Horrible practically, and horrible fashion-wise

Tell me more.

What, exactly?

Do you mean Albatross, North Roads, Mary's, Priests, Promenade's, or any of the other 'retro' styles found on the most practical bicycles ever sold? There's gotta be at least a couple billion out there. They can't be that bad. Go to any Dutch bus or train station and count the number of drop bars you see. It's easy. Now count the other types. Easier to add up the stars in the sky. Only in America are we hyped on drops because someone won a race.

Fashion, as is proven everyday on the runways with uber-skinny models, doesn't necessarily equal style. In fact, fashion, defined, is something that is whimsical and fleeting. Style endures. Like these bikes.

Style is the guy who's been riding and maintaining the same 520 for 25 years, taking it 10 miles to work every day rain or shine.

Style, often, is the opposite of trend-whoring, but I'm one to talk. I recently made my first every really large purchase on a bike, and it has drop bars.

I try to justify it by not pretending to be a racer , and by pointing out the bike has a granny ring.


The granny means I've resisted the trend, right??!!

I can't imagine riding with anything but a drop bar for more than half an hour or so.
Flat bars, or nearly flat bars, are acceptable as well, but not for much longer.

When I'm in the drops, my hands and forearms are at their most comfortable and as relaxed as possible while still holding on. "Regular" bars, like the ones posted earlier in the thread, make my wrist, forearms, elbows and shoulders operate at very uncomfortable angles. They also provide poor and unstable manoeuvring.

Lamplight:
try raising the bars up to at least (or 1-3 cm higher than saddle height/or get a stem with an extreme upwards angle)...that may help....also fiddle with stem length too

CDCD:
your suggestion that they provide inadequate handling is not true in my experience....hey mountain bikers are more upright for gawdsakes esp the extreme
riders...you don't see them riding drops, do you, esp if they offer superior handling.

Every rider has to find their own ''way''...for me, esp as I get older, drops is not as comfortable as having versatility: I mean I DO want the option of drops
for those windy days/power rides/ (whatever) but ALSO the upright versatility
...and I think that given the after market accessories that exist out there it is now
easier than ever to find one's perfect, ultimate ''all rounder'' handlebars...i,e, in my LBS saturday I found drop add-bar on levers (you kow the lower position)...how cool is that....so that is what's great 'bout our age: lots of choice, lots of tinkering options...one just has to open one's mind and think outside the box a bit...even if what you come up with doesn't ''look'' cool, who gives rat's ass as long as it works for YOU and makes you love your bike and riding it all that much more.

PS: i do like modolo's yuma bar width options...anyone in the USA sell 'em?
(the ones by nashbar, harris etc are too wide, ie, 57'' on average for god sakes!
...doesn't feel natural at all...

I just added north road bars to my commuter (along with a B67). Both are great improvements to the saddle and bars there originally.

I like sitting up high, so these bars are a natural.

Thou art absolved, my son. Though I hail the ergo benefits, practicality and style of these things, I also own and use drops. Speaking of 520's, here's mine with North Roads and a B67!

CdCF, check this out. Believe it or not, this is a fabulous century maker:

https://i7.tinypic.com/2qnb62s.jpg
https://i13.tinypic.com/2s8ra6v.jpg

Between my husband and I, we have wrist (prosthetic carpal implant) and shoulder (titanium implant) issues and we are shopping for our first (in many years) bike. Being total newbies to all this bike lingo, what is a "20 or 25 degree sweep"?

Thanks much,
Yen (aka Jen)

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
https://i18.tinypic.com/2cg22l0.jpg

North Road vs. Albatross vs. Priest (which are basically identical to Promenade)
https://i17.tinypic.com/42xo9r5.jpg

Good job on the illustrations. This would have been useful when I was trying to decide on albatross bars or north road bars last year.

As I wrote in this thread, I've been struggling to get comfortable on ANY handlebar. I'm a good candidate for a recumbent, but it isn't a practicle solution for my needs right now. Anyways, I put trekking bars back on the bike and while they offer a lot of hand positions I found I needed to use those positions to keep my hands from falling asleep. So I put the north road bars back on and switched to a zero setback seatpost which pushed me forward and and even more upright than before. I still have enough of a bend in my spine that I don't get back pain (which happens if I'm bolt upright), and the shoulder/fore arm pain I was having previously with the north bars was not an issue. I still have some wrist discomfort, but it's much better than before.

I rode a old 3-speed owned by my uncle (very comfortable, BTW). It had more or less NR bars. One thing I noticed was the position of the seat in relation to the bars was as if my positioning was "inside" the bars instead of reaching out with my back sloped with drop bars. So, I don't have alot of experience with NR bars but it seems to me if your back is sloped like in a drop bar setup but you are actually using NR bars or the like this could cause some discomfort?

