Trekking bars "upside down"
 

Just wanted to post that I turned my trekking bars "upside down" so to speak and wow, what a difference in comfort for me!

I bought a Novara Safari many years back, (REI), and thought I'd done about the best I could fitting the trekking bars it came with. I had raised them a bit and made countless fine tuning adjustments but the "perfect fit" still seemed to elude me. That is until I finally got around to turning them upside down. Now I'm a super happy camper so to speak.

I don't know if it was just laziness on my part not wanting to remove the shifters and brake levers or I had just assumed they were set up the way they are "supposed to be". Most trekking bars I've seen have a bit of a curve to them, meaning not flat across, they can either slope downward or upward. The majority of the pics I've seen seem to have them sloping downwards, this is how mine were set up. And of course it's totally personal preference, I've even seen people mounting them with the open grip area away from the rider, so what ever works. However, when I turned mine around to be slopping upwards, it's just a whole different world in comfort and I wanted to point this out in case anyone else has some and a less than ideal fit. Slopping them upwards puts the grips a tad higher and also gives me a better angle on the sides or edges.

I need to try this on my Novara Safari. Was it difficult? Any tips or suggestions? We don't live anywhere near REI. I love this bike but I know I need the bars a bit higher and a bit closer.

thanks for your post, I have trekking bars for my Nashbar and planned to install the same way you have yours but I've been wondering which way is "proper"

Different, more expensive, butterfly bar, D shaped 'wings' , the slight downward angled front curve
is a larger variation on (Nitto) Mustache bar ,

where wrist rotation is more comfortable that way, holding forward curve..

My steerer tube is a lot taller, Bars, higher than the saddle FWIW.. OP's looks much lower..

YMMV





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