DIY flatbar: Good or bad idea?
 

http://www.joshboldman.com/wordpress...48_500x500.jpg

My beater has these rising upright bars that are awful in strong headwinds. I was thinking of just getting a length of pipe of make a homemade flatbar to lower my overall riding angle. I believe the shifter and brakes all fit with a 7/8" diameter, but I would need a shim to fit it in the stem (these handlebars get wider where it attaches to the stem by maybe 1/8"-1/4"). Other than that, cutting the cables down seems to be about the only other thing to do.

Does this seem like a reasonable/worthwhile project? If so, where should I look for a length of pipe? What size? What material?

Thanks.

Why don't you just buy an inexpensive mtb flatbar instead of using a length of piping? It's an easy conversion.

I suppose I could, but I'd be out about 15 bucks. I'd rather not spend the money if it wouldn't be such a hassle to have one cut.

what kind of stem does it have? if you can remove the bar without having to take of the shifters/grips/etc.. then why not swap the stem?

Try and ride yoru bike by holding on near the stem. If that isn't uncomfortable for periods of time, then you might want to consider swapping for a straight bar. If it is uncomfortable..then you are better off leaving it as is or considering something else? drops or something??

Uhh.. bring your lbs mechanic a sixer and ask him if he's got an old flat bar laying around in the back you could try. He probably has a box full of used ones.

Buy the proper bar. It will assure the shifters and brake levers fit and, more importantly it will fit the stem properly. As a side benefit it will be much lighter than a piece of pipe.

BTW, There are no standard NPT pipe sizes that are exactly 7/8" (0.875", 22.2 mm) outside diameter. Nominal 1/2" pipe is 0.840" (21.3 mm) and nominal 3/4" pipe is 1.05" (26.6 mm) so nothing will fit either the brake levers or the standard 1" (25.4 mm) stem. You could find 7/8" OD tubing but that is a specialty and would cost as much as a true handle bar. Do it right.

Just for laughs, I flipped the handlebars the opposite way, so they look more like bullhorns right now (with the grips facing to the front.) I rotated the brakes and gripshifter around so they fit with the new position. It feels pretty good actually, and it gives me an even lower riding position than a flat bar would. I might just go for a ride and see if I like it. If it works, I might as well just trim the cables and be done with it. Would there be any problems with that?

Are you saying you rotated the bars while still clamped in the stem (right remains right), or that you unhooked the bar from the stem and flipped them over(left side becomes right side)?

If you manage to ride comfortably with a rotated bar you must have really weird wrists/shoulders, but if it works for you - go for it.

Otherwise flipping the bar over should work just fine.

I rotated the bars, same orientation with the stem. But, I could flip them as well (the bars can be removed from the stem without taking anything off).

I rode it for a bit. The geometry feels pretty nice, but the gripshifter is a little awkward. I'll shorten the brake lever reach a bit and try again.

That'd have you riding with your thumbs pointing either in-and-back, or out-and-front, right?
Not many people like that. I know that I don't like it.
Haven't done it in years, but I have this nagging feeling that it wouldn't play nice with the natural range of motion in the arms and shoulders.
Gripshifting would be weird too.
If it was me that was looking for a more aero position, I'd pull the grips, shifters and brakes, flip the bar and reassemble rather than merely rotating it.

Or, if spending some cash is an option - get another stem and/or another bar. Maybe even a threadless conversion that'd let you run a downwards-pointing stem with pretty much the length and dive of your choice.

So to be clear - you just loosened the stem and twisted so the portion of the bar that faced back is now facing forward? That's liable to be uncofortable for rideslonger than around the block. Take the bar our of the stem and flip it left ---> right, adjust the angle so the grip portion of the bar is still facing straight back (not up or down much) and I'll bet this will make the bike feel like $1 000 000.

Good luck!

I dunno, I think he should go with the pipe idea.

Or better yet, maybe he can find a piece of brromstick that will work!

No, wait; PVC pipe! Yeah, that's perfect, and it will never rust!

Just make sure to get it in white so there won't be any part of this project that isn't pathetic.

All those ideas reek of unnecessary expense. Break a twig off a tree FTW!

That's only good for a fixie!

Wood is good

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2021/...e89663.jpg?v=0

How broke are you? I'd be surprised if you can afford food...

Wrong thread; try: http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread.php?t=488687

Thanks for the pic, tho... :love:

+1. I was fishing around in the used parts pile at Portland's Citybikes and came away with a nice flat bar for $4.

Punch line: it's titanium. Score! :D

It's not that I don't have 15 bucks for a flatbar, I'd just rather not sink much money in non-expendables on this bike. If none of my solutions work out, I'll definitely look for an old flatbar in the junk or see if my LBS has an old cheapie or something.

Here are some pictures I took (sorry, the only camera I have is a 1.3mp webcame integrated into my laptop, no flash, etc).

This is way I rode it for about 8 miles tonight, with the handle bars rotated forward, but not flipped:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v7...ndlebars01.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v7...ndlebars02.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v7...ndlebars03.jpg

This position puts me at the most aggressive position I could think of for these bars. I'm a bit stretched forward, and the wrists have to angle out a bit to compensate for grasping the grips from the opposite orientation. It was ok on my ride, but shifting was a bit of a pain. I could really fly though. I could run out of gears without sprinting in this setup.

This is the normal orientation of the handlebars (minus the brakes not being put back to their original position):

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v7...ndlebars04.jpg

Comfy and upright, but just too much drag in the wind.

And, this is the flipped setup that another user suggested:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v7...ndlebars05.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v7...ndlebars06.jpg

I was skeptical about this, but it feels better than it looks. I'm considerably lower on this than the original position, but not nearly as stretched out. Also, the brakes/shifters will work better from this angle. I think I'll get the grips off, rearrange things, and try this out for a while.

Thanks for all the help and suggestions (especially steering me clear of a no doubt failure proned homemade approach).



;)

See if you can fit a pair of grips close to the stem. That is (starting from one side); Gips, gripshifts, brakes, grips, stem grips, brakes, gripshifts, grips. That is going to get you the maximum stetched out position on this setup. Also lowering the stem (at least in the original setup). a lot of peopel buy this type of bars due to pain in the hands, so tossing it would be bad unless you are sure. I would try a stem with longer top, mowing the bars furter away from you.

Do a search on Northroad, Sparrow, Mustache, and others.

So basically what you're trying to do is to get into an aggressive riding position on a bike intended for casual, comfort-oriented riding.
That will have its challenges, both in adapting the bike and in adapting you to the bike as well. Riding in that position will put some demands on your body, in terms of stamina and strength.
I think you're doing the right choice in going for the flipped rather than the rotated bar. To get a more stretched positions there are basically two options available for you:
1) get a longer stem. Don't know how much that'll buy you, as I don't know what you've got right now.
2) Get a butterfly/trekking bar. They're usually run with the opening facing back, to provide one slightly stretched and one upright position, but they can be run in reverse to give one fairly upright and one very stretched position. Brakes and shifters will fit, so apart from the bar you should be good with maybe only some new brake/shifter wires.

Forget about it.

Either find a donor bike, swap parts, and resell it (buy right, and you will make money on the deal), or find a friendly flipper in your area. The flipper will probably have some bars laying around, that you could trade for.

Yeah, I tried the flipped bar tonight, and it was way worse than just rotating the bars. They were too close and too low to my body, I felt like I was going to tip forward anytime I hit the front brake. I'll look for a flatbar this winter.

If you happen to live in the same UPS zone as I do, you could have these bars in your mailbox in about 3 days for $14.00. Possibly even cheaper or quicker than that if you live closer to the shipment origin.

If you live in the same metro area as me, I've a riser bar you could have for free.

I always used to rotate riser bars forward - back in the day when I had a lame 90mm stem on my el-cheepo mt bike. That would give you a couple more inches reach than a flat bar...

From the first couple of pics, I'd say you need a bigger bike. Looks like they're one size fits all, though. A 15cm stem might be in order.