I am currently in the planning stages of modifying my wife's Bianchi Vople. She wants to switch from drop bars to risers. During my research, I came across this setup:



It looks like a good way to go, and I've found some riser bars that accept bar ends, but I am a bit confused about how they are running the shifter cables. It looks like they are just hanging below the grips, which seems less than ideal. Anybody have a setup like this? How did you route the cables?


Update: Project completed. See post #11 below.

you could always run them under the grips ive done it on an mtb that i put bar end shifters on the bar ends

You us a Grip like this from Rivendall HERE

There is a grove running on the underside of the grip.

The cable sits in the grove

Then you wrap a little in of the bar with twine, to keep the cable in place

Then the twine can be shellacked along with the grip(the grip could be done before for a cleaner look,


I hope that helps you out, its a pretty cool idea, I think about doing it to my bars sometimes.

I bet the Rivendell guys could help you out more if you ask, but im pretty sure it basically says on there pages, Pretty nice stuff

And the light bulb goes on! Thanks a lot for the answer, amckimmey, and especially for the photos.

Photos help explain everything.

What is the bike you plan on doing this to?

You can also use bar tape instead of grips, so the cables are tucked in.

This is for my wife's Bianchi Volpe. She wants to switch from drop bars to risers. I'm all for it, because if she is more comfortable on her bike, I think she will ride it more.

Good idea.

Oh and those are Nitto North Road bars btw.

fyi most riser bars are mtb diameter, not road. therefore, bar ends do not work. the example above i believe are rivendell's albatross, which is one of the few bars that are "road sized" and will accept bar end shifters. the velo orange belleville bar is another (and cheaper).

Just finished the bar swap. I ended up getting a cheap set of rubber grips, carving a groove in them as pictured above, then wrapping them with the used bar tape from the drop bars. The bike rides real nice, and my wife loves it. Here's a picture in case anyone is interested.

That's very nice, it looks like the bike rides good.

Nice job on the Volpe! It looks clean and functional; Bianchi should offer this set-up as an option. I'm glad to hear that your wife likes it - you're absolutely spot-on when you say that if she enjoys it she will ride it more.

Thanks for the comments. Yes, I'm quite pleased with how it turned out.

What bars did you use?