I never had a drop bar type reach on my bike...with the wrist problems I have I need to ride as upright as possible, but avoiding sitting straight up. The position change I made was only a couple of centimeters, yet it feels so different and much more comfortable.

Those are some pretty bikes in the OP! Wow. I want more info.

I don't ride without albatross/north road bars anymore. It feels unnatural without them. I also see alot more of them recently.

Hello chicbicyclists,

The first picture is of a Bilenky Bicycle, the second is Desalvo Bicycles, and the third is Alternative Needs Transportation.

These are custom made quality bicycles.

Those old comfortable 3-speeds typically had much shorter top tubes than we find today. That's why you feel closer to the bars. They were not performance oriented, but practical vehicles designed to be used along side other bikes en masse. So, a heads up posture was a prime consideration or it might have been 'dominos' in a crash.

Today, you can put NR's/Albatross/Priest, etc., on an mtb or one of several retro type bikes and still have a slightly forward posture because they can go up to 2" longer. Better for the back to have a little arch.

Alot of the problems associated with handlebars is because of the wrist pronation and alignment. Drops, while efficient at speed, have no long distance natural position at all. That's why we squirm on them and that's why alot of people say they have no problems with them - because they have multiple hand positions. A Paradox? Or, an irony?

I rarely have problems with NR's on a century, but almost always see other riders with drops shaking out their hands. I do this when I use drops, too. Is it a fit issue? Or, is it the fact that people are sold something that they believe is the right product? I think mine are dialed-in as good as can be for a tour bike - tops level with saddle and 5" of drop with the grips jus clearing the top tube, pointing at the top of the rear rim.

I think the bottom line is wrist and arm position. If things are in the right position, synergy occurs. I've heard those Nitto Noodles ( a drop bar ) are very good, although, if I had the tooling and money, I would go further along those lines, adding more sweep at the tops and more flair at the drops. Similar to Midge bars. Anything to get away from twisting the wrists either across the body or outward, in-line with the road, chimp-like.

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.

A flat bar, North Road, and Albatross


And Albatross sitting on top of a Mary bar


A North Road on top of a Mary


Just a Mary, which to me has the most natural hand position.


The difference in rise between a North and an Albatross (the Mary's rise is slightly less than the Albatross')

It depends on the commute. If one commutes a short distance, then Albatross bars would be great. Long commutes are better with a drop bar due to multiple hand positions available. Some people say moustache bars are great for that too, but I always recommend the Nitto Model 177 (Noodle bar) when people ask me which drop they should buy. Unless they're racing, that is.

Allen, THANK YOU for the great pics. It appears that the Mary offers the most natural position, while the outward angle of the other two appear (in the photos) just slightly less parallel than the moustache bars. I thought the North Road bars had a much wider sweep.

I think there are two versions of the Nitto North Road. But as I understand the Mary still has the widest sweep.

That seems to be true about the Nitto North Road. I was thinking of asking if anyone knows which one is the "real North Road". I'd like steel (like my LHT). And then there are some comments I've read...... "grips are almost parallel to the frame". That's not how they appear in some pics, yet in others they do.

Just cause you don't see them doesn't mean they aren't out there. Also doesn't stop me from riding my touring bike offroad, in the drops, and passing people on suspended mountain bikes (but only when I'm lucky).

I have albatross bars on a surly cross check with nexus8 internal hub. This is my lousy weather commute bike (about 30 mi round trip) and in town errand bike. The albatross are usually pretty comfy for me. They are higher than my seat and I have the part around the curve taped so I can use that area of the bar if I'm going down hill. I have two other bikes with moustache bars and bar end shifters which I like a lot. A difference with the albatross is when going downhill and having to apply brakes hard, I am a less secure with the location of the brake levers back closer to me on the side of the bar than if the brake levers are out front like on the moustache bar (or a flat bar). The pics of the mary bar have me wondering if it might be worth considering as an albatross alternative. Might be worth a look.

North Road grips are not even close to parallel to the frame. Lots of turning room.

The original North road bars were found on many old school 3-speeds. Typically, the Sport models, not the larger, heavier Raliegh DL-1, which is what you might see in one of those "Masterpiece Theatre" Hercule Poirot shows. The vast majority of 3-speeds imported to the US were the less expensive Sport.

The original bars were 19" wide. If you want a steel version that is 21" wide, I recommend the Wald #8095. They call it a touring bar - I don't know why. The wider bars will greatly increase the quality of the handling. They also have a model that is a copy of the All-Rounder (Mary), also in steel. I think it's #815. Wald is located in Kentucky, and has always been the supplier for just about every factory bicycle in America for over 70 years (like Worksman Cycles). Everything is US made, I believe.

The Wald North Road will set you back a mere $16.95 I think. Not a bad risk at that price. You can Google them up.