I have a trek 6000. I bought it for 45 dollars. I commute daily on it. I have it pretty much adjusted to fit me. I am having issues with the flat bars. Even thou I move my hands around as well as wear cloves, my hands go numb if I ride in the same position. I have been looking at a lot the commuting bikes on this forum. I am leaning towards the trekking bars but I would like some feedback as far as what people here prefer. I have issues with carpel tunnel do to the type of work I do.

Help

I use trekking bars + ergon grips + double bar wrap (first layer is old road inner tube to increase thickness, top layer is regular bar tape)

That looks like a quick life story.

That looks impressive. I would even say unusual.
What do you ride, sir?

I used to like all-rounder (slightly swept) or North Road (heavily swept) for in-town riding and short trips. But my Bianchi Volpe fits me so well that I'm extremely comfortable with traditional drop bars. I'm actually surprised!

I use FSA Metropolis bars with Ergon grips. I love them so much that three of my bikes have the same cockpit. Try the grips first and you may find you don't need to change the bar. You could even try the Ergons with the bar ends.

I like short riser bars that have a subtle sweep on the ends.

Trekking bars are nice, Albatross bars are nice, any north road type bar with a back sweep will help. I have the same problem, I go numb just thinking of straight bars, turn my hands back about 90 degrees and they are fine. I've found the new "Bosco" bars are great, especially for long distances.

Marc

That's what I call all-rounder bars, though I think people have taken that name and applied it to other bends. Why does that happen.

That is so cool.

MTB frame, rigid fork, fat tires, 1x9 drivetrain

Ye' ol' faithful steed:

[QUOTE=blakcloud;15832563]I use FSA Metropolis bars with Ergon grips. I love them so much that three of my bikes have the same cockpit. Try the grips first and you may find you don't need to change the bar. You could even try the Ergons with the bar ends.[/QUOT

I really like the trekking bars but I am looking at the Ergon grips with the long bar ends for a temporary fix.

I use an old Scott at-2. They're pretty much bullhorn bars for a mountain bike. Or, like a mtb bar with built in bar ends. It seems a good compromise between a flat bar and a full trekking bar on a commuter.

Like: candy bars, coffee bars

Dislike: biker bars (actually pretty much any drinking establishment)

I use the ergon grips with short bar ends on an all rounder bar but I find the numbness comes from the pressure applied to my palms. If I try to sit more upright it relaxes that and circulation returns. I tried both positions of the bar (flat and on the ends like hoods of a drop bar and find it does it both ways) That is an issue alot of people have including myself and I haven't found much of a solution for it except to take my hand off the bars for a few seconds one at a time.

I roll both ways and ride flat ones and curvy ones

I don't care for flat bars, but if I were to use them for commuting (as I used to in the winter) I'd go with bar ends like these (Profile Design Boxer):

I am a drop bar kind of guy. Classic round shape, medium drop.

Don't care for flat bars; bar ends ameliorate it somewhat, but not entirely.

FSA wing pro compact shallow drop = drop bar perfection

nitto albatross = upright bar perfection

Straight bars are good for racing... and even when I did that I preferred risers.

I install so many trekking bars here at my shop... if one does not use the drops on drop bars a trekking bar can give the same upper position and allow you to change hand positions and they also tend to absorb shock quite well which is something a shorter straight bar does not do.

I double wrap the Trekking bars on my 2 R'off grip shifted bikes *, my Brompton has their M bar ,
Ergon GR3 grips on it..

* Koga WTR, 26" wheel & a Bike Friday w 20"wheels..

Traditional drop bars, but on my commuter I set them with a little less drop from the saddle than my non commuting road bikes.

I tried flat bars for a while and I used to use them exclusively on my old mountain bike, but after getting back into cycling after a few years hiatus, I just couldn't take the flat bars anymore. It seemed, no matter what I did I'd end up hunching my shoulders. Something about flat bars, even with bar ends just gets me hunching my shoulders and then the neck/shoulder/arm/hand pain sets in. I switched to drop bars and tried a couple different ones before settling on Ritchey Biomax drop bars. They're a type of cyclocross drop bar that has a much shallower drop portion than traditional road drops and also has the drops flared outwards a few degrees and the flats portion of the bar has a slight backwards sweep as well. They're so comfortable that when I couldn't get a comfortable position with a riser bar on my cargo bike, I switched it to drop bars and it's been great. Oh yeah, and I've tried the trekking bars as well, but I never can find a good position on them. The brake/shifter position tends to have me sitting too upright, even with the longest stem I can find. The side position, which is most comparable to riding the hoods on a drop bar is okay but there is no option for braking as you get with drops. One caveat with drop bars - I install interrupter levers on the flats of all of my drop bars so that I can get braking from the flats as well as if I'm in the drops or on the hoods. You can get interrupters (also called cross levers), to work with short pull brakes (Tektro ~$20), or if you have disc brakes or V-brakes, you can opt for the Paul Components cross levers that will work with either type of brakes (short or long pull), but they're much more expensive at ~$90 a pair.

typically go for shallow drops, but i've become fond of moustache bars since i installed them in January.

I only ride with an FSA K-Wing Compact.