand position. I had previously ridden a friend's bike with m-bars and didn't really like them, but the dummy levers seem to make a huge difference. I even found a hand position where my palms are on the dummy levers, my fingers are on the beginning of the swept-forward portion of the bars, and it feels like resting my hands on a table.

I've never toured with these bars, and I've only been riding them for a couple of weeks, so I may grow to dislike them eventually. However, for anyone considering m-bars who isn't too concerned with the goofy appearence, I would recommend trying them with the dummy levers before forming a firm opinion.

-GG

In my experience, the m bars need to be high...the clamp at least as high as the saddle. I like them for climbing off road- like a big steering wheel. And descending off road, with the hands on the hoods they act as a great brace with the brakes right at the fingertips.207293

i think swept with barends will be a quantum leap for dirt and rough stuff touring.

I still run the Bell Laps on my go fast cross bike, which is versatile enough that I felt like the new touring bike should be optimized more for rough stuff/hauling when the previous one was my do everything bike. Plus, the uprights allow me to make much better use of the Bruce Gordon front rack. My thumbs and wrists hated all upright bars until now but I've been liking this ergonomic setup a lot.

The one assumption that drops/moustache/butterfly bars all make is that long distance comfort is found with multiple hand positions, even if it should happen that no single position is particularly good. I personally find the latter part especially to the case with moustache bars. Running 20-50 degree swept uprights with Ergons is more about having one completely perfect position instead of a bunch of compromises and I am liking it thus far (with bar ends of course as an insurance policy ;)

I love them. I don't miss the tops or hoods at all. I have them on my SS road bike and rigid 29er 1x8. They work way better than drop bars on my SS road bike. There's way more leverage and I can stand for miles at a time.

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One downside to mustache bars: a typical handlebar bag won't fit.

Some work-arounds for that, are the mount extenders from Ortlieb and Klick Fix
for their bar bag mounts..
and the use of a second stem on threadless steerers to mount the bar bag mount.
on a tube in the lower stem, work fine..

I've tried them and took them off after about a month, just didn't like the way they felt, I went to the Wtb Mountain Drop Bar and have loved them ever since.http://i667.photobucket.com/albums/vv35/JefLubers/001.jpg[/IMG]

You have your brake levers set up absolutely correctly for the WTB dirt drops.
I use both the WTBs and the Nashbar moustache bar.
Actually, from the drops, they feel very similar.
The WTBs nominal width is 60cm, the Nashbars 56cm but in actuality the Nashbars are only a quarter of an inch narrower.
If I had to choose I'd choose the Nashbars. They're steel, they're a fraction of the price, they look great, and the visibility of the road/trail is better.

207360

I forgot to mention a friend who loves the M-Bars but only when flipped over. It works for him by providing a more upright position.

I switched to mustache bars almost three years ago. I put on a shorter/steeper stem, and even added a "stem raiser" to get the bars higher. In accordance with prevailing wisdom, I set the outermost parts of the bars parallel to the ground. My hands would get a tad numb, and I attributed this to the angle of the bars. I recently did a major re-do of my bike (a Surly LHT), and, among other things, I tilted the bars up a bit. Perfect. The forward reach to the curves is now less, and the angle of the outer bars conforms to the angle of my palms. Think about it: Allow your hands to hang by your sides, and, keeping your arms relaxed, swing your hands frontwards. Note that the crosswise line of your palm is not parallel to the ground. I also moved the brake levers more to the outside of the curves. So far, I am quite happy with this decision.

I switched to mustache bars almost three years ago. I put on a shorter/steeper stem, and even added a "stem raiser" to get the bars higher. In accordance with prevailing wisdom, I set the outermost parts of the bars parallel to the ground. My hands would get a tad numb, and I attributed this to the angle of the bars. I recently did a major re-do of my bike (a Surly LHT), and, among other things, I tilted the bars up a bit. Perfect. The forward reach to the curves is now less, and the angle of the outer bars conforms to the angle of my palms. Think about it: Allow your hands to hang by your sides, and, keeping your arms relaxed, swing your hands frontwards. Note that the crosswise line of your palm is not parallel to the ground. I also moved the brake levers more to the outside of the curves. So far, I am quite happy with this decision.

I've actually just resurrected my moustache bars, and I'm with you on the...I guess they're called drops? Whatever the outside part is. Parallel to the ground doesn't work for me, but with a slight downward tilt, they are much comfier.

I do like my brake levers on the inside of the curve though.

I changed to the Surly Open Bar this year and like it, not quite a mustache but close. They are very comfy and forgiving (cromoly), I have only taken them on a credit card tour sou I am unsure how they would handle a touring load. I do grocery shop with them often and they are a bit flexy at low speeds. But in the bars defense I have a CETMA 7 rail up front, which means a high and heavy load and I always shop with my dog so top speed is around 7mph.

Mounting a bar bag is as easy as a second stem.

You have your brake levers set up absolutely correctly for the WTB dirt drops.
With that setup, looks like you don't even need Road Brake levers.
but to Each their Own..