Earlier today, I wrote about some frustration about how the pics and catalog descriptions of the various and sundry handlebars are presented. It's hard to actually visualize alot of what is being sold to us. here are a couple sketches that might help because they show the angles in terms of "sweep". Be aware that these are only representations of the roughest sort, and only compare the angles in a very loose sense. but, hopefully, you'll get the general idea. The actual numbers are probably quite different, but this is how the various bars look in comparison to each other.
Mary, or All-Rounders vs. North Road
http://i18.tinypic.com/2cg22l0.jpg
North Road vs. Albatross vs. Priest (which are basically identical to Promenade)
http://i17.tinypic.com/42xo9r5.jpg
Thank you! I completely missed your reply way back in 2007. Now, almost 2 years later, I am researching Albatross vs. Mary vs. North Road for my LHT (my all-around bike). I have Moustache bars on the LHT with MTB levers under the sides and Shimano bar-end shifters on the ends.
I have a very unique wrist condition that includes a silicon lunate spacer (prosthesis) in my left wrist. I wear a rigid brace on that hand while riding any distance. My right wrist is a lesser problem, but still has more than its share of numbness issues that a normal wrist probably doesn't have. All of this to say ------- drop bars are out of the question for me. I had them on my road bike and, after several months, replaced them with bullhorns (which I LOVE
). Please don't even suggest them.
While they are like heaven to many riders, my bad wrist hates them.
I like but don't love the moustache bars on the LHT. The grips are too parallel to the bike frame and do not match my natural hand position. I do not want to change the stock LHT stem to make the bars more comfortable for me; it's very pretty, and I like it. And, even if I found a shorter/taller stem exactly like it, the sweep of the moustache bars is too parallel and not comfortable for my wrists.
So, I'm considering one of the bars being discussed in this thread. In some photos, North Road bars appear to have a sweep similar to the Mary or Albatross bars; in other photos, the sweep appears more parallel to the frame, like Moustache bars.
I'm trying to determine which bar would
most meet my needs:
-- An outward sweep most like a natural hand position (NOT flat bar or drop bar)
-- Compatible with bar-end shifters
-- A 25.4mm clamp diameter
-- Won't require changing the stock stem on the LHT (often recommended for the moustache bar)
-- A little stretched out, and not very upright.