Butterfly handlebars?
 

I have this bike: http://bianchiusa.com/06_bergamo.html

I love it, but want more hand positions. I thought of drop bars first. but with drop bars, I would have to get new brake levers and shifters, and I don't even know if I would be able to find the shifters I need. My long term plans are going to 1 ring in the back and having a 3 speed (all internal), can you get a 3 speed dropbar shifter?

I saw a bike a while back that had handlebars like this: http://www.nashbar.com/profile_morei...ku=9756&brand= , and I really liked those, I think that's what I would like to do.

Will the grip shifter that I have work with these handlebars? I don't understand which way these handlebars are supposed to face, is the open side supposed to be forward or towards me? If the open side is forward, and I am supposed to get the grip shifters slid all the way down to the other side of the bar, I can see that being a PITA, is this the case?

What are my options?

I have those bars (check my sig for a pic of my Trek commuter). I love them. I think you could get your gripshifters to work with them. I don't see why not, although I am using triggers. I have the open end of the bars facing me. I am pretty sure that is the way they were designed to be used, as indicated by the Nashbar logo facing the other way (look at the pic on the Nashbar site...the "N" logos are facing away from the open end of the bars).

Dont know which way they are to face, but grip shifters might need this kind of modification: (scroll to bottom)

http://sheldonbrown.com/scott.html

BTW those Scott AT-3 and AT-4 can be found on ebay

Check the REI store site for the Novara Safari bike which comes standard with this "trekking" bar and SRAM grip shifters. The open end is towards you.

Check out this site for some good pics of the trekking bars and setup

http://www.spiralcage.com/Cycling/Bi...ri/Safari.html

Recently there have been a number of threads about this - try using the search function with "trekking bars".

Good Luck -

- Wil

The usual way to use the bars is with the open side nearest to you, in which wase there won't be a problem with your gripshift levers as they'll slot onto the end and so there definitely won't be any need to do the sheldon brown modification.