Originally Posted by
Retro Grouch
How straight is your son's straight bar?
If it has any rise at all that will limit how much you can narrow it. Trial fit your brake levers, shifters, handgrips, bar ends, computer, bell and anything else that you plan to mount on the handlebar. Move all of that junk in as far as possible. That's the most you can trim your handlebar.
For a frame of reference, a straight mountain bike handlebar is about 22" wide. That's 3" or 4" wider than a road bike bar. A mountain bike riser bar will be about 24" wide. The riser bar also sweeps back more and makes bar ends look goofy. I once tried cutting a mountain bike bar to match the width of my road bike bars and it felt too narrow. My advice is to cut about 3/4" from each end and try it that way for awhile. You can always cut more later but you can't add back.
This is good advice. The bar is pretty straight - very slight bend to it. It had bar ends on it to begin with (the ones I would use in this mod.) I was considering just leaving the bar alone initially, but experimenting with different placements of the brake levers and bar ends. Then, when I found the best position for the stuff, I'd cut off whatever still stuck out.
This bike has stem shifters, so the only things that need to be accommodated are the brake levers (which I'm also cannibalizing from my son's old bike.) I might mount a bell, but no computer - this is the beater bike that I can just leave locked up on the street when I need to do longer errands. Besides, for riding around in traffic, a computer is pretty useless.
I have another recent CL purchase bike - an early '90s Bianchi Advantage hybrid - that I want to add a way to get additional hand positions for. It's currently got a shallow riser bar on it. Overall, it's a really comfortable bike for me, but I do miss having other hand positions on longer rides. I was going to put bar ends on it anyway, despite the goofiness factor, then cover the whole mess up with cruiser foam to make ersatz trekking bars. (Got the idea from MrBeanz on the C&A forum.) Or I may just spring for another set of trekking bars - I have them on my more "serious" errand bike, and I really like them. I guess I'm too old to worry about looking goofy.
