Originally Posted by
GovernorSilver
My Uptown 8 has a trekking bar and it's very close to the end of the "free tuneup within 1 year of purchase" deal that I have with the LBS that sold it to me.
I've enjoyed riding with the trekking bar but my one complaint is that it's a bit thin for comfort, especially when I have to keep my hands close to the brake levers, which are set up in nearly the identical positions as yours. My trekking bar is set up in the same orientation as well.
This is the oldest post I've dredged up in a while but I found it while pondering how I could improve the comfort on the trekking bar, in the near-side grip position. The side and far-side grip positions are comfortable despite the bar being thin because I tend to "palm" the bar in those positions. I like the idea of installing bar gel and wrapping it in thick bar tape to increase the width of the grips by the levers.
I've seen folks install grips in the near position (anything from Ourys to Ergons, whatever your preference is) and then wrap the rest in tape. The downside to that is that the widest part of the bar (the close corners) are harder to use. After a year or so of using the trekking bar, I did realize that I preferred the sides the most--I ended up switching to a flipped North Road-style bar (Soma Oxford) which puts the brake levers in the most comfortable position for me. With the trekking bars it was a pain in the butt to grip the fronts or corners and then have to switch positions to brake.