Originally Posted by
captbixley
I just ordered 180mm adapter from velo orange and a 60mm 40 degree stem - I will keep my existing bars at least for the time being. I rode yesterday no problem - I am in Seattle and live near the Burke-Gilman trail. Was a train track at one time so no challenging grades. I appreciate all the feedback and it would seem I have plenty of company in the senior division. I will continue to follow and post.
If your bars are bent- I think you need new bars- I had a set of bars bent in shipping in a manner very similar to yours. I got new bars. Generally speaking, older bikes have narrower bars to begin with- and I think wider bars (around 44cm) are more comfortable- And I'm not a big guy.
Before you get your new stem and stuff unpacked- I like to have the bars relatively high- at saddle height or a little over. I got a Nitto Dirt Drop stem- and I got the tall one because I knew that I wanted some height. Even slammed as far in as it would go- it was WAY too tall. So I got a used Specialized branded Nitto Dirt Drop stem- it puts the bars in the exact right place. However, I don't really like the look of the rising stem. It's also not comfortable to walk the bike by holding on to the stem. When I get around to it, I'm going to get a Technomic- I'm going to figure out what my rise and reach should be and get THAT.
Regarding shifting from the bars... This has always been an issue- lots of different attempts of solutions- IMO nothing is "perfect." I like the Suntour Command Shifters- they're the "butterfly" shifters that mount inboard of the brake levers. There's BarEnd shifters that are little toggles at the ends of the bars. There's stem shifters. There's "brifters" the brake levers integrated with the shifters. There's also things like mounting downtube shifters on "Paul thumbies," there's Kelly Take Offs that mount inboard of the brake levers. There's also "Retroshift."
IMO, the economical and stylistic choice for drop bars would be the bar end shifters. That's the way "they" did it back in the day.
However....
As much as I don't think any sort of flat bars should go on a tourer of that caliber- I think it's more important that you're comfortable riding your bike. There are lots of classy looking solutions to shifting at your fingertips with flat bars. If it were me- and I couldn't use drop bars, I would choose the Trekking bars (the butterfly bars pictured before). After that I'd go for a nice set of the Nitto Bullmoose bars. Both of those are unique. The Trekking bars give you DOZENS of hand positions. The Bullmooses realistically give you 2 usable positions- although some people say they can grip the center and other weird things- Otherwise, some bar end extensions would work nice, but look really goofy. Shifting is so easy from the bars- IMO the Suntour ratcheting ATB thumbshifters are among the greatest shifters of all time.
More than any stylistic choice- be comfortable and safe.
Best wishes!