Which is totes legit, if you think you might want to change it back again.

Excellent point. If I ride a whole mile without moving my hands drops to flats and back once or twice, that is a rare mile indeed.

That's a hoot.......forgot my Ritalin today.......a negative shim!!!!!!hat's a new engineering concept for certain....lol

Actually the original Pivo stem is 22 mm with the handlebars themselves measuring 25 mm where the stem bar clamp fastens to the bars. That makes me assume the Pivo stem bar clamp must be at least 25.5 or 26 mm. Is that a wrong assumption on my part?

Yes, it's a wrong assumption.

While you might be able to force the stem apart enough to jam a 26.0 handlebar in there, it is likely to fail eventually. Don't do it. You've already been warned that these old french cast stems are prone to disastrous failure. Having your handlebars fall off while you're riding is not something to take a chance on.

In reality I will never put enough stress on the stem/bars to cause catastrophic failure of the stem. They may very well off due to age, but the bike is in wonderful shape, so I don't think that is going to be an issue. My riding is consistent, but not stressing. We ride mostly with groups of friends @ the blistering pace of 10- 15 mph. My butt only comes off the seat when: A. Been sitting too long and must get the butt up for a short distance B. Getting on the bike C. Getting off the bike. I use my 43yr old bike to help get my 69 yr old heart pumping more rapidly on a regular basis. If I want to sweat while my heart is pumping faster, I go play pickleball for awhile. Th key for us is sustained physical activity several times/week. There's no reason to kill ourselves doing it! Lol.....

+1 look at the link I posted below at #25 . The obsolete French size is 25.0, not 25.4 and certainly not 26.0 which is what you need for Noodles.

Picture yourself riding in traffic and suddenly having your handlebars disappear. That is a real possibility of you fool around with what is one of the more critical interfaces on the bicycle. Stems are very cheap compared to medical bills and massive dental reconstruction.

+1 It's not worth it. If you're springing for a noodle, just get a new stem.

Something I forgot to mention is if you attempt to jam the Noodles into a 25.0 stem, you are almost certainly going to wreck the emblems on an attractive set of bars.

Negative Shim:



I wouldn't do this to just any stem however. Only where there is a lot of meat around the clamp.
Any metal removal here must have a uniform and self-centering component to the cutting action along the interior of the clamp, which this method achieves. The clamping tension on the exact-sized sanding mandrel is key to the self-aligning and uniform cut (notice the Allen key adjusting the cutting force by very slightly spreading the clamp)

And those French stems also sure weren't designed for use with wide bars, seems they were never paired with wide bars in those days! Some of the "death stems" are as flexy as can be to begin with.

As counter-intuitive as this seems, I have not experienced any hand numbness since moving my saddle position forward on all of my bikes!
I attribute this to the albeit more-aggressive riding position making it quick and effortless to transition to the out-of-saddle position, instead of having to do more of a big heave off of the saddle. Moving around more freely, I thus stay loose on the bike, with no tendency to allow my arms/hands/shoulders to stagnate in one fixed position. As well, the forward positioning encourages a more vigorous pedaling effort, which must be taking weight off of my hands. Further, a more-forward saddle together with commensurate stem-extension increase reduces the bend angle at the waist, which promotes circulation through the body. So hopefully your frame is on the large side, large enough to promote this more stretched out (and straightened out) positioning, while allowing the most comfortable reach to the bars and promoting effortless changes of position in response to the grade of the road.

Whether a Noodle handlebar will improve circulation to your hands will depend on what hand position you are using, but setting up the bike to allow comfortable use of both the tops and the drops might even better promote circulation through the arms.

In reality I will never put enough stress on the stem/bars to cause catastrophic failure of the stem. They may very well off due to age, but the bike is in wonderful shape, so I don't think that is going to be an issue. My riding is consistent, but not stressing. We ride mostly with groups of friends @ the blistering pace of 10- 15 mph. My butt only comes off the seat when: A. Been sitting too long and must get the butt up for a short distance B. Getting on the bike C. Getting off the bike. I use my 43yr old bike to help get my 69 yr old heart pumping more rapidly on a regular basis. If I want to sweat while my heart is pumping faster, I go play pickleball for awhile. Th key for us is sustained physical activity several times/week. There's no reason to kill ourselves doing it! Lol.....

Recipe for success and satisfaction:

Buy used Nitto stem for 26.0 bar
Quill diameter is 22.2
Grab sandpaper for wet/dry applications
Sand away the offending .2
Remove old bars and stem put away for safe keeping
Install new bars and stem.
Ride with the piece of mind that the $$'s spent will always be less than the emergency-dental-surgery-from-a-43-year-aluminum-that-has-been-messed with-beyond-its-limits-for-no-real-reason-other-than-internet-cheapskate-credibility-catastophic-failure-on-an-easy-ride-around-the-neighborhood .

Aluminum components of this type rarely give appreciable warning signs before they fail. You made it to 69, why start taking chances now? Originality on a bike you are riding regularly, is a fools errand.

For me, the solution to numb hands is to have many usable positions on the bar. All equally comfortable, including the drops. Soma Hwy One--a modern, compact bar--is the one that works best for me along those lines.

Nice bars, but there isn't much of a flat at all unless you are using brifters. One thing I do like a lot about them is how far back the drops come.

Are the tops and bottoms of the drops parallel on the Noodle? In the pic earlier in the thread it looks like they are but on the current pic on amazon it looks like with the bottoms flat the top still pitches down at considerable angle?



I'm trying to setup my Voyageur as comfortable/functional as I can, not worried about cost within reason, for potential long trips and some touring. I'd like something completely flat on the top and places a brake hoods flat too, probably going to switch to TRP RRL Retro hoods. Fighting the urge to get quill adapter and modern bar but whatever it takes. I don't need a lot of reach or low drops though, but that isn't as critical as nice flat tops.

ATTENTION! ATTENTION!(said with a French accent)

Just about all of the 20+ Nitto stems that I have are marked 22.2mm but measure 22.1mm. They fit in many French streerers without any modifications.

French and other metric stems were originally 21.9mm because you can't fit a 22.0mm stem in a 22.0mm steerer! Metric steerers are frequently a little oversize too!

I clean out the inside of the steerer and run a hone through it to smooth out the ID - sand paper on a stick will work too. I grease the inside of the steerer and the stem to prevent corrosion.

It's important to file a slight chamfer inside of the top of steerer to remove any burrs. Also screw the top lock nut on to make sure the bore aligns with the inside of the steerer.


Nitto stems are available for 25.4mm and 26mm bars. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND not not trying to clamp a 25mm bar in a 26mm stem.

Most old 25mm bars were made of low strength aluminum alloy and tend to sag. When they do they can fail catastrophically without warning!!!



Better quality bars like Cinelli, 3TTT, Nitto and many others were/are made of high strength 6061 or 7075 aluminum alloys.


I have Nitto 177 bars on a number of bikes. "NOODLE" bar is a cutsie-wootsie baby talk marketing name that Grant Peterson of Rivendell came up with (probably for the "BOB" set).

The177 bars nice for long rides. The reverse bends on the tops make it easier on the wrists.


I also have some Ritchey Pro BioMax bars and with a similar bend on the tops and a short reach. The centers are 25.7mm which fit 26mm stems OK.




The discontinued 3TTT Morphe bars are good too, They have 26mm center sections and a very short reach.




I have wide shoulders and like 42cm to 46cm bars.

verktyg

Chas.

No, as with most alloy bars, the drops on the Nitto 177 (Noodle) bars are slightly flared out by 4°....

From Rivendell's website:

Nitto Noodle Handlebar



I measure my bars at the tops behind where my brake levers mount... That's where my hands rest when I'm not on the hoods. I like 42cm to 46cm bars measured at that point.

Note: most bars were/are hand bent on jigs. I've found that the measured widths differ by as much as 10mm over the marked dimensions on the bars!!!

verktyg

Chas.

You keep saying that you won't put enough stress on the bars/stem to cause a catastrophic failure. I really want to emphasize that old French stems CAN and DO snap.

Nitto makes nice stems and they aren't expensive. A bit of sandpaper will solve the 22.2 issue, as noted above.

The thing is, at your (our) age, any fall can be catastrophic. A stem snap guarantees a very, very nasty splat.

Please. Be safe.

That pic is accurate, but I think "considerable angle" overstates it somewhat. I have mine with the tops level, which gives the drop a slight downward angle, but nothing like the "point the bar ends at the dropout" suggestion I often hear.

[MENTION=299098]Vonruden[/MENTION], sorry, but I'm a new member, and can't yet private message you to express interest. If you want to drop me your e-mail there, I can reply.

The most interesting thing I learned recently is that the frame on the LeJeune may be a little too large for me. I only seem to have about 1" clearance between me and "Oh my word". That being said, I'm not getting rid of this bike because of "it doesn't fit me!" Its real damn close and I'm not doing any exciting things that would make a real difference in recreational rides with friends......I love the ride of the bike and its appearance. Both exceptional from my limited bike experience point of view. I'm going to make it the best I can, and ride the Hell out of it....

The way I understand it, the classic death stem (AVA, but likely others) have two saw cuts at the base. What happens is a crack starts up and goes from one saw cut to the other. When this happens, you loose steering control as if you'd not tightened the stem properly (and with that crack in it, that's actually what's going on).

So you can't see the failure mode without removing the stem from the fork. That's why they are so dastardly.

A proper quill will only have one saw cut for expansion, not two.

I do agree some of those death stems are quite pretty. and deadly.

Thanks, yeah probably overstated. I may still consider this bar... might just try what I have first though. Seems like there really isn't any bar I can find where the drops for a parallel 'U' shape, they seem to all be open slightly more than parallel. But the shape of the top looks promising, I often wonder why they don't make many road bars that bend back just slightly - much like most all flat bars do.

Nitto makes a Randonneuring bar too.

I kind of wondering how this bent back feature makes this handlebar more comfortable. Can someone give me their views?

Based on its reputation, I'm considering the Noodle for my new Mercian build, which is going to be used for both sport and light touring. So I guess I should get a 'touring' bar, whatever that is. I've never been that picky about bars, but I think the upturned rando shape might bug me. I've probably logged most of my miles with Cinelli 66.

I have 46cm Noodles and really like them. I have ridden 100 mile plus many times and never have any hand issues. I find them very comfortable if you use Riv's set up instructions Here is a link that shows the bars from above and the rearward sweep

Nitto Noodle Handlebar.