One of the beauties of the Swift is you can put any kind of bars you like. You may have to get brake levers that work with V brakes unless you scrap the original brakes, though and find a shifter that will work with road bars. I wound up with ergo grips and cut down bar ends I twined with paracord and then shellacked. I hated the twist shifter because it took up too much room to use ergo grips and bar ends, so I took and old mtn bike shifter and filed down the stop inside to increase the movement, which, in turn, allowed me to friction shift the derailleur. I believe the headset is 1 1/8 and when it fails I will go with a sealed unit.