Freewheeler

Hi All,

What the title says really, what mirror brand/name have you used & how have you mounted it (pics would be nice ), & how do you rate it?

Looks as though its not that easy to mount a mirror on Trekking bars & keep all the hand positions, am I wrong?

With my riding position it seems as though looking through the "loop" to a mirror positioned underneath the bars might be the best approach & also be least likely to get knocked, anyone done this?

VT_Speed_TR

I'd also like to know if anyone has come up with a solution to mirror mounting on trekker bars, and what mirrow they used. I've not seen a mirror that would strap on to the bars. I've gone to a helmet mounted mirror and I'm not to happy with it. I find the images and movement distracting when riding, but at least I can see what's coming up on my tail.

Brian

NeilGunton

I use the Novara Safari handlebars, and have successfully mounted the Third Eye bar-end mirrors on Titec bar ends, shown below. This works really very well, as the Titecs make an extremely rigid arm which does not vibrate at all. In my experience, road vibration due to flimsy arms can cause some mirrors to be almost unusable at times - the image is just a blur.

The position of the bar-ends is up to you, but in the position you see here, I don't find my hand positions to be all that restricted. In any case, you could move them around a bit so that the bar ends actually give you even more hand positions than before (especially if you wrap some tape on them).

Neil

Freewheeler

Thanks Neil,
The problem is I actually use the area where you have the mirror mounted when climbing, my foam grip goes much further round the bar than the tape in your photo, meaning I can get a nice full hand grip leaning far forward, can't do that with that set up.

I think I'll end up with a mirror fixed centrally on the bars pointing downwards or a "clip on" type that will be a compromise, maybe like this-

https://www.zefal.com/zefal/produit.php?key=472

forresterace

Hi Freewheeler

I have just gone thru the search for a mirror for use with my Trekking bars. I looked high and low (in LBS and online). The best so far that I have found are these two velcro strap-on mirrors. The best one is sold by Mountain Equipment Co-op

https://www.mec.ca/Products/product_d...=1237731253386

The other one is a Blackburn model that I picked up at a local Toronto LBS but is available from Nashbar as well.

https://www.nashbar.com/bikes/Product..._200322_200438

These two mirrors both velcro-strap on in a similar area in the front corner of the left bar loop. The idea is that they still allow me to use the front of the loops as a low aerobar position and yet still give enough clearance for my hands at the outside back corners ( as with bar-ends)

The MEC one has a slightly longer shaft and allows a little more clearance as described above. It also has a better angle locking mechanism for the mirror itself. The shaft is metal, which is, I suspect a much better longterm durability issue.

The Blackburn mirror has a better optical mirror surface but it doesn't extend out far enough to clear your hands on the outer part of the bar. The shaft and ball joint is also plastic which I'm sure will not stand up long term. It is also much more difficult to tighten the ball joint adequately to avoid vibration movement.

The MEC mirror is so incredibly cheap that I can easily put up with a slightly less optically-pure image and I can afford to carry a second one with me as a spare. Actually I'm considering using two of them together to extend the shaft about an inch ( cutting the shafts and bolting the two together adding some length). This sort of thing would not be possible with the Blackburn model.

Incidently, when I'm not on the bike I use a discarded earmuff cover to protect the mirror.
I used a couple of small pieces of stick-on foam padding that came with the Bontrager handlebar wrap kit to tighten up the metal cup mount on the wrapped bar. It is now tight enough that it doesn't vibrate loose no matter how rough the road nor does it bump out of position easily.
The big advantage of the velcro wrap attachment is that it can be dismounted in a flash for clearance and it's no-big-deal to re-attach it.

Doug

forresterace

Incidently, Mountain Equipment Co-op is the Canadian equivalent of REI. The one-time membership fee, however, is only $5.00 (CAD, of course)

Doug

bktourer1

look at Zefal "SPY" mirror and the Ultralight mirror from Ortlieb. I have used the first on my trekking bars and it works well. I just bought the Ortlieb mirror and have yet to get on the road yet. Its a bigger mirror than the SPY.

bikeguru

Hi Check out my bar setup on my blog www.rohloffman.blogspot.com I use BBB trekking bars and a B&M mirror of course we ride on the left down here in OZ so the mirror is mounted on the right. Cheers Steve

gregw

Here is a website that has some good options.

https://www.calhouncycle.com/productc...p?idCategory=9

Freewheeler

Thanks to everyone who replied, some useful advice & ideas.

When I was last on my bike I watched where I placed my hands, because I move my hands around a lot, I really do use all the bars, no matter where a mirror is anchored (on the grip) it'll be in the way & a compromise unless it's fixed centrally.

I did see a photo (can't find it now) of this set up, mirror fixed centrally & positioned so the rider looked through the bars to see behind, Im going to try for this.

robow

Neil, nice idea, the bar ends as a support, my entomologist friend will love those

Bob_in_Midland

Yeah, what he said! What a stroke of genius! I don't know why I didn't think of this before. Thanks for the idea!

mattm3

I have trekking bars too and I use the whole bar for hand positions so I was looking for mirror solutions a while back. I did see one that had a velcro strap and was fully adjustable. I saw someone mount this to the head tube. I'm not sure what kind of view this would give you. I ultimately settled on a helmet-mount mirror.