scale

Anyone still run these? I love them. I have them on several bikes and some are branded with the Sekai name from Sekai bikes........i have another that has the Raleigh logo. I run about 38cm bars and like narrower bars. I have set of 37cm bars and they are too narrow for my liking. I can feel that 1 cm difference but i had to try it since they were all that i had on hand at the time. I think the ones i have with the Raleigh logo might be 40cm.

SR Sakae made tons of parts from back in the 70s/early 80s. Good stuff, Easy to find and easy on the wallet too.....

non-fixie 

I do. I currently have a set of very shallow Road Champions on my Roy Thame. I find myself riding in the drops more often on this bike than on any other.

scale

Nice. Looks good. I might be wrong about the Raleigh ones i have. They have the Raleigh logo and say Raleigh USA with a flag engraving logo. I suspect the are also made by SR.

thook

i have four SR road champion bars; two classic and two randnners. i really like them and very nice quality. the randos are a bit narrow, but i have a little separation anxiety getting rid of them. if the right trade were to come along, though.....

anyway, second only to nitto i think in terms of class and finish. meh....cinelli's okay...

thumpism 

I've used them before and have no complaints about the quality but the only set I have is a 42cm randonneur and you can see it compared to another 42cm drop. The ends are identically wide, but the bar width at the levers, where I normally ride, is far too narrow for my taste and comfort. I can't see keeping these.

scale

I have never ran those style bars for very long. I never liked the odd bend. I should really give them more of a chance. Surely they are that way for a reason. Aesthetics cant be one of them. They just look goofy. Ive never understood those rando bars i guess.

Classtime 

Ok.....I don't currently have a bike with them, but I recall the engraving. I'll ride anything with Champion on it. Pics of that engraving please. I think they often showed up as 40cm+\- and I decided to make a rule for myself to put 40s on all keepers. Rules are made to be broken and I just got some NOS Rotundo Pros in 42.

grant40

I love these bars. Especially the randoneur version. They are so comfortable.

thook

back when those bars were common, it was also common for short'ish quill stems. i want to say 160-180mm in height? so, the upward bend was to sell the idea of greater comfort to general riders and the touring crowd as it allowed one sit up a little higher to see environment. more so over the classic maes bend bars, anyway.. why they tended to be so narrow at the tops is beyond me. i have some nitto rando bars badged for takara that are about 40cm from top to top. not bad, but i could stand them a little wider. 42-44cm is what i'm used to

bark_eater 

I've got the 42 cm version set up with Shimano Exage aero levers. I'm not a small person, but I find them comfortable if I hold them like a basket ball with my thumbs up. With my wrists vertical in a handshake position the bars feel a lot wider to my elbows and shoulders.

Pompiere

I have a few pairs, all from bikes of different years in the 1980s. Most of them are 39cm, exact copies of each other, except for the date stamp. I recently acquired a pair in 39cm, but with about 2 1 cm less drop. I have one in 42 cm on my Fuji. I prefer the extra width for longer rides.

1981 Fuji S12-S LTD

scale

What is the difference between the world champion and the world custom? I have both and they look the exact same to my eye.....

thook

surely they're at least cosmetically different? the design on the clamp sleeve?

scale

yup.....one says world champion .......and the other says world custom. I have them both in a 39cm and i cant tell the difference. Maybe the customs are more shiny but i don think that is it. THey are just that way since they appear to be new take offs that have been on the shelf for ~35 years.

Either way...both are good bars as far as im concerned.

thook

lol...no i meant different besides what name is engraved. i looked up both and saw both on ebay.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/23412530142...p2047675.l2557

https://www.ebay.com/itm/154424795638

so, some differences on the engravings. can you tell if the bends have any subtle differences? maybe they are the same. just each called something different as a selling point....lol

sd5782 

I like the Champions a lot. They are wide and flat on the top bending a fairly quick 90 degrees to the lever mounting point. This allows a wider placement for my favorite mirror style. The wide flat tops also accommodate my favorite hand position at that first bend for upright riding style. The shallower the drop the better, and wider is better still.

Another bar that is fairly close in shape with even shallower drops is a Winpista as seen on some late 80s miyatas.

saias

I had SR bars stamped CT (I think). Liked them a lot and would usually ride them in the drops. I would have kept them, but they were a bit too narrow.

Miele Man

I recently got a very nice SR Road Champion handlebar when I picked up a Raleigh Vector out of the garbage.



Cheers

nlerner

There are a couple of SR catalogs at the Velo-Pages site. Here's the handlebar page from 1979:

Prowler 

Youse all got me curious so I did a walk-about in the garage. I have 4 SR Road Champions. They suit me just fine. I ride all the positions.

I also have 4 randonneur style bars. The Fuji has SR engraved bars, with the "proper" truncated randonneur spelling and the other 3 are from Schwinns and a Ross. They look the same as the SR bars but have no engraving.

As to the "weird" bend to the randonneur bars, I have and idea. I have a large randonneur style front bag for the Fuji. If I had Road Champion style bars the drops would be right up against the sides of the bag. The slight flair outwards on the randonneur bars allow me to comfortably ride the drops. I also like the slight flair out of the bars on the ramps where my levers are. I suppose the outward flair also keeps the ramps away from my forearms when I'm in the drops. Thats never bothered me when I'm on the Road Champions though. All my bars would be considered too narrow by todays standards but for me are pretty comfortable.

I had proper 44cm wide bars on my Cannondale for a while. After riding my narrow C&V bars the Cannondale always felt like I was riding a Gravely rototiller. I dumped the 44s and installed Road Champions